Interport, March 15, 2008
YC&AC Over 35s 2 v KRAC Over 35s 5
Your match reporter was awoken on the morning of Saturday, March 15 by the sound of cleaners banging and moaning in the hotel corridor. “Taihen,” groaned one with a pitiful little quaver in her voice. “Taihen!” whinnied another. YC&AC dartists in the rooms opposite had apparently shown once again that they know how to “bed and breakfast”!
[Note to non-dartists: "bed and breakfast" is the lingo for the miserably common score of 26, achieved by throwing up a 20, a 1 and a 5.]
Debit where it’s due though, the boys were out of bed before I was. I gathered my wits and shinpads, checked that the corridor was clear, and headed down to the KRAC ground where the shambolic opening to YC&AC’s attempt on the Interport was continuing apace.
Credit to the likes of Mikey Loch for gracing the hockey field after the distress and disorderliness of the previous evening’s arrows, but what was Mika Niemi doing there? Finland, hockey… I see the connection, but get yourself off the pitch, Mika. There’s an important game of football to be played this afternoon!
Petr Vyvial was there on the sidelines, quietly willing the hockeyists on, but he too would risk fatigue and injury before the day’s big match, in his case for the sake of a spot of badminton.
Kevin Carden. Check. Captain Sada Hosogai. Check. Patrick Newell, Buddy Ferrie, Yao Ofei Amoabeng. Check. Over 35s debutant Simon Litster. Check. Stuart Neie. Che… damn! Foot still broken…
And what the?! Here’s Gordon Deas wearing—look at the state of him—wearing his shorts outside his tracksuit bottoms. Rumours that had spread during the darts of the potentially hazardous qualities of the KRAC surface would seem to have given Gordon pause for thought. Whatever his excuse, Gordon’s “mad-tramp-who-lives-under-the-bridge” look wins for him a second consecutive “Costume of the Year” award. Check.
With Harty Heesen, Steve McKie and Tim Williams booked to play from the Seconds, we had a team. Any number of influential regulars had not made the trip, but this was still a side with enough about it to get a result. And we hadn’t traveled all that way for nothing.
All That Way for Nothing
With the Firsts and Seconds both having won (in great style), we knew the outcome of the whole Interport could well depend on the Silver Machine somehow grinding out a result (YC&AC being considered strong favourites for the rugby to follow). A win and the Interport was ours; a draw would be enough. We rolled up our sleeves….
And made a right pig’s ear of it.
Our attempts at an ultra-short-passing game failed miserably…
… though at times it was a joy to watch. (Beautiful little heel pass there from Mika to Petr.)
Attempts to go it alone proved equally futile.
Sloppy defending, poor marking, woefully loose passing in midfield [raises hand], injury early doors to Patrick Newell… You name it, we suffered it. And boy, were we punished. KRAC must have got away five shots in the opening three quarters and scored with each of them.
Most teams would struggle for any sort of urgency at 5-0 down going into the final quarter, but not YC&AC Over 35s. Boosted by the introduction of first-team regular Jo Takeda, we rallied, tearing at a tiring KRAC with wave upon wave of irresistible attacking football.
In this final triumphant period we scored twice, a tidy Petr Vyvial finish from a Hendy cutback and a deflected long-range shot from Jo bringing us to within three goals of parity. We might easily have had more. Yaw fired a couple narrowly wide. Their keeper (really good) pulled off one absolutely unbelievable save from Somebodyorother’s header. There were goalmouth scrambles…
But it wasn’t to be. Five goals in 20 minutes was too much to ask even for the Silver Machine. At the final whistle we trudged off rueing our uncustomary shoddiness early on, but pleased to have shown at least a little of our famed resilience in the final quarter.
In summary, this was a strange game. Not really football as the Silver Machine knows it. What went wrong? I don’t know. But if we played KRAC again tomorrow on the bobble patch at YC&AC, few would bet against us absolutely stuffing them.
Where’s Wally?
Finally, a big thanks on behalf of the entire Over 35s squad to Steve McKie, Tim Williams and Jo Takeda for lending us their weary legs and an extra touch of class.
Written by Alex Hendy
Photographs by Alister Millynn
Squad: Picture on the Squad page
Goals: Petr Vyvial, Jo Takeda
Man of the match: Tim Williams. Tenacious, tireless, terrific.
Referees: OK
Card Count: None
Attendance: Maybe 50 odd? Easily our biggest and most vocal of the season.
