Seventy minutes to lift hearts and spirits, 20 minutes to dash them. A cracking game, full of incident, passion and controversy, with six goals and four penalties. The BC stormed into a 3-0 lead on a dream of a pitch, playing some of their best football for a long while, but contrived to snatch a draw from the jaws of victory in the hectic closing stages.
The result left the BC in 4th place in the final EFL rankings, while J-Heat’s point saw them drop to third – behind winners Buona Vista Saints and 2nd-placed St Andrews Society. Well done to them all. Fourth-place is disappointing – but, bluntly put, the BC didn’t beat any of the three teams above them.
At the end of a gruelling season of 46 matches, the BC’s record reads 31 wins and 5 draws, with just 10 defeats – not bad going for a disparate bunch of ageing, nomadic expatriate executives, house-husbands, teachers and the like.
The BC made a strong start to their final game of the season, stroking the ball around nicely on a flat, wide pitch at the corporately-sponsored JAS Sports Ground. MB dropped back to quasi-full back as the BC opted for a back five to combat what had been flagged as a pacy J-Heat attack. That left us a little short in midfield but, on the quarter hour, Scoop brought the ball forward from defence and fed PR on the left wing. His cross eluded a busy penalty area and bounced up off a Japanese arm. Goldengroin (DH) dispatched the ensuing spot kick with aplomb.
Shortly after the first changeover, the BC strung together a delightful move of precision and fluidity down the right flank involving UN, MJ and PR, whose final cross found Big AL stalking the back of the penalty area. The finish was deadly, smacking the ball into the roof of the net. The referee’s assistant – he had been given a uniform so did not want to be anonymous – then flagged for a foul against GT, clearly in the J-Heat penalty area, but the referee skirted controversy and a diplomatic incident by awarding a free kick on the edge of the box.
A wilting J-Heat then fell further behind as the goalkeeper committed the footballing equivalent of hari kiri, by dropping the ball at the feet of GT, who sidefooted home. GM and DH had firm control of the midfield, UN was a vocal and willing conduit wide right and SM chased and harried up front.
The home side offered only a sporadic threat in attack, but AP was booked for a “marginally mistimed” challenge as one J-Heat striker bore down menacingly on CB’s goal. It will come as little surprise to learn that Jacob P, aged 10 but already a rugged defender, picked up his eleventh caution in three games earlier at the weekend for ANZA Vikings, while Matt Le Tissier, the P family dachshund, was shown a yellow card for assaulting a lamp-post on Wednesday evening.
Budgie -- Adam Faith or Helicopter?, take your pick -- bristled and jostled, hectoring and cajoling -- short in stature, but every inch committed to winning, while GA, at right-back, was kept busy and defended well. Pictured left is GA's uncle -- also Gary -- who was the unsung and rarely mentioned fifth member of Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young (& Anderson). Gary (uncle) left Britain in the early 1960s in search of fame and fortune in Los Angeles, leaving behind his sister, who later gave birth to our very own Gary. After three years of low-key pub gigs with his start-up group "My Nephew's Gonna Be a Pig, Man" and kicking up dust in downtown LA, Gary (uncle) happened to meet the burgeoning talent that was Neil Young, a Canadian singer-songwriter who had just formed Buffalo Springfield with guitarist Stephen Stills. Anderson hooked up with them and occasionally played on stage, but was never paid.
When the Buffalo broke up, Anderson stuck by Young, featuring silently on his first solo album, and was still around when CSN&Y got together. The hirsute Anderson can be spotted by the eagle-eyed viewer on original recordings of Woodstock, jamming air guitar and, at one point, turning up an amplifier. Subsequent digitalised re-recordings have airbrushed him out -- or whatever the aural equivalent of that is.
After a disastrous flirtation with punk, Gary (uncle) found his groove in heavy metal, earning the endless gratitude of his adoring nephew, who now hosts secretive monthly head-bangs in Singapore playing only his uncle's music, very loudly -- and only once the kids are in bed. DH goes along, too.
The ageless (Scottish) JR ploughed selflessly up and down his full-back track -- a family tradition stretching back to the turn of the 18th century when his
great-great-great-great-grandfather Sir JR (pictured) helped George Stephenson construct the Liverpool & Manchester Railway.
The second period began much as the first, with the BC creating chance after chance, and comfortably snuffing out any threat from the J-Heat midfield. GM (whose Dogman2000 blog features right) when a young Guy dreamed of wearing a dress and shooting Injuns with his favourite Winchester 1876 -- cracked a left foot shot against the upright. GT fizzed a screamer just wide; AL blasted inches above the bar; MJ lofted over a couple of deep crosses from the right, headed goalwards by GM and DH with no reward. MB found the byline on the left, but there was no one to finish his cut-back ball, GA, marauding down the right, found no takers for his cross. DH shot wide and AP headed wide from a corner. GT skipped past tackles into the box and went down, but no foul was given.
The second changeover was to prove crucial, and costly. The rhythm that had built up was disrupted and the BC fatally lost some of its shape. As the BC defence moved out, a lone J-Heat forward nipped through unopposed and slotted past CB. Moments later, GA was adjudged to have pushed his opponent while jumping for a high ball in the BC penalty area. Harsh words were exchanged between defenders and referee, but the penalty was awarded, and scored. As the clock ran down, and more British Club chances went begging, J-Heat again pressed forward and IG’s Chimbonda-esque no-holds-barred, but legal, sliding tackle brought another J-Heat penalty, more badmouthing of the referee and, almost, a Gazza 1990 moment for a distraught Scoop. 3-3.
In the final moments, CB made a terrific diving save, and at the other end, the referee blew for a fourth penalty as another unfortunate J-Heat defender saw the ball bounce up unkindly against his arm. Goldengroin, back on for a second spell, stepped up to the plate and aimed left and low, only for the goalkeeper to save.
MJ, who will forever live in the shadow of his namesake -- the founder and lead singer of prototype electronic-to-multimedia band The The (pictured) – smacked a shot wide.
The two Ms have little in common. MJ (famous) is a talented footballer, scoring twice on his 1995 debut for the NME World Stars XI and simultaneously building a successful career as an aerospace engineer.
And so … on to the Dinner & Dance.
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