The 24th October saw the Mighty Narwhals play the final game of the London League. With Enfield having slipped up against Eastern Otter, a win would guarantee top spot in the League and would ensure promotion next season…
Our solid 9 was whittled down slightly by the fact we had no keeper and needed one person on the table. This meant at any one time we had one sub and no reliability between the sticks. Kudos to Oggy, Shute and Loveless for taking up the challenge and being our Keepers for the day. It actually worked quite well – our first clean sheet of the season!! This now means that Oggy, Loveless and Gamble are all in contention for “keeper of the season”, having the lowest goals conceded to game ratio…
The game started well with the Narwhals racing into a 6 goal lead, with 6 different scorers. Our clean sheet was threatened in the last moments of the half as Nick “clumsy” Shute gave away a penalty. Lucky for him, El Presidente saved the shot gloriously to his right.
The second quarter went equally well, this time with the Narwhals recording 5 goals without response. This quarter we had Nick “Flappy Hands” Shute in goal and he acrobatically and rather theatrically saved a number of shots, batting them away in all directions. There was a delightful moment with a minute left in the quarter where all Narwhals had scored except for Ed “high and wide” Gamble. Luckily for him, he managed to grab a goal (it was spectacular… I think) and so all Narwhals managed to get themselves on the match sheet. No trips to Portugal this week. There was also some dubious passing from Shute in goal… two passes landing well outside the pool… even worse than Finch…
Third quarter saw another 6 goals to the Narwhals and some rather wayward shooting. Highlight of the quarter saw Shute one on one with the goalkeeper where he then proceeded to hit the post, catch the rebound, have a shot saved by the keeper and then finally score on the third time of asking (just on the buzzer). No one wanted to give the goal, but sadly the referees did (BOOOOOOOOOOOO!!) much to the disappointment of both teams.
The 4th quarter saw another 5 goals to the Narwhals and Woody’s second quarter in goal. For the first time he was “saved” by the woodwork rather than punished by it, with a low shot cannoning off the inside of the post and back out into his waiting arms. We saw out the end of the game and were victorious 22-0. Solid effort.
Man of the Match went to Rob “woody” Loveless for his two quarters in goal and taking one for the team. Moment of the match (unanimously) went to Andy “Marathon Man” Ogg for his superb penalty save. Fluffer was awarded to Nick “Off Target” Shute for a number of errors (despite his 5 goals) – bad passing, gave away a penalty, laughable one on one.
Our shooting was terrible and our passing was worse, but we got the win. Champions of London!! On the Narwhals march!!
Forza Narwhali!!