Days Go By*

Our usual Blogging Scribes were not in attendance at Ruskin for a variety of medical reasons on Monday this week. However, Andy Manager was pleased to report that in another bumper turnout, 38 members enjoyed a number of close games; all played in an excellent spirit. The numbers meant 1 game of 7 v 7 who played each other for the full hour, and 4 teams of 6, who swapped over after 30 minutes.

Black - Mark (No Relation) Davies, Monday Michelle, Les Meldrew, Andy Manager, Brian and Little John

Pink - Roy, Steve S, Gaz, Haggis, Julie and Colin ‘the late’ Williams

Orange: - Steve Honeyman, McSpeed, Phil the Cat, Tony, Sheila and Mika

Sky - Phil the Power, Liz, Citeh Geoff, Chopper, Donal and PaulF

Yellow: - Roger, Tom Stretch, Steve J, Cockney Rebel, Wor Eileen, Enoch & Barry Whizz

Purple: - Willo, Les H, Phil the Moss, Amazon Prime, Grav, Jenko and Snakehips

Yellow played Purple in the full session 7 a side match, played under the watchful eye of Eamon The game ended in a thrilling 4-4 draw thanks to goals by Barry Wizz, Enoch 2 and Tom Stretch for Yellow In reply Purple hit back thanks to Grav, Willo, Big Phil Moss and Amazon Prime There was Blue Card for someone who couldn’t resist wizzing around the pitch After several warnings the patience finally expired and a spell on the naughty step followed

Sadly with all occupied in the morning’s other matches we’ve no details to offer on scores or scorers Be assured if you did find the net on Monday there’ll be no one around to disagree

The midweek session at Sutton was a disappointing affair, where a miserable cold evening and the impending Easter break may have meant that quite a few usually keen walking footballers saw the poll to indicate whether they wanted to play that day and thought ‘nah, I’ll stick to Arsenal v Real Madrid on the telly’. Other channels and sporting occasions were also available.

But enough members braved a chilly evening to give Andy Manager another higher maths free evening as we split into 4 teams of 5, refereed by two injury recovering members,Eamon and Lord Rainford. Line ups were as follows: -

Orange -Andy Manager, Tom Stretch, Kirsty, Little John and Peter T

Red - Joe the Ghost, Midweek Michelle, Grav, Deano and Benno

Yellow - Haggis, Jason, Chris 4G, Ian and Nigel

Blue - Les H, Wor Eileen, Steve C, Cockney Rebel and Mark Dav.

In the first games Eamon oversaw a tight game where Blue overcame Red 5-4 mainly thanks to a Steve Carine hat trick. Meanwhile Orange shaded Yellow 3-2 in another tight game. They led 1-0 with Tom Stretch the scorer, but Yellow equalised, then found goals by Kirsty (who had a fine night’s football) and Peter T put them 3-1 up. Steve got the Yellow 2nd but Orange hung on for the win.

All swapped round and Orange were able to win again overcoming Blue 4-2. Meanwhile Red took on Yellow and built what should have been an unassailable 4-0 lead. Haggis had a frustrating first part of the game hitting the woodwork twice, then had a fine finish ruled out for taking too many touches. Yellow heads went down, and it looked as though things could get worse for them but for some heroic keeping by Chris 4G. Suddenly Haggis got one back and the game was on. Yellow fought back to 4-3 and you could see Red having a collective meltdown “how had it all gone wrong?” A 5th goal settled the nerves though this 5th was tragically conceded when Chris4G, after all his earlier heroics, managed to let the ball slip through his hands! But Yellow weren’t done yet and scored a 4th to leave them just one goal behind, but, just as in their first game, there wasn’t enough time for them to find an equalising 5th. Full credit to them for not giving up when all seemed lost, on another night of good football played in the right spirit.

Days Go By* - Keith Urban (Australian/American country music star Mr Nichole Kidman