Monday 23rd January saw the first game of the 2017 season for the Narwhals. Rusty from a lack of game time we trekked to the furthest reaches of the Victoria Line for a Thameside show down with the Eastern Otters.
With a strong contingent of 12, we began the day in a buoyant mood. We were quickly whittled down to 11 by the first match day maddy (MDM) of the year when John “prick on a bike” Holah realised it would be a struggle to cycle all the way to Walthamstow and video himself at the same time, dropped out. Without our main enforcer, we worried we may be a bit light on the “punchy” front – little did we know Andy “thug” Ogg was looking to step fully into the gap… more on that later…
Our lack of match practise was evident in the first quarter as we quickly slipped to a 3-0 deficit. Rob “sky shot” Loveless was the main culprit with several loose shots and some very wayward passing. That being said we were all very much to blame with passes and shots failing to hit the target for the whole quarter. Luckily Nick “Gammy Eye” Shute managed to grab us a goal back, leaving the score 3-1 at the end of the first.
In the second quarter we started to get back into the game, with Charles grabbing his first goal for the club and Rob finally finding the target at the 18th/19th time of asking. 4-3 to the Narwhals at the half.
The second half was a much better performance as we finally found our feet. Ed “hide and seek” Gamble won the swim-off (surprisingly) and the resulting series of passes (from Nick to Zac to Dan) ended up with Dan “stiff wrist” Bedford scoring from the off. Otter didn’t even touch the ball!! Another highlights of the quarter saw Phil “left wing” Richards finish off a delightfully worked man-up – one of the few times we did exactly what we said we’d do. That phase of play also saw Phil pick up the moment of the match award for the game!! We had a very strong quarter seeing the score at the end of the 3rd 9-4.
Into the 4th Quarter we trotted. We picked up a few more well worked goals, with Chris “Burns Night Boozer” Mann scoring a trademark goal from the top of the arc and Charles picking up another goal to give him 2 for the game and securing his spot as “best left handed player” of the season so far. Despite our grip on the game, Andy “enforcer” Ogg took it a bit literally and got a very good grip on a member of the opposition. Some punches were traded and both players ended up in the bin. As a result, Oggy picked up 3 majors, an early lead in the Brutality charts & the Fluffer award. Good job!! He narrowly beat Rob “carpenter” Loveless to the award. Final score for the Narwhals, a solid 14-4 win!!
Man of the match for the game was shared between Charles “my mum let me play this week” T-K and Nick “the hobbit” Shute, for their 2 and 4 goals respectively. Portuguese police are still looking for Gimli and Finch Jnr. Zac has a lot of work to do if he wants to win “Best Finch of the Year” at the 2017 awards ceremony…
Until next time… Forza Narwhali!!