Lost 0-5
MoM: Nick Tan
With thanks to team sponsor MFri
Another bad day at the office which means The Friars are still searching for their first point of the season.
After finding out that Blackheath Outlaws pitch was not bang in the middle of Blackheath High Street as Google said, we got to the pitch just in time but as our warm ups are merely going through the motion (and poetry it is not) it mattered little. In fact whilst the final scoreline was not pretty the first half was not too bad a performance – losing only 1-0, with Joran in goal to thank for that.
However the omens were not good. Uncle Phil (Dowling) came off after 15 minutes with a back that wasn’t working – he was flat on it for a while. However Nick Tan stepped up at centre mid and put in an excellent performance in midfield desering his MoM Medal.
However in the second half despite numerous vocal instructions at half time NOT to pass to red shirts this tedious & frustrating habit persisted & 4 goals against us came at regular intervals.
In mitigation we were up against 4 teenagers and just one player in the opposition who appeared over 50 or who at least had grey hair. We fielded 2 over 80s – both internationals, one Michael Green (he of Lord Lucan ancestry-Google it those under 40!) making a welcome return. Sir Geoffrey Philpott also returned after a bad back.
There were some little highlights – the above Greenie has lost none of his feisty nature on the hockey pitch, Bert Andrews played a fast and solid game on the right wing. John Boy so nearly scored (as he so often nearly does these days) and Jamie Chirpy Harris sporting yet another vicious haircut put in a solid shift.
Our other over 80 – Jonesy played up front as well as defence & publicly stated that if he had been married to just the one wife it would have been his 60th wedding anniversary today (sic).
But what The Friars really need are two youngsters from the 10s with fast legs as atm we just cannot compete in the running stakes.
As usual an excellent tea – thank you Blackheath