Richmond Griffins 3 (1) - (1) 1 H&W 5th XI
Date: 20th November 2004
Venue: Quintin Hogg Memorial Ground (Waterbase)
Scorer(s): Giachetti, Crosby, Griffin
reports Raggy Omar, Griffins News…..
A tough game at the Bogg saw the Griffins emerge victorious and close the gap at the top of the table to a single point, but not without some worrying moments and a certain captain glad that the phrase “Don’t do as I do, do as I say” can prove a useful defence at times.
[Ed: We’ve got some new action snaps from this week’s game. Click here to view all photos, or (in a new griffs.co.uk storyboarding initiative), click on the links in the report to be taken to the relevant action shot]
The Griffins returned to the Quintin Bogg to take on Hampstead and Westminster Hammers on what was a truly miserable, cold and wet London day. The side were glad to welcome back Griffin Griffin, Toby and also Chappers, fresh from his triumphant 26-mile walk in New York, and even more happy to take on an opposition that included a forward with the temerity to bet £100 that he would score five goals past the Griffins this season. Red-rag to a number of bulls who rarely need any encouragment…
It was somewhat portentous that the team seemed to take a rather leisurely, almost lackadaisical approach to the warm-up. The Gayliff had spotted the absence of intensity but was at a loss to explain it: maybe the Griffins were dazzled by Baar’s stylish new headband,maybe several had become drunk on Toby’s breath or maybe complacency was creeping into the Griffins’ ranks? Regardless, the Gayliff tried to shake his men out of their torpor, but to no avail….
Needless to say, Hampstead and Westminster started quicker out of the blocks and dominated the start of the first half, besieging the Griffins’ goal. For once Bing, Paul and Spicko struggled to hold their own in midfield against a well-drilled opposition whose one-touch hockey saw the ball moved around the pitch crisply and invariably past many a despairing Griffin stick. It came as no surprise when Hampstead took the lead after eight minutes, as another impressive set of passes and a lack of concentration in the Griffins’ defence found none other than ‘Eddie’, Chappers cocky, bet-toting friend, free on the right-hand side of the D. Poor Moaney Monasch, left hopelessly exposed by his team, could do nothing about the shot as the Griffins went 1-0 down and Eddie started towards his 5-goal target (a target that seemed eminently achievable in one match, let alone two, given the Griffins’ start to the game). This was one-way traffic.
With Eddie already envisaging how he would spend his 100 smackers, the added edge that the bet had given to the game resulted in tempers becoming frayed on both sides. Hampstead starting objecting to a number of umpiring decisions, with Eddie demonstrating a penchant for histrionics by throwing his stick off the pitch in reaction to a Collina whistle, only to be greeted with a chorus of laughter and derision from the Griffins bench. Not to be left out in a competition for ‘Most Melodramatic Man On The Pitch’, Moaney instigated a typical fracas in the Griffins D which i) smacked of handbags and ii) paled into insignificance when compared to what was to follow from the Gayliff.
A drastic improvement was needed if the Griffins were to stay in the game, and having been lucky to survive the early Hampstead onslaught only one goal down, the team slowly began to claw their way back into the match. The midfield finally started to win some ball and the rotating forward line of Chappers, Franco, Old Rog and Griffin Griffin pushed higher to threaten the opposition goal for the first time. Several short corners ensued, and then unbelievably, against the run of play…GOAL!!!!!! Having won another penalty-corner, the crack Griffins corner special-team held a council of war at the top of the D and agreed that the opposition were not defending the right side of their circle. The corner was taken and the Gayliff was released towards the right; he nudged the ball past a lone defender and then flicked the ball superbly inside the left hand post. 1-1.
So against all the odds, the Griffins went into half-time level and lucky to have achieved parity. Your correspondent was not privy to the exact details of the Gayliff’s half-time team talk, but several members of the team testified later that it was not a pleasant experience, as the Griffins’ captain laid into his men and told them, above all else, to keep their discipline…oh, dear. Paul was certainly happy to be escaping to Twickenham, although his happiness would only be short lived as we all know. Elsewhere, Chappers took it upon himself to embark upon a diplomatic mission to the Hampstead half-time huddle in an attempt to calm some tempers and bring some maturity to proceedings. Needless to say his conciliatory pleadings were rejected out of hand by an aggressive Hampstead team; rumour has it that you reap exactly what you sow…….
Whatever it was the Gayliff had really said at half-time, the effect was palpable, as the Griffins screamed out of the blocks in the second-half and upped the pace all over the park. Up front, the Youngster was injecting pace into the attack whilst the midfield took a firm grip on the game and the defence finally began to shut up shop. Unsurprisingly, the Griffins began to dominate the game and threaten the Hampstead goal repeatedly, with Old Rog revelling in his new forward role and going close twice before…GOAL!!! Another short-corner, but this time it was Goal-Machine Crosby who was released into the D, calmly beating a couple of Hampstead players before flicking high into the right-hand side of the goal. 2-1, and things were just beginning to get interesting.
At first, Hampstead responded in orthodox fashion, hitting the post and forcing Moaney Monasch into a number of good saves. At the other end, the Griffins also went close when Bing hit the frame of the goal after some more good work from Old Rog and Franco. And then…well, then…Enter the Ninja.
”Ninjas can kill anyone they want! Ninjas cut off heads ALL the time and don’t even think twice about it. These guys are so crazy and awesome that they flip out ALL the time. I heard that there was this ninja who was eating at a diner. And when some dude dropped a spoon the ninja killed the whole town. My friend Mark said that he saw a ninja totally uppercut some kid just because the kid opened a window.”
www.realultimatepower.net
Yeah, and I heard that there was this Ninja, who got rapped around the knee by a Hampstead player and then pole-axed the guy in, like a nano-second, by using his ninja-throat attack. Indeed, in reacting to the petulant assault from the opposition, the Gayliff saw more red than someone spray-painting a fleet of Ferraris, lashing out instantly to floor the offender and seemingly forgetting the substance of his half-time team talk. True, the Hampstead player did go down ‘Rivaldo-style’ as if a sniper had picked him off from the top of the pavilion, but the Gayliff’s martial arts put the Griffins at a huge disadvantage when a 22-man handbag session and a number of minutes of Collina-led deliberation culminated in the skipper receiving his first yellow card of the season. Exit The Ninja, and enter the 10-man Griffins hanging onto their lead.
Lucky then that the 10 men managed to weather the storm commendably, repelling an ever-aggressive opposition for a full seven minutes before Collina waved the Gayliff back on. Back to full strength, the Griffins decided to finish the game off, with Chappers and Mikee G continuuing to have an excellent games in support of Spicko and Bing in midfield; even Toby had managed to sober up and was timing his tackles nicely. The pressure began to build on Hampstead, with Spicko going close via a trademark reverse-stick effort and Franco improbably trying to lob the keeper from the top of the D when presented with a one-on-one. Then…GOAL!!!! A wonderfully simple move down the right witnessed Franco feed the Youngster, whose bullet of a cross seemed to be destined for the opposite sideline until Griffin Griffin dived majestically and at full length to deflect the ball inside the far post and into the net. 3-1 and the Griffins had sewn things up with a goal from the top-drawer.
With the Griffins clearly in ascendance,it was down to Eddie and his mates to continue to take the moral low ground. Not content with trying to aggravate Old Rog, Hampstead even targeted the normally inoffensive Baar, with a particularly pernicious opponent accusing him of looking like John McEnroe. Baar advised his tormentor to “take a look at the scoreboard” before roasting him again, and then informing his Griffin team-mates that he felt he was more Borg than McEnroe.
Not rising to the bait, the Griffins held out until the final whistle to record a victory, despite both Bing and Rich pulling hamstrings and Spicko becoming distraught that he couldn’t take his customary breather. It had been a tough encounter, but the team had managed to squeeze out a win to close the gap on Spencer at the top of the league. Thoughts turn to St. Albans next week and to whether, as claimed on www.entertheninja.com, ninjas really did invent the Internet.
This is Raggy Omar, Griffin News
