A number couldn’t make it yesterday, including Bret and Heath who had to travel for work, Clive, who was back late from a trip, Tim C, who had to work late, and Tom, demoralised after last week.
We still had 11 confirmed (including Chris and his friend, PK), plus 4 even younger players (16 year olds) who were playing on Court No. 2 before us (as the lot who usually book the court before us weren’t playing).
We lined up as follows:
Darks/Others – Mark L, Collin, Gilbert, Swee Hoe, Lewis, Marcus and Nam (as Nam informed me he would be arriving later, we started with Burger (?), who was replaced by Nam when he arrived, and who later replaced Gilbert).
Lights – Sze Kuan, Yu Teik, Nicolas, Chris, PK, Hua Hui and me.
The game was remarkably low scoring for the first 40 minutes or so, with Gilbert sweeping up at the back for Darks and with me making sure the Lights always had two defenders back when Darks attacked (usually Hua Hui and me) .
With Marcus initially reluctant to come out of his goal to clear through balls, Lights took a small lead.
Gilbert had a bad fall when tackled by Nicolas. Although Nicolas won the ball, Gilbert’s momentum threw him forward. I’ve seen far worse tackles on Gilbert, but on this occasion, he hit his chin on the ground. Gilbert plays with such forward momentum when he brings the ball out from defence, that he tends to fly forward when tackled (especially when fouled). Half in jest (?), he said he needed an ambulance, but he was able to continue for a while before finally deciding to stop.
With both sides then largely abandoned defence, often having 3 or 4 attackers up against 1 or 2 defenders (and which would have left Dennis, had he been there, in a state of apoplexy!), it was end to end stuff. It’s ok once in a while, but defence is still important.
PK was full of step-overs and back-heels. It would have been a lot better if his passes had gotten through to a team-mate more than 20% of the time, but he was always ready to chase everything. Most of us are a lot older and don’t have too much energy to waste, so we need to be more efficient with the use of the ball.
With Sze Kuan in fine form in goal, Lights managed to avoid conceding as many as Darks, and extended their lead to 11-7, despite some profligate finishing of their own.
With Marcus improving in goal, Darks managed to pull back to 11-11, before Whites finally ran out 16-12 winners.
