Afternoon all,
Wednesday 22nd June saw the Narwhals launch a heroic come back against Ealing Crabs (2nds) to earn a 16-16 draw. It was a tough, combative game that perhaps we could have won, but that takes nothing away from the great team effort that enable us to level the game late in the 4th quarter. This weeks stats are as follows:
We started slowly in the first quarter, finishing 5-2 down, but we quickly reversed that with some strong counter attacking in the second, pulling ourselves back to within a goal (8-7). We had a bit of a wobble in the third quarter, letting in 7 goals. Not quite sure what happened, but we conceded too many counters and we weren’t pressing hard enough on our men. We finished the 3rd quarter 15-11 down and we had a lot of work to do to level the game. The 4th quarter saw a tremendous effort and some delightful goals – and our perseverance began to show as Ealing became increasingly frustrated by our performance. 16-16 was a fair result, but I can’t help but feel that without that little wobble, we could have won the game!!
Man of the Match this week went to Dan “lone striker” Bedford who scored a double hatrick this week and was part of a few delightful goals, the highlight being a drilled shot from wide into the far top corner (and there’s me thinking he’s only good for flapping around in the pit…). He also combined nicely with Nick “windmill” Shute for a well taken goal and with Ed “Gimli” Gamble for a goal just before the buzzer. Where would we be without him? Shout outs to Finchy for saving a lot of one on ones in the first half and to Si Gateley for some great defensive work.
Moment of the match this week is awarded to a true team player. Someone who put himself on the line for a team mate – a team mate the rest of us were more than happy to see get hit… (joking). Late in the 4th Quarter, Nick “punchy” Shute was being held by his marker and therefore may (or may not) have “accidentally” caught his opposite man in the face. The opposition did not like that, so lined Shute up for a punishing left hook. Tadija “Tony” Popovic channelled his inner Australia Centre Back and courageously stepped in the way – saving Mr. Shute a good seeing to. Now it seems we spend a lot of time stopping Nick getting beaten up (see Tour 2012, 2013 & 2014) but for this act of selfless team spirit, Tadija was awarded moment of the match – it almost made up for the time he got countered off…
For Fluffer we almost had a dead cert selection – but following Nicks “scuffle”, the resulting penalty was scored by Rob “bounce shot” Loveless which allowed him to avoid a maddy and a fluffer (for the 7 or 8 bounce shots he missed). However, with the goal, he was slightly redeemed, and our attention moves elsewhere. Fluffer this week could have gone to a number of different players, but this week it is awarded to John “Dribbler” Holah – not only because he had an opportunity to score, only for the ball to dribble to a stop 2m from goal – but also because he voted for himself. Tom Burridge levels of self-deprecation there…
Stats wise, Holah continues to stretch his lead in the Catas-Trophy stakes – leading us to believe he really does want to win it for a 3rd time and keep that trophy at home. Nick slowly approaches the 50 goal mark as Dan continues to try and push for a 4 goal a game average. We all await the return of Andy “El Pres” Ogg as he seems to have gone missing…
There was no maddy club this week, so instead I have included an accurate representation of Mr. Shute having his altercation…
– sorry… I’m so sorry…
Until next time gents…
Forza Narwhali!!