This threatened to be the game from hell. Coming off a 3-0 loss to Imperial (!), the list of unavailable players was longer than the available list and half the available set were walking wounded. Well done to these chaps for allowing us to complete the fixture and field 11 men. We also pulled in a couple of new players Mike Petch (ex BP Hull) and Ken Gibson (BP Aberdeen now at Sunbury) together with a second outing for Paul Lucas allowing us to provide a ref and supply Bookham with an extra man as they only had 10.

Bookham play Saturday’s as well as Sunday and they should reconsider this plan on this evidence. A make shift Meadhurst went 2-0 up with Ken Gibson looking their best player. Don got the goals despite injuring himself in the warm up while Dene was doing a good job in our goal with well judged clearances from the edge of the box (Fabien take note). Mike Petch settled into Dick’s spot quite happily (the trees and the Squirrels approved of this change too) but he had trouble restraining a rampant Martin Atkins (rumoured to be playing full back) from charging up the pitch.

The next of a rash of injuries was Tony Huxley who took over in goal in the second half. Bookham pushed men forward and showed enough pace up front to discomfort Martin and our new stand in full back Julian. Things went from bad to worse in defence as Ian Bolter pulled a muscle and was dispatched to the forward line where he promptly miss hit a cross and scored. A couple of defensive errors let Bookham back into the game and just before the end Martin completed the rout of the back row by pulling a hamstring. Nevertheless we held on (in fact Don limping around up front squandered two good chances to complete his hat trick).

Somewhat unfortunately our adjustments to the injuries took Jack into the centre half spot and Dogga into centre midfield where an overly competitive Bookham midfielder resided. Not a good combination and there was some unseemly chit chat and throwing of handbags as these two wound each other up. Things stayed under control but not a feature to be repeated in a vets match.

John Lovegrove was undoubtedly the star of the show by turning out despite injury and refereeing the entire game – growing in authority as the game progressed. I was almost inspired to pay him at the end of the game (just joking Cuzzy).

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Last modified: December 14, 2003