Nannas 2 plays Riff Raff Athletic 1
CB, CG, JH 1 (MOM), RH (MOM), El Cides 1
It’s always something with the Nannas these days.
This week: wanting to play with zero subs.
After Cocky, Tao, Andy, Takesh all decided to be anywhere except Melbourne, and we’d exhausted our list of ringers to ring, Rhian and Chas said we’ll stick to the tight five come hell or high water.
This strategy, as you can imagine, has several serious flaws.
The first, much to the Captain’s chagrin, is when one of those five has sick children and can’t play. Oh no. We need an extra.
We discussed several options, all of which were poo, pooed, until Gilla floated another Brazilian.
The second flaw (of a tight five strategy), much to the mortification of the players playing, is if that fifth player is a newbie, and arrives late the match, and hasn’t been briefed where on the Princess school grounds the court is (this last one is becoming something of a Nanna habit. Yours truly experienced it only last week), he won’t be on court to actually play.
Yes, we were five in spirit only. We could have been six, or seven or eight if we had wanted. But in fact, for the first ten minutes we were four.
Four brave Nannas, against a team of nine. I wonder if our opponents had ever put a call out on Facebook? A question for the ages, and one that Rhian and Chas should seriously consider if we find ourselves in this situation once more.
Anyway. So, we were four. Our opponents, even though they were nine, could only have five on the pitch.
The Nannas hung back, mostly walking at this stage. A sounds strategy, given our paltry numbers, but dear reader you will happy to know these four brave souls defended like their lives depended on it, although once or twice the enemy broke the lines, and on one occasion they even scored.
1-0
But the damage had not been done. We felt confident of holding at bay most things they threw at us. The walking had turned to an amble, almost a jog.
And while some Nannas were really wondering at the wisdom of not needing subs, thinking we’d play the game with four only, El Cides, like a long lost child who you’d never thought would return and had written off, appeared on the sidelines.
Five. The magical, mystical five. So, five players we had, and as a solid five, five Nannas pushed forward.
We were now in fair fight with our opponents, most of whom weren’t that good on the ball. The jog, had morphed into a run.
The corners started to come. While Chas felt aggrieved I didn’t pass it to him more often from this situation, I did, smashing the ball across the goal mouth hitting the legs of one of their players, score our first.
1-1
It’s the Tao tactic, and on this particular evening, I thought it appropriate. So, I kept doing it. After our first goal, Rhian almost profited from it too. Had his big toe been bigger, or able to meet the ball at the exact moment it flashed across goal, we would have had an extra.
No matter, we had parity. And we were coming for them. From running, sprinting erupted.
Whereas in the those first ten minutes when we were four, they had the whip hand, in the last twenty eight minutes, we dominated. And it was the fifth Nanna to grace the court to score the winner. From range and shaking off his marker, he hit a low shot into the corner of their net.
2-1.
He’s our new ringer, apparently (I wonder if he has FB?), to add to all the others. But perhaps, at least once, we need to try social media to find someone, don’t we? I, for one, haven’t heard a solid argument against it. I just get, ‘No!’
Anyway, that’s how it finished.
Afterwards Rhian and Jim went for roasted potatoes and a Steak Sanga at the Great Northern where the topics of discussion among others were families, Neurodivergence and the Heart of Darkness, until the first bounce of the footy.