CHEDDAR WALKING FOOTBALL MATCH REPORT – 29th DECEMBER 2020

 

REDS 2

Tim Richens, Toby Attwood, Tim Youngberg, Scott, Jerry King (1), Chris Underhill, Russell Young (1), Kev Attwood

 

YELLOWS 1

Dave Pople, Paul Rodgers, Brian Getley, Sophie, Steve Henderson, Ben Attwood, Julie Fisher, Shaun Palfrey, Andy Burgess, Ben Chick

 

The Oranges were conspicuous (probably as a result of being easily beaten last week!) by their absence last night at Kings.

But fortunately, an excellent Red team turned up to step in & replace them, and won the match, even though they were outnumbered, as the wily old captain of the Yellow team, Jock, outmanoeuvred his opposite captain, Sprout during the selection process!

Although, it must be said that the younger Young got his revenge later in the game as he smashed the winner past Rodgers, in the goal for the Yellows!

With a number of very young youngsters on display the game was very energetic, which made the post-Christmas fitness levels of the elderly players, hard to keep high!

 

Russell Young started the game looking slightly concerned, less about the lack of numbers on his team, but more in relation to being wary about the arrival of the club's hatchet man - Colin “Wobble” Batt – “Wobble”, also known by some as the “Dartford Destroyer” had inflicted serious injury on Young last week and the Cheddar lad was very concerned about the state of his leg if Batt arrived, turning up in his jeans just in case!!

 

The game itself was a well contested, hard fought match between two teams of equal commitment and very close in terms of abilities.

With neither of the regular goalkeepers, Bob Bunn or Chris King, available the two players who took the number one jersey’s initially were Tim Richens and Dave Pople (seeing Dave back was a big Christmas bonus for all of the regular members of the group, as was the return of the big bald legend a.k.a. Andy Burgess!)

 

The game took its normal course as both teams looked effective defensively, whilst still being a threat on the counter attack and everywhere you looked there seemed to be an Atwood playing!

As well as lots of Attwoods, Hendo had brought his children and despite both Scott and Sophie being very young, the average age of the Henderson clan was around 60!!!

Eventually the game settled to some form of pattern with players or both sides doing a great job and working hard, to get off some of that Christmas excess!

 

Eventually the goalkeepers changed and, this is where the game changed, as Paul Rodgers went in goal for the Yellows and almost immediately conceded two goals, scored by Russell Young (gaining revenge for the earlier cheating of Rodgers when selecting teams!) and also Jerry King popped up with a goal!

It must be said though that Rodgers also made a couple of crucial saves, all the more impressive when you consider he hurt his little “pinkie” when a powerful shot caught him on the end of his fingers!

 

The most impressive statistic of the evening was that Russell Young also went in goal for the Red team and added a clean sheet to his goal at the other end , thus equalling the record set by Tim Richens of scoring and keeping a clean sheet in the same game, quite some achievement to match the Cheddar legend!

As you can tell the report is being written by Tim Richens!!

 

The second half saw a similar pattern but a crucial point in the game saw young Scott go in goal, but the lively youngster was beaten by a shot from some distance by one of the Attwood’s on show,  in this case Ben!

An assist was claimed on this by Paul Rodgers, who insisted that he had started the move which created the goal and therefore he should get an assist!!

Despite much huffing and puffing by the energetic Yellow's team, the Red defence held strong for the rest of the game and when they were occasionally breached the Yellows came up against a very good goalkeeper performance by the newest goalkeeper on show, Timmy Youngberg, who was determined not to get beaten on the night.

 

So the game finished at 2-1, with everyone having had an enjoyable evening, with no rain, although it was very cold! And more importantly it seems that much of that Christmas excess food had been burnt up through the energy provided by many of the players .

 

One bonus for the group was to see its first ever female player, as Julie Rogers come upon to play whilst waiting to do hockey practice and impressed everybody in attendance with her ability and commitment.

The mention of Rogers is very important as the group now has its own ladies’ section, which will start again post COVID-19, and they have also gained a sponsor in DJB Taxis of Cheddar, and the ladies’ group would like to make a huge thank you to Dave Binning for his kind sponsorship for the next three years, this support is so welcomed by local clubs like ours!!

So, expect to see press photos of the ladies in their new kit in the press soon, and hopefully to be playing matches in the not-too-distant future, all thanks to Dave & his company, DJB Taxis!

We must not forget the men’s team sponsors in the tricky times either, so it is vital to stay ready for the re-opening of the Cider Barn in the not-too-distant future and many of the group cannot wait!