As I arrived at the clubhouse at 1:45pm on Saturday, I was greeted by differing receptions. Nappy had a discerning look of condemnation furrowed into his brow, whilst Sharkey senior broke out into a torrent of laughter (probably just the demons in his head). Nappy then told that the meet was meant to be at 1:30pm and I was holding the whole team up – oh well, breakfast has to take precedent in these situations.

Anyway, it was only a short trip up the A406 to Stationers – we couldn’t possibly get lost……. That is unless you have the irrepressible Sharkey as your navigator. He directed me, not to the big green playing field indicated on the map, but to a very nice looking inner city junior school, with a field the size of a postage stamp. Why did I pull the short straw? A quick u-turn later and we were at the ground.

A quick inspection of the pitch, confirmed our suspicions that the lack of rain had made the ground harder than a love child of Lenny Mclean and Lara Croft. That coupled with the undulating turf, was going to play into the Parks tactics of ‘get the ball down and play football’.

A special function must have been triggered in each of Parks 11 players, upon the first half starting. It was like we should have been playing Premiership football. Everyone was passing the ball to feet, there were 5 or 6 options when anybody had the ball and everybody was running!!! Murdoch had the first effort after about 10 mins. He turned his man on the half way line and hit a dipping, 40 yard volley which caused the keeper to tip over. After sustained pressure, Cook went down the left wing and crossed/pee rolled the ball across the box. Everyone seemed to mistake the ball for the plague, and left well alone, except for Knapman, who managed to drive the ball past about 8 players into the bottom corner. 1-0.

Just before half time Knapman got one on one with his marker. He turned him left, he turned him right and then he turned to his sand wedge and lofted the ball wide of the goal. Going in at half time we felt we should have been 2 or 3 up. Time to press home the advantage in the second half….. I don’t think so.

As for the second half - not much to report really. They bombarded us with long balls which Raven and Gaughan dealt with easily. Bernstein and Windy were always good outlets on the right hand side whilst Murdoch was having his best game for the 1st XI. Sharkey and Collins looked solid in the middle whilst having the left foot of Bob Berry at left back was a welcome addition. No goals in the second half, no real chances for either side and not much to report. Ali once again kept a clean sheet, which is more than can be said of Sharkey last Friday Night.

Cup fever, hits Parks this week, with the visit of the unbeaten EBOG’s to Oakfield to contest the OBC. I can feel the cup winging its way to the trophy cabinet already.

Scorers: Nappy
Man of the Match: M.Sharkey
Team: MacCallum, Bernstein, Berry, Gaughan, Raven, Cook, Sharkey, Collins, Miller, Knapman, Murdoch

Report by Jon Raven