Bowdon Killer Bee's 3 - Leigh 1
Eccles (Do we mean Leigh? Surely Eccles was in the Goon Show? - Ed)
unfortunately appeared at 13:30 with only 8 men leaving me somewhat
confused. As they had stolen the Bee's/Wasp's thunder, in terms of the
opposition as a rule having more players and subsequently providing half
our team. So to make things simple we gave them Karl Gorse, Dave Phillips
and Nick West; some of the fittest and most able (Some of that is right...
- Ed) players in our squad. (Squad - Again another funny term I have
become unfamiliar with, I looked it up and it means more players than
you need for one team!)
Within 5 minutes of the start Karl (playing for Eccles) proceeded to run
from half way with the ball attached to the end of his stick and rudely
slapped it past the keeper Tom "The Cat" Duffy without offering
any of the Eccles chaps the chance to hit the ball. Obviously a worrying
pattern could emerge here... but no such luck for Karl... Eccles, clearly
taken aback by his greedy despatching of the first goal, decided to pass
the ball to him rather frequently which played right into the hungover
hands of Andy Marshall suffering from a night at Bowdon then 'R' Plaice!
Garry (one of the attempts by Hawkins to lower the average age and appearance
of the side) having been told (nicely... to start with) kindly obliged
towards the end of the first half and deflected the ball between the keepers
legs to get one back for Bowdon.
Half time and things are finely balanced. A stirring team talk from whoever
was skippering that day (their identity escapes me, sorry.) obviously
generated some sort of renewed passion from the team. We passed the ball
with greater fervour using both the right and left flanks as during the
first half I had failed to notice that Johnny "Linford" Bray
was up against one of the more senior members of the Eccles team (No,
not Nick West!) and as a result we managed to get round the back of their
defence. Gary had a couple of chances but was somewhat bedevilled by the
fact that his opposite number's method of defending was lifted straight
of Kirch's hockey defence manual. i.e.. "If it looks like he is going
to run round you make sure you knock him over sharpish!" Eventually
Bowdon took the lead with a well taken shot from Yokker (which he should
have passed to me!) and further increased this when Yokker further took
my advice and leathered the ball at me from outside the 'D' while taking
evasive action it clipped off my stick then went via Dave Phillip's stick
and deflected into the roof of the net. After much deliberation by the
Umpires the goal stood.
This was to be the last time I played in a winning Wasp's/Bee's side...
(Premonition? ESP? Prophecy even? Or just a very late match
report? Hmmm... - Ed)
Fishers
|