Wednesday 25th July saw the Narwhals take on their local rivals Croydon at Whitgift Pool. Given that was a week ago and I have been drinking heavily, I can’t remember much of what happened, but I’ll give it a go…
The lead up to the game started in unexpected circumstances as we were told by our referee for the evening that if we gave him any back chat, we would be told to “F*** off”. That left us with no ambiguity – the only remaining question was whether to drop or press…
For all intents and purposes, we started the game pretty well. Our defence held (for the majority) and we scored some good, well worked goals – for example – a peach of a pass from Ed “BBQ Boozer” Gamble that went inside the defender found the swim of Nick “I like 12yr old… whisky” Shute who promptly put it in at the near post. A Further two pit goals from Dan “treasure hunt” Bedford left the score 4-3 at end of Q1.
Rather surprisingly we did pretty well in the 2nd quarter too – screamers from Chris “fillet steak” Mann, returning Narwhal Bren “the other Heath” Heath were roundly applauded and we all welcomed back the return of Tim’s bicep cannon. The half-time score was 8-7 and we seemed relatively surprised to be where we were. Sadly it didn’t last…
Fitness and decision making showed in the 3rd quarter (7 goals to 3), with Croydon scoring a number of breakaways. The score could have been a lot worse had it not been for some superb one-on-zero saves from Andy “face save” Winterbotham. Cynics said he was showing off to the crowd (having brought supporters) – loyal Narwhal fans know it was more to do with the Monday swim session he’d had two days before. Andy was definitely heard praising Coach Weebs after the game for ensuring he was in tip-top condition.
With the score 15-10 going into the 4th, we tried to stage our come-back. Two quick goals put us in touching distance before Croydon scored 3 in reply. A final score of 18-12 not a true representation of how close the game “could” have been.
Man of the match was pretty much unanimous this week following a host of great saves, Andy ran out a clear winner. Shout out to the ever present Dan “gold bar” Bedford for grabbing some votes and a cheeky nod to Matt “far post lob” Finch for his brace of goals (including a well executed lob).
Moment similarly went to Andy for a superb three-on-zero save. I think we can all agree the main highlight of the game was Barry missing 2 such opportunities and proceeding to blame his own team mates. If only Croydon had a fluffer vote…
Speaking of Fluffers, this unanimously went to Gary “passive aggressive” Bowen for his poor lob attempt. Eventually we will teach you not to do it!! Lobs are a cruel mistress – get it right and you are in the running for MoM, get it wrong and well… you know…
Sadly assists don’t count, so Messers Lomardo, Gamble and Finch Jnr take the trip out to Obidos. Its lovely this time of year.
Forza Narwhali!!