Farts snatch Draw...........From the Jaws of Victory

Sunday night all eyes were on the Farts as they took the field with a rteasonably injury free line up.

·         Rearend and Toddy were back from their “Great Southern Promotional Tour” which i believed stopped at just about every pub on the way

·         Trapper was fighting fit after his calf tear/Achilles strain and severely bruised ribs (yes can see Ainsleys eyes go skywards with a “here he goes  again......” comment

·         Scotty still had a tight calf but was willing to brave it out

·         And Ash was back from a recruiting drive for the Bangalore Beer Bellies in the pacific islands (and touching up on his “re-Fuelling” and  “re-Hydration” techniques).

So it was with a hushed and wide eyed anticipation that the huge crowd (Mrs Nuts, Mrs Trapper, Mrs Craig, and Mrs Scotty, a one armed paper hanger – Justin,  and a small dog that wondered in and seemed to want to inspect every blade of grass) waited for the whistle to blow.

The game started and seemed to go back and forwards, although the Farts had the lion share of possession and territory in the opposition goal they couldn’t even buy a PC.  Trapper managed to get onto a partlty defended shot, and with a sweeping motion propelled it towards the goal. Unfortunately it was with a high arc, so high and slow that the goalie had to stop and wait for it to get to him (in the old Days “ Moth” (David White)  or even “Mac” (Graeme MacGregor) would have had time to roll a smoke before it arrived!) and then calmly pat it away.

However trapper got his revenge a few minutes later, standing on the far post when a firmly Hit pass (yes Cam, it was a pass, not like your “shots” , i know because Adrian said it was!) found his stick and cannoned into the net.

The Farts poured more pressure on, and were at times hacked to pieces , but apart from a number of shots that went just wide or crosses that were just out of reach had nothing to show for it.

So the discussion in the shed at half time was more of the same but improve accuracy of the passes. Just 1 – 0 up, but should have been more.

The Farts poured on more pressure in the second half, a couple of searing runs by trapper fizzled out, he managed to get himself in the clear, completely unmarked on the top of the circle with only the goalie to beat, a great through ball from Toddy managed to scythe through the Karori defence and then trapper missed an easy trap by an inch or two! In defence of Trapper, at his age he doesn’t handle surprises well.

Sean came on to the left wing and the attack got even fiercer, however there must be something wrong with a spot just on the LH edge of the circle, as Sean was there completely unmarked when a ball came through to him and he promptly slipped over (exactly the same spot Trapper had missed the ball). Maybe that part of the track hadn’t “rubbered in” or there was oil or debris there?

A short time later Sean made up for it, smacking a cross from close range goal wards, tit rose up, deflecting off a Karori player into the net 2-0!

Karori should have gotten a debating award then for consistent and persistant discussion with the umpire about rules, rulings, player eligibility and anything they could find to “discuss” .  The Frats were probably lucky they didn’t save the energy they expounded in the “discussions” as they would have “run them off the park“ if they had.

Up till now the farts defence had shown sterling efforts to combat everything thrown at them, however it had gotten harder in the second half, partially due to the Karori provided umpire being changed for a player. Suddenly y the umpire down that end knew what a pc was, and started to dish them out for events as trivial event as Karori actually getting into our circle.

Toddy, Nuts, Wicky and Al all played well, but with 10 minutes to Go the Karori players (and umpire) seemed to step up a gear with determination.  Karori pulled 2 goals back, the last with about a minute to go, to snatch the draw.

The result didn’t show the true efforts on the pitch, with possession of 67%, territory of 63% and
“time in the opposition quarter” of 7min 36 seconds as opposed to Karori’s 4 mins 12 secs, the Farts felt disappointed to have not gone on to a glorious thrashing.

Goals

1 – Trapper (first of the year)

1-      Sean

MVP

3 – Toddy – great defence, and some real hum dingers of clearing hits/passes, shame more weren’t “touched” into the net

2 - Wicky – another solid game

1 – Al – had a great game as well, with more piercing attacking runs and passes.

1 - Ash – Umpired –thanks, good to have one consistent umpire

1 – Toddy - Oranges