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