Bowdon Killer Bees 6 - Sale 1

Up at the Dev, an inauspicious (OK, had to look that one up) start to the game when we failed to provide both umpires turned into a stroke of tactical genius (yup, I'm claiming this one!) when Sale, who had brought 12 men including a couple of youngsters, generously volunteered to umpire after all, and took their best player off the pitch to do it! Result!!! Shanksy put all his clothes back on & emerged from the showers (not in that order one presumes) to come up & umpire for Bowdon, and the game finally got off the ground.

Bowdon soon showed themselves the superior team with particularly good use of space and some nice passing. Two early goals for the Bees clearly established the pecking order & I was wondering if we were going to get a monster scoreline at last? Alas, 'twas not to be; once it became evident that we were comfortably on top, the work rate dropped to 'just a bit better than them' and the game trundled along. The weather was awfully pleasant, the pitch was reasonable and everyone was enjoying themselves toddling around doing the odd bit for the team. Huzzah! Now, this was all rather jolly, but it wasn't getting us many goals, and, believe you me, by this point we should have been crucifying them...

One of the more entertaining aspects of the game was the presence of Chris Callender, new to the club & therefore starting at the top (that's us), before horrible demotion follows & he ends up with the 2nd XI or something. Seeing as he used to captain the first team at his old club, it wasn't too surprising that he was a bit handy! No doubt he could dribble, no idea if he can pass (Ouch!!!). Anyway, that's the last we'll see of him... Chris slotted a couple in, as did Yokker, who got one either side of half time.

In the second half, yours truely mishit one in off a penalty corner, which was a stroke of luck, and Chris tucked another one away to give us a passable victory of six goals to one. Let's face it, the Bees started to struggle in the second half with predictable fitness hiccups at the back, combined with a change of line up by Sale, who brought on their rather handy umpire. Now this chap was not bad at all, and to top the tactical masterstroke of having him umpire the first half, Sale then put him at the back when he finally did get to play. Most bizarre & a stroke of luck for us, eh?

Back at the club after the match, Yokker was getting into trouble with the committee again, having parked his camel in the chairman's space. Things were made worse when he accidentally spat out a spider into Uncle Billy's G&T, and then proceeded to claim not only that it was the spearhead of an alien invasion fleet, but also that he would score a hat-trick this season - which is, of course, preposterous.

'Q'