Lost 0-3
MoM: Archie Barnes
DoD: Alex Ricketts
With thanks to team sponsor MFri
A double dose for our avid and loyal readers this week (we know that we have one or two!) but last week’s report was, whilst written, not published for legal reasons however the libel case has been dismissed on the grounds that it was true so you may well read it after this report if you get that far………
SO …. onto last Saturday
“The game is on” buzzed the Friars Whatsapp at precisely 11.16 – and so the race to South London on an icy cold morning began!
Two Friars dropped out ‘on the morning’ with a range of mainly medical related excuses – so well done to the skipper already for bolstering our numbers at short order leaving a bare minimum of 11 though with no sub decisions for once!
The 3-0 loss might not reflect it, but the Friars played hockey of a much better quality than they have in recent weeks – so plenty to build on for the new year…
Some highlights:
- The opposition had one of those midfield dynamo playmaker centre halves who was ‘recovering from injury’ or in this case ‘new to the club’. We could have slotted him in our 2s quite easily, and he was probably the difference between the sides but them’s the breaks!
-
a great high energy performance from Archie Barnes who was our youngest player by some margin, who also showed bravery after a nasty blow from a ball
-
another phenomenal performance from Trigger in goal
-
in front of him, with the other regular big units missing, it fell to a bobble hatted Mike Barton to marshall what proved to be a robust defensive line up of Tony Jones alongside Arun Banarse and Luke Fassum
-
in the middle it was Phil Dowling with James Blackburn and Brian Hurlow, orchestrating one of our best midfield performances, linking well with both defence and attack
-
up front Archie, Bert Andrews and John Aikin created numerous opportunities to score, but an agile Blackheath goalie saved them all leaving the goal cupboard bare
-
Tony Jones narrowly missed a card from a wayward and disagreeable umpire who had clearly taken a dislike to him for some unaccountable reason (shurely not ??!!-ed)
There was a brief vote for Dud of the Day at the close of play and it was decided totally democratically and unanimously to award it to Alex Ricketts in absentia – if you are well enough to shuffle around dressed as Councillor Father Christmas on a Saturday night you are certainly mobile enough for the Friars defence!
Thanks to Blackheath & Eltham for a good natured match and the tasty shepherd’s pie.