The Day Time Stood Still

Owls 4 – 5 Marlow Strollers

Scorers : James , Phil R (3)

Taking advantage of the only decent spell of good weather all weekend (all month so far!) 13 eager Owls turned up to play their last friendly before the league start against Marlow. Finely honed Owl eyes swiftly ascertained that the opposition average age this Saturday was more

akin to their own, rather than their grandchildren's, so a good match was in prospect.

Also noticed was that Marlow only had 9 players and an umpire with them, so in keeping with the generous spirit always on display in Owls matches, the opposition were promptly offered two Owls to play for them to balance the numbers - Dave and Jacqui kindly offering to switch

sides until at least half time when two other Owls had devised reasons for departing that would not have impressed the Spanish Inquisition. It became immediately obvious that Marlow must be used to travelling with more numbered shirts than players, because Dave wore a Marlow shirt with his age on his back, and Jaqui with her clothes size - we're still not sure how the oppo worked this out.

Anyway to the game, which was closely contested in fine spirit by all except the Marlow centre back who seemed to moan about everything. Aptly wearing the number 56 shirt, humour was the one variety that "Heinz" was missing. Dave would definitely have carded him if he had a pink card in his collection. Both sides were pretty evenly matched except in the finishing department, where Marlow were clinical. Their first 4 goals were pretty much carbon copies of each other, with a quick ball coming into an unmarked centre forward, who deflected or struck perfectly angled strikes into the Owls net, leaving Pete in the Owls goal pretty much redundant. Owls had one crisp flick from James from a short corner to show for all their efforts at half time. We'd won plenty of other short corners, and created chances, but our finishing was woeful. Half time was welcomed at ‘approximately’ 4-1 down. The half time interval saw the departure of Stu and James, and so Dave came back to play for the Owls after a solid first half effort in Marlow's midfield. With Razor available to come and join us too, to keep the numbers even(ish), Jacqui continued to play for Marlow in the second half. It was to be turning point of the entire afternoon - little did we know!

And so the second half started. Again the sides were evenly matched, but Razor was keen to try and even the scores, so he started running rings around the opposition. In fact he ran so many rings round them, that the Olympic flag is going to be redesigned in his honour.

One of these multi-circular dribbles saw him beat the Marlow forwards, then the midfield, then the defence, then the midfield and defence again, leaving him behind the keeper with an open goal. No one in the Owls side, except Steve & Razor himself, knew that he had been told not

to show off too much, and under no circumstances to score. Thus no one was more surprised when Phil was presented with the ball to score, when Razor could have sneezed it into the goal easier than passing to Phil!!

Two similar occurrences saw two more Owls goals, meaning we had 4 goals as well, and whilst we can't remember what order things happened, the scene is set for the denouement.

With Owls thinking they might hang on or maybe sneak a win, a rapid and typically clinical Marlow move saw the ball moved sweetly to Jacqui who was unmarked in the Owls D, with only the keeper to beat. Time stood still,......... and it seemed like everyone stopped and stared with open mouths. Pete stood tall in goal, so there seemed only two ways to score, bottom left or bottom right. Jacqui's stick flashed back, and up and down, and made contact with the ball. Pete dived to his right.

Two other Owls who were actually watching the ball, started to make off towards the Frimley Road to retrieve it! But no, it did eventually come down, and with Pete on the ground, it came down in the back of the Owls net! There was just enough time for the two Owls to return from

the Frimley Road, and for us to try and mount a final couple of attacks to draw level again when the final whistle went, signalling a 4-5 defeat in a compelling, entertaining and closely fought contest.

As the post mortem was conducted, most advice was given to Pete on how to conduct his partnership ‘affairs’ that afternoon and evening, Dave chipped in that he had actually won both halves, and Luvvie still had all of his skin in place.

Generally though, in true Owls fashion, the bar was determined to be a far better place to be as the weather started closing in. Once again in true Owls fashion, despite being slow to start both halves of the match, we were instantly out of the blocks in the bar as well as maintaining

a high level of performance to see off a limited opposition by 3 jugs to nil.

Man of the Match – Building on his solid 1st half performance, ‘Young’ Keith did an excellent job as sweeper in the second half running across the ‘D’ (sometimes with the ball, sometimes

without) to keep that dangerous Marlow striker quiet. Well done Keith.