Honours even in Olympic battle...........
It was the first meeting of these teams at this level as the Classics visited King George to take on Richmond Olympics, a team recently promoted (?) to the over 50’s league. With no referee present Dave Moore took the whistle for the first half, and the game was a reasonably even affair with the Classics again leaving their shooting boots at home. With some better finishing the visitors could have easily had a couple of goals lead by half time, Chris Arcari being one of the culprits by missing at least one good chance.

Garry Hackel almost gave Olympic the lead 15 minutes from the end of the first half when he displayed his fancy footwork by back-heeling the ball towards the goal-line. Luckily for him, Chas Jones was on the line to clear the ball away to safety. As it was, the Olympics went in at half time with the lead. It occurred in bizarre circumstances ten minutes from the half. There was obviously a breakdown in communications between two of the resident Germans and a major drawback occurred when the usually reliable radar system was incapable of detecting a low-flying football which was dispatched as a backpass from Scutze Alfie Deglan. Obergefreiter Hackel, not having referee Moore in a position to give him usual instructions, inexplicably picked up the backpass and the referee had no option other than to award a free kick on the edge of the six yard box. The free kick was played aside and the initial shot was barged away but an Olympics player followed up to blast the ball into the middle of the goal amidst a wall of blue defenders. The goal robbed the Classics of four successive shut-outs.

The second half was also end to end although the Olympics never seriously troubled Hackel but he was alert and made some excellent stops when required to do so. It was going to need a flash of brilliance to save the game and it came after 10 minutes of the second half from Mike Snow. Snow was put through on the left wing and he cut inside and headed for goal. The Olympics keeper advanced off his line just enough to give Snow the opportunity to chip the ball, which he did exquisitely to get the equalising goal. The remainer of the game was played out uneventfully as the heavy, wet field started to take its toll on the players and also on their skills. In the final analysis, the Olympics will be happier than the Classics with the share of the spoils.

The after game festivities included an excellent Nigerian banquet of peppered goat soup, Nigerian meat pies and lamb curry. The banquet was attended by the unusual site of Chuck McGill who was in the process of test driving a new pair of flotation devices on his feet for Air BC. Gone were the trademark Aladdin shoes. A rare site indeed!

Final Score 1-1 (1-0)

Stats:
D. Moore refereed the first half
Club photographer: T. Short
"You Were Crap" award: G. Hackel