Cause for celebration: a rare British win against German opposition and, rarer still, an IG goal – after 50-odd games and a conservative estimate of 2,750 minutes on the pitch … Good things, like fine wine and classic collector items, are worth the wait.
Any side coached by UN promises free-flowing, attacking football, with plenty of width and noise but ne’er a thought to defensive responsibility, and so it was with the German School, bristling with the fitness of youth, all pimply, brash and showing the swagger of the one-handed bra unbuckler. Strong and skilful individually, but found wanting in teamwork and spirit, and up against a BC that for all its slow-limbed faults lacks nothing in dogged commitment. A good, honest, open game of football.
The BC, as is customary, opened sluggishly, and fell behind after 10 minutes, caught out by a fleet-footed German Youth attack down the right flank and a shot that gave an ankle-swollen JL little chance in goal. Then, like a staccato burst of machine-gun fire, three rapid goals for the home side.
MB and DH combined in attack on the left, drew the goalkeeper and the ball fell kindly to IG near the penalty spot. Demonstrating a clinical calmness in front of goal that had eluded him for most of a long career – with the exception of a memorable hat-trick for Bradford University against Liverpool University in the early 1980s – he drove the ball with the outside of the boot between two defenders to equalise. Moments later, Goldengroin (DH) set off on a trademark mazy dribble causing panic at the heart of the young German defence. TC was on hand to tap in a rebound. The lively SM added a third shortly afterwards, chipping in from a tight angle.
The momentum was now firmly with the BC, dictating the midfield, assured at the back and creating chances at will. After good work by PR, a half-time departee to don tuxedo and cummerbund for the BC Red, White & Blue Ball, SM added an inevitable fourth with a crisp shot that wrong-footed the German keeper.
The visitors began the second half with renewed vigour and an early pincer movement caught the BC napping, allowing a young striker to sweep the ball home to make it 4-2. Then, comical calamity at the back for the Germans as their pie-fond, black-clad central defender contrived to hook the ball past his own keeper from the edge of the penalty area when under little threat – although SM tried to claim an assist for being in the same half of the pitch. He then made it 6-2 with a top-class finish – the BCs 200th goal this season -- and was alert to opportunity moments later, tapping a quick, short free-kick to TC to finish, drawing ironic applause from the visitors for unsporting, un-British behaviour.
A by-now rampant BC were playing with freedom and panache and stringing together chances by the dozen. UN, wide right, whipped in several crosses that came to naught, MB, plying his speed and trickery on the left, had a goal disallowed for a close offside call. DH and JR pleased the eye with industry and skill. AM skied a second effort, AW surged forward and SM was denied by the keeper. At the back, IB and CP provided calm assurance. AS, hesitant in the first half, grew in stature and harried and ran, while GA, one of very few criminal lawyer wannabees who can quote Megadeath lyrics without stumbling, was a menacing marauder on the right. AP picked up a yellow card while driving around New Zealand in a big camper van.
Late in the game, as the Germans lost heart, SM added an eighth, his fourth, and MB finally was rewarded for his penetrating runs with a whipcrack strike from an acute angle down the left. JR, ending the game as striker and still rankled by a public indecency charge from the 1960s, dragged a shot agonisingly wide after a virtuoso solo run.
Several candidates for Man of the Match – it was one of those games where players had the space and time to look good – but the gong this time goes rightfully to SM, the silver-haired advertising guru for his four goals and at least one assist, and selfless leading of the Maginot Line.
The BC, as is customary, opened sluggishly, and fell behind after 10 minutes, caught out by a fleet-footed German Youth attack down the right flank and a shot that gave an ankle-swollen JL little chance in goal. Then, like a staccato burst of machine-gun fire, three rapid goals for the home side.
MB and DH combined in attack on the left, drew the goalkeeper and the ball fell kindly to IG near the penalty spot. Demonstrating a clinical calmness in front of goal that had eluded him for most of a long career – with the exception of a memorable hat-trick for Bradford University against Liverpool University in the early 1980s – he drove the ball with the outside of the boot between two defenders to equalise. Moments later, Goldengroin (DH) set off on a trademark mazy dribble causing panic at the heart of the young German defence. TC was on hand to tap in a rebound. The lively SM added a third shortly afterwards, chipping in from a tight angle.
The momentum was now firmly with the BC, dictating the midfield, assured at the back and creating chances at will. After good work by PR, a half-time departee to don tuxedo and cummerbund for the BC Red, White & Blue Ball, SM added an inevitable fourth with a crisp shot that wrong-footed the German keeper.
The visitors began the second half with renewed vigour and an early pincer movement caught the BC napping, allowing a young striker to sweep the ball home to make it 4-2. Then, comical calamity at the back for the Germans as their pie-fond, black-clad central defender contrived to hook the ball past his own keeper from the edge of the penalty area when under little threat – although SM tried to claim an assist for being in the same half of the pitch. He then made it 6-2 with a top-class finish – the BCs 200th goal this season -- and was alert to opportunity moments later, tapping a quick, short free-kick to TC to finish, drawing ironic applause from the visitors for unsporting, un-British behaviour.
A by-now rampant BC were playing with freedom and panache and stringing together chances by the dozen. UN, wide right, whipped in several crosses that came to naught, MB, plying his speed and trickery on the left, had a goal disallowed for a close offside call. DH and JR pleased the eye with industry and skill. AM skied a second effort, AW surged forward and SM was denied by the keeper. At the back, IB and CP provided calm assurance. AS, hesitant in the first half, grew in stature and harried and ran, while GA, one of very few criminal lawyer wannabees who can quote Megadeath lyrics without stumbling, was a menacing marauder on the right. AP picked up a yellow card while driving around New Zealand in a big camper van.
Late in the game, as the Germans lost heart, SM added an eighth, his fourth, and MB finally was rewarded for his penetrating runs with a whipcrack strike from an acute angle down the left. JR, ending the game as striker and still rankled by a public indecency charge from the 1960s, dragged a shot agonisingly wide after a virtuoso solo run.
Several candidates for Man of the Match – it was one of those games where players had the space and time to look good – but the gong this time goes rightfully to SM, the silver-haired advertising guru for his four goals and at least one assist, and selfless leading of the Maginot Line.
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