In 1982 a group of young at heart chaps formed the band that still commands respect and awe nearly 36 years later.
By sheer coincidence the youngest you can be to play in the Vets league is 36. Some pedants will claim it’s over 35, but technically it’s your 36th year. We can all argue about whether Chris is into his teens yet or whether JohnJohn counts double but the facts remain. 36 is a beautiful number.
Back to Musical Youth and the anthem that is Pass the Dutchie. It’s a little known fact that they were great fans of the vets game and interpretation of football. They penned the song in reference to the great Gerald Vanenburg who played on the right for the Dutch in 1981. Often it was observed that they played passing football through the likes of Ruud Gullit and Wim Kieft literally passing the ball to the left of the young winger. It was the beginning of a catchy little ditty in which Gullit and Wim would tease the beleaguered right winger by singing ‘pass the dutchie on the left hand side’ and promptly passing him out of the game.
In Vets football it’s very much the same, I could tell the tale of how we romped to victory like a pompous overfed knight on a sagging charger but the reality is we did ok against an injury ravaged opposition. We ignored the right-wing and acres of space it afforded. There’s something ironic about our right wing playing host to JohnJohn and Glyn who have more than a passing political alliegance to Maggie Thatcher, so much so that John has her hair and stance.
We scored six, Chris coming up with the pick of the bunch, true to form I wasn’t really watching but it looked like he cut in from the right, stumbled over the sound waves from double-J’s shouting and curled a beauty past the onrushing keeper into the opposite far corner. (Far corner=middle, on rushing=alive).
Martin got a brace, something we’ve all be scared to suggest, but might smarten up the disappointed smile. Matt scoring a hat trick and missing a hat full. We played pretty well, passing the ball around and generally making it look like we were in control. Yours truly deciding enough was enough at 65 minutes and passing a square ball to their forward to give them a chance. A chance they spurned by kicking it direct at our stand in keeper. Joel tried to pull of the same pass but without enough experience to try it when there’s no cover. He’ll learn.
For Man of the Match, I’m not sure what happened and I’d demand a recount if it wasn’t me that recounted them twice. Martin takes MoM with Joel a close second. Honorable mentions for Chris, Aaron and some fella that was walking his dog along the side of the pitch.
Monkey, should have been me for my sideways pass, but in fairness I called it before the game. Two players returned to the pitch with shirts inside out which is always nice. Martin gets a nomination for playing the ball nowhere near me and saying ‘I thought it was obvious where I was going to play it’. That’s nice as nobody else had a clue. He also gets a nod for complaining when he was due to come back on in the back 4 when he wanted a hat-trick. Selfish. I’ll take the monkey for what was an atrocious pass. We’ll ignore the clean sheet, lack of threat and the fact that the defence was impregnable, Dyson takes one for the team. Not the first time that’s been said.
Honorable social mentions for Joel this week, two beauties from the whatsapp archive when asked for his Man of the Match nominations.
Good game and a good start.
Fleet Sociadads (6) – Medsteads Vets (0)
(Matt 3, Chris 1, Martin 2)
Fubar@Forty 