July Results

30th July 2012

Avondale I - Croydon I = 9 - 15

Surrey 1

3 very late pull outs , no keeper , one's son's first birthday forgotten , a ref who thought a day at the Olympics was a better way to spend a Monday night , a full Croydon squad.

What else can be said ?Not a bad game for Avondale though considering the limited number of subs and the continuous changes of goalkeepers.Star of the evening the "new" scoreboard that took its place on the "new" table ; not the electronic scoreboard that everyone voted for but at least it is a start.

26th July 2012

Ealing - Avondale II = 17 - 13(or something like that)

London League 1

Injuries, dismissals, internal bickering, referee controversy… just like an England world cup campaign. In the darkness of the dimly lit Ealing pool where parking costs until 10pm (wtf?!) a summer squad of players assembled mopping the brow from another scorching day. As the game lept to life Ealing quickly established a press and the Avondale 2 team did the same, "Real" seeing out the first quarter winners, only last minute conceding a goal to see a 5-1 lead push to 5-2. But then the wheels fell off. 

Groin injury to goalie (sub out), internal bickering and shouting, illegal pool exit, illegal re entry, wrap up, 3 major foul exclusion, another 3 major exclusion, cracked chest bone injury (get well soon Maarten. A&E at 0100hrs is no fun), meant that a squad of 11 left us with 7 players by the end. 7 very tired players. Random consensus decision making from the referee (decision reversals at the request of the bench) then when referee realises mistakes "levels up" the decisiions the other way with some soft shouts made the game very bitty with decisions likely to go either way with little relevance to the actual match. Lovely chap though. Glimmers of class from Jonnie Beder (available last minute – what a relief) and some notable play in the pit from Focco. Seany snuffing out their pit attack nicely. Shame he didn’t last the game. Again ;-)
Captain suggests a second team drinks soon. We need to show a little more solidarity going forward. Remember who the enemy are…

12th July 2012

Croydon 3 – Avondale II = 6 - 10

Surrey 2

Old men chase small boys round pool. Not a Gary Glitter dreamworks presentation, but more a reflection of the age gaps. The Croydon team were very young, and also worryingly promising for the future! But the old boys prevailed with Focco grabbing his useful santa sack of goals, Nick making another "debut" and Greg Curtis showing wall like qualities in defence. Dave steadied into his role as voice of reason and John busied himself in the pit, entertaining anyone within reach. I’ve probably missed people out… Emile’s pace etc… but the stand out was Wayne-o in goal. Constantly denying some young armed shots. Good effort VC....oh and Brad should take penalties from now on

5th July 2012

Kingston - Avondale I = 5 - 7

Surrey 1

We like to leave the best to the very end. Don’t know how we could only score one goal in 3 quarters but it was definitely  a game of bad passes , bad shots and generally bad play.

The last quarter was eventually played in a more Avondale style and , from 5 – 1 down with the last eight minutes to play, we found ourselves  6 – 5 up to the disbelief of the opposing team.

Then Louis thought Christmas should come earlier this year and gifted Kingston one last chance to level the game ,a beautiful pass to their player just as he was clear on goal.

Big Greg had to come to the rescue with an exclusion and they couldn’t take their chance ;we got away with it and scored another goal ,just in case.

Santa was seen wondering around New Malden looking very confused!

2nd July 2012

Avondale II - Old Whits = 6 - 5

Surrey Cup Final

After a nervous wait as the referees settled themselves that the markings were correct, the match began with a flurry of pressure from REAL (Avondale), which could easily have ended up with more than 2 goals converted. But then running into the second quarter we rather lost our way. We were frantic, wreckless, wasteful, disorganised, lazy… hey… this is REAL AVONDALE! Who cares? Throw a malaise of end to end plays and general confusion, having dropped 2 goals behind, the come back began. Brad got one (all the killer training paid off), then Nige to draw us equal (all the lack of training paid off), only for Migs to score a cracking top corner goal to rapturous applause from the bench. Despite the best efforts of the captain to gift the game in the final seconds to the opposition (ah-hem!) we held on to win the Tom Dwyer cup. REAL has silverware again. Well done to those who played, but also well done to the guys who played in the matches that got us there. You all contributed to this result.