Friday night strife, the orange kit, and 9 goals.

As just a stand-in/makeshift skipper these days, I had forgotten (disappeared in the mists of time) the peculiar dread of a Friday evening phone-call/text/email. It seems every bleep of the phone comes with messages of freak accidents, re-occurring forgotten injuries, sudden family crises and realisations of an impending kit clash.

Such was Friday night. Our (not so solid) aspirational selection of 14, suddenly stripped to a bare 10 as the full gamut of excuses (all very legit I am sure) rained down. Then Lloydy, keen purveyor of hockey intelligence that he is, clocked that the new Bourne Deeping shirt colour might be blue (it used to be black). Only ‘might be’ though, as information on the Bourne Deeping (aka BD) website was inconclusive.
Discretion being the better part of valour, meant we dispatched someone to discover the whereabouts of the ‘dreaded’ Nomads Orange away kit, and work out then how we could get it to our match.

Meanwhile stand-in-skip (aka Rick) sent desperate texts and emails far and wide to rescue willing 3rd team players from a Saturday without hockey. Sadly some had already succumbed to alternative activities/shopping/DIY/rugby. Poor things.
Despite all this Friday night angst – we did coral 12 bodies for the trip north of Peterborough (the far north?). However 12 became 11 ½ when it transpired that debutant Luke, though in attendance, had smashed himself up in a bike crash overnight and was struggling to walk! But 11 ½ then became 12 ½ when someone helpfully suggested that spectator (and 3rd team goalkeeper) Rich Davies on pitch might be better than nobody, if we were really desperate. Perhaps fortunately, we never did get to find out.

So, with Rich dispatched to find a full-sized hockey stick and astros, our convoy headed off along the habitually confusing A14-A1 route north. As we pootled around Peterborough in the warm February sunshine, the skipper’s worries started to ebb, and the prospect of an enjoyable game of hockey came into vision.

But first the matter of the orange kit. It isn’t popular this kit. Not many of us can ever remember prevailing in a 2nd XI (or even 1st XI) match whilst wearing it. It does something to our psyche, it does something to our ability to pass to each other. But we need to get over this. All we need is a resounding win. The main thing to be sure of when wearing the orange kit, is not to be the last one there. There are 14 shirts in the kit bag, and at least half of them have been made for people of different, more expansive, dimensions to us. Fortunately with Rich and Matthew H added to the squad list – we had at least 2 players with a chance of a shirt that wasn’t going to act like a sail, especially with the threatened wind. Julian was the last to claim his shirt (L) – and he made the sensible decision to tuck it into his shorts, so as not to trip over it as he ran on the pitch.

The stand-in-skipper diligently fulfilled his pre-match responsibilities - right up until the coin toss. Clearly out of practice in such matters, he forgot to call either of the 2 options on offer, simply observing the coin on the ground before making a decision. Apparently this isn’t considered entirely fair play, and after instruction from the umpires, the process was repeated. Calling correctly (with coin in the air) the stand-in-skip, proud of his achievement, selected an end (after belated consultation with is keeper) and we were finally ready to go.

On to the match. Did you want me to talk about that?
OK. In fact bottom-of-the-table BD started brightly. The game moved from end to end quite freely and BD put together some attractive patches of hockey with neat passing through the middle. They won the first short corner, but lacked any penetration.
Nomads had chances of their own and midway through the half, Julian, once freeing himself from the prevailing wind by trimming his sail, found himself on the right position to expertly divert Lloydy’s direct pass from the top of the D past the keeper into the net. Not long after he produced a very similar finish for our second. Push as we did, we couldn’t quite muster a 3rd before half-time, that might have killed the contest.

Thus 2-0 at half time. And here’s where my aspiration to describe every goal in any detail ends. At some point we went 3-0 up early in the 2nd half. It might have been Lloydy’s neat finish, it might have been Paul’s from Lloydy’s set-up. I think BD scored next to make it 3-1 – and absolutely cracking finish from a rare foray into our D.
As we proceeded into the final quarter of the game, Nomads passing and decision making going forward started to really click and there was a flurry of goals, some of them excellently crafted and finished. Mel, keenly trying to ensure he wasn’t left out in the goal fest thought he had expertly deflected one into the net, only to be told by the umpire he hadn’t (touched it). Much to his chagrin.
Fortunately he took this set-back with good grace and proceeded to score a 10 minute hat-trick by way of compensation. Actually he didn’t (take it with good grace) at all, and spent a few minutes enforced rest on the side-line instead, but he did then get his own back with 3 subsequent neat finishes. Julian also completed his own hat-trick, and when all was said and done we had 8 goals. It should even have 1 more, as stand-in-skip found himself in on goal with only the keeper to beat. Unused to such situations he chose to selflessly pass to the flanking Paul, who, shocked at such selflessness, missed the ball and the chance was gone.
At some point late on, we lost Lloydy, broken again, probably for a while. He will be missed. This did give 1-legged-Luke a chance to make his 2s debut, and a brief touch of the ball, before the end. Sadly, we never did get to see how Dad, Rich, would fare as an emergency defender. Terrifying would be my bet.

So there it was. 8 goals away from home and wearing orange!
MoM nominations for Charlie, and for Mel, but Julian won it hands down, tireless work in midfield, and a neat hat-trick to boot. Also a clear and obvious winner for DoD this week – Mel take your bow!
City next week, let’s go for 3 on the bounce!