Red Royals Sting Hornets

With supreme commander Harry Van Dyk away on important matters, and Mario Arnone and Doug Green given temporary power, a revolution was brewing inside the OT4 palace as the game with Gloucester Hornets approached. Commandante Arnone uttered the edict that he would be "disgustingly socialistic when it comes to playing time", and set the wheels in motion for a cultural revolution. Comrade Green ripped a page out of Chairman Mario's Little Red Book and used it to call frequent player changes from the sidelines, but not before installing himself at starting centre forward in place of Marwan Kassis.

As fortune would have it, the weather was sunny and warm, and the frequent changes were needed. Arnone's rigid ideology thus worked, at least for this day.

The unusual lineup first showed success after 8 minutes. While left back and Ukrainian infiltrator Ken Slemko cleverly baffled the Gloucester defense by asking them "The struggle of class against class is a _what_ struggle", right back Michel Fournier launched another of his devastating throw ins from 20 yards out. A wide swath opened in the cogitating Hornets' defense, and Brian Harcombe reacted first, deftly flicking the ball over the advancing keeper, and the Royals were on their way. Political thought faded, and the Royals ran the game, with midfielders Nigel Parker, Graham Cathcart and Matthew Blackwell leading the way.

The Royals had three corners in 15 minutes, and on the third of them, the Gloucester keeper, who had already been forced into a couple of good saves, could only palm the ball away from Harcombe and winger Andy Steele. The ball made its way to the far side, where from a very tight angle, Cathcart beat the retreating keeper, and squeezed the ball into the near corner.

2-0, then, as the first flood of substitutes came on, and immediately Kassis, Brian Mackintosh and Steele, who had dropped back into "the hole" behind the forwards, created more trouble for the Hornets. Their keeper was again called on to make several good saves, keeping out efforts from Kassis (a nice left footed shot from 20 yards), Mackintosh and midfielder of the masses, Riccardo Brun Del Re.

As the half went on, however, the Royals lost their grip on the game, and the Hornets showed good talent in creating their share of chances. Larry Everett, in his last game before his two week vacation at the "ranches" of Nevada, had more saves to make than he is used too, and handled himself with aplomb. The pressure on the defense was fairly strong at times, but Jeff McNamee and Paul Dickins didn't buckle, the latter muttering something about "rearguard action saving the revolution". Jeff just shook his head. Midfield leader Arnone was also forced into defense for much of this period, which was the result of bizarre tactical manoeuvering by Green. This spell of the game coincided with Cathcart sitting on the sideline, sacrificed for the principle of "equality for all" (or was it because he began guffawing during Green's ill-delivered pre-game speech?). Halftime was approaching and the boys were getting tired of the slogans, so they did what they do best - they scored. Nice play involving Blackwell (who had a solid game), Parker and Mackintosh set up Kassis, and he made no mistake from just inside the area. The half closed on this note, and after Arnone and Green promised to shut up, the team noted that there were other good omens for the rest of the game. The opponents were of a good quality, were friendly and not dirty, the referee was quite good, and the Royals were not, for a change missing a raft of chances.

The second half began as the first ended, with play flowing pretty well from one end to the other, and chances were falling to both teams. Two nice saves by Everett kept the shutout, and the Gloucester keeper continued his fine efforts. Steele had a good chance, but uncharacteristically passed when a shot was the better option. At the hour mark, Cathcart seized on a chance from the top of the box, and blasted home a fourth.

This was not a rout, but the Royals looked headed for a comfortable victory. The braintrust thus began thinking about goal difference and its effect on the final standings, plus they felt that Dickins and McNamee deserved a run up front as reward for their fine play at the back.

The player changes involved in this shift brought some disorder to the team, as did Cathcart's decision to come off and rest his still-not-100% legs. The team took a few minutes to settle into a 3-5-2, and once they did, Dickins and McNamee were in midfield, not up front, but eventually the Royals again took control of the game, and put Gloucester under constant pressure. Arnone, back in his role as midfield anchor, kept the Hornets at bay, and distributed well. The little that did get through was admirably handled by the experimental back three of Fournier, Parker and Fergus MacDonald. MacDonald in particular had an excellent game at the back.

A number of chances came to the Royals, but once again the Gloucester keeper showed himself in very good form. He kept out efforts by Harcombe for his second and by Slemko, up on the front line, amongst others. But the best chance fell to McNamee, who, in the dying stages, pounced on a rebound (Oh, rubbish; it was a chip in by Fitless Gitless, ask Jeffrey, can you wonder why nothing in these reports is believed? Ed.) and put it past the goalie, only for the Hornets excellent sweeper Yamashita to clear the ball off the line.

For all their pressure, the Royals could score no more, but it was a good win, everybody got a run, and the game was played in good spirits.

We were lucky to have a very good crowd out, as Laura had a night off from her catering, and Cathi Fournier (who slipped up and shouted "Honey!" to Mike once or twice during the game) brought out her daughter Erin. Plus, Marwan brought out his two daughters, his friend Fiona and her brother. In the last 20 minutes, when the Royals were playing their best (and Andy was on coincidentally on the sideline), Andy's daughter Elaine deigned to come out and join us. Once the game was over, she added the only moment of discord to the evening by complaining about the selection of beer on hand. I'm sure she'll be bringing it this week, guys. Post-game, we got to join the Royals OT3 for their annual BBQ, and good fun was had all around, Brun Del Re entertaining all with his modernist didgeridoo playing, and Dickins trying an Irish Haka, a move which resulted in the police being called.

Back at the pub, we communicated news of the good win to Supreme Commander Van Dyk, and he was pleased. He ended the evening by pronouncing the political-revolution-in-a-teapot "an experiment in democracy" and smiled proudly, looking just for a minute like a Dutch Lenin.