Farts impressive in snatching late Draw.

The drought had broken and NHS was back in operation in time for the Farts first town game. A reasonable hour for a morning game, 10.00 hit off, which meant we could sleep in a bit or have a bit of extra time to recover from the night before.

However in true Farts tradition, 10 mins to go and we were short a couple of players and a goalie. Luckily trapper was carting around Rearends’ gear since his potential retirement, so a quick padding up saw the team take the field with Vince in goal. It must be said that the gear didn’t really fit him that well, it was a bit on the large size!

Craig and Watkin arrived just on hit off, so after about 10 mins Vince was subbed and I think he was quite relieved at that too!
Karori appeared to have a younger fitter team (this seems to be a constant theme to our games?), and showed some good skills, but the Farts played their typical open game, had a number of chances, and Moses opening the scoring.

Karori spent a lot of time keeping the Farts camped in our circle. Some questionable umpiring gave Karori 5 or 6 PC’s in a row but the Farts defence held them out with strong tackling and committed play.

Karori managed to equalise late in the first half, and when the guys went to the sheds Nuts gave a rousing speech, partly to encourage the team, partly to make up for the fact that he had failed to bring any “Jet planes” or “snakes” for the boys to recharge their energy levels.
The second half was more of the first, and the game started to get a bit more physical. Irene Van Dyke was heard to say that Karori were blatantly cheating, although when interviewed, Norma “I’ll chew your ear off” bulldog Plummer reckoned the Farts just needed to toughen up.
Trapper stepped up the mark in a tackle with a Karori player, taking a severe late shot to the body, which quickly turned into a bit of an “Argy Bargy” pushing match even though the umpire had blown it up.

Both players were called over, the umpire commenting on Trappers outstanding game, how much he’d trimmed down and how he appreciated the umpiring help trapper was giving, and awarded him a green triangle for “Good Sportsmanship” , while he showed his utter contempt and disgust at the Karori players blatant attempt at taking out the star Farts player by sending him to the sideline for a period of cooling down.

The Karori fitness started to show, and even after some stalwart defending, including Moses getting a lifted ball straight into his hand that was so hard it would have broken the thigh bone of an adult Bull elephant, Karori managed to sneak a ball under Watkin and dribble into the goal.
But the Farts never gave up, and the Karori umpire even awarded them a couple of PC’s, with one right on full time.

The Farts hours of PC practise and startegising came to the fore, Toddy came up to receive the ball, and Zac pulled it out to him. However in a quick thinking mode, Zac looked at Toddy but did a no look pass to Nuts (will that’s what he claimed) , and Nuts slammed it into the backboard for a 2-2 final score.

Goals
1 - Moses
1 – Nuts

MVP’s
3 – Zac, another outstanding effort, all over the park and showing strong improvement in tackling (getting the ball not the player) and some deft touches in beating opponents)
2- Dave R – continues to show commitment and effort in getting around the park
1-Moses – good opening goal, strong running and put his thumb on the line for the team