David Knapp reports on the Over 40s losing awayday in the north as we went down 2-1 to Deeside Ramblers in the EH Trophy semi-final
There are certain occasions in life when the penny drops. A seminal moment. Sunday had one such eureka moment. As we closed in on Tiverton, seeing sign posts to Wrexham 12 miles away, the number of sheep multiplied dramatically as did the number of male inbreds with wellington boots and smiles on their faces walking across the lush green fields seeking out their fondest ewe. I now understand why Grimer, with his South Walian accent, supports the England rugby team and denies having any Welsh blood in him.
The Sunshine Variety bus had by this time travelled many, many miles from leafy TD with its green parrots shrieking in the morning sun to this grassy, sheep littered oasis of very north England. Similar to picking up viruses on holiday to Faliraki we made a number of stops on the way to pick up our motley crew. Harry’s Heros eat your hearts out. Dazzer was clocked at our second stop close to Birmingham by an octogenarian asking him where the dolls exhibition could be found. This old Brummie clearly recognised Dazzer’s passion. Fair to say that the later return trip did resemble a Variety bus passenger manifest and the antics of Harry’s Heros in their pomp.
In between times we had a game of hockey to play looking to rid ourselves of the monkey on the back being Alderley Edge. Buoyed by the news that the hockey equivalent of Shoaib Akhtar was not playing Nigel was thankful that his washing machine would have just its normal Monday morning load. The Rawalpindi Rocket was on business in Pakistan. Unfortunately we had not counted on their Asian left wing, whose skills were reminiscent of our own Kiwi bound Whizzer, bamboozling our defence for the first ten minutes. On his seeing Whizzer’s skills he claimed that Whizzer was his love child. In this time they went one up and deservedly so. With Gerry, and indeed others, bound up by loads of blue tape the omens looked grim. The game played out differently however. We came back into the game and constantly threatened without really putting their keeper under pressure other than two bone shakers from Whizzer and JJ..
Ten minutes into the second half a trade mark slap from Gav, to hit the ball and not Mrs A, drew us level. There was seemingly only one winner but against the run of play in the 60th minute a break away saw the Ramblers sneak what turned out to be a winner. On reflection a few things did not go our way but we had enough of the game to have been home and hosed before they scored their second. To come off a second year running and listening to the opposition saying that “we do not know how we managed to win” was a bitter pill to swallow. At least there are now two monkeys on the back so evening up the affliction.
The aftermath of the game saw true colours expressed. Gavin went off for a slap up meal in his role of “Restaurant Inspector” and did not invite the rest of the squad whilst pure carnage was inflicted on the M6 and in particular on the Sunday night innocents using the M40 service stations. Thankfully those questioned by the authorities gave their names as Simon Marshall and Andrew Eve so using their survival skills to the max.
We would all like to thank Gerry for his hard work in getting the squad to another semi final and for making the trip on Sunday when crocked, true commitment. Next season cannot come quick enough to put the disappointments of the last two campaigns behind us and lift the trophy in 2020.