By Alan Dellow From the Lards Team List: -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [Leeds Lards] Worldnet 2010 Date: Mon, 26 Jul 2010 09:33:32 -0000 From: alan dellow <[email protected]> Reply-To: [email protected] To: [email protected]
First of all thanks to Betty, Roger, Christine and the gang for the organising of yet another superb weekend at Boddy Hall. At a time when I should be sitting in the garden complaining about kids making too much noise I dragged myself to yet another Worldnet....... There were two surprises thus year, First I decided to announce my none-retirement before Worldnet thereby ensuring my place in the squad in 2011 (if selected) and secondly we played the whole tournament without having to borrow players from anyone else. Many thanks to all those Lards, old and new, that turned up and made it yet another excellent weekend... Some of the following details may be hazy/wrong but that will be because of the fatigue, oh and Guiness. My weekend started with my arrival on Friday night and a welcoming Guiness from Mr Bookcock, joined by Dave Wollmer we spent the evening discussing tactics and new revolutionary formations that would change the face of football as we know it. An early night, well early morning, in preparation for the weekend... Saturday morning dawned bright and warm in West Yorkishire as the Lards assembled, strangely, in time for the 11:00 start for the game against RC Lens. Coach Woolmer remembering our conversations of the previous night plumped for 4-4-2....... We played well against Lens and were probably the better side but we were guilty of wasting chances plus their keeper had a stormer. One triple save in the first half was excellent.... We were on top when a long clearance from their keeper was running towards the corner flag with our left back in attendance and was prime for the back of the stands type clearance, one rush of blood later and their centre forward had robbed him of possession and scored from a tight angle, one nil down at half time we pressurised all the second half but once again their keeper was excellent. Still not sure how he pusged one shot round the post froma point blank range volley. We couldnt get past him and so lost the first game 1-0, plenty of time to recover tho... 12:40 saw the second game against Southampton. Once again we were slightly the better side, creating but not taking chances, they broke quickly down the right and a good low cross found a player at the far post unmarked, 0-1. Second half and we equalised with a well taken goal from Mark Whitfield, slotting in from an angle, and we were on top. Then a freak goal, The Lards left black cleared a ball, a Southampton player blocked the clearance it it screamed into the net off a combination of the bar and post, still not sure how that happened but 2-1 down and once again we were up against it and once again we just came up short, unable to get the equaliser. Played 2 Lost 2. A long break until the Airdre game so a few of us, in true Lards tradition, went to the pub for lunch, Dave W and myself went for the light option of sandwiches whilst Dean Marshall had the diet option of giant Yorkie filled with sausages, mash and gravy..... A couple of beers disappeared than back to the must win (or was it) game. We had worked out either way we had to play at 8 on Sunday morning and that if we didn't win we would play Exeter the next day (they had scored 1 and conceeded 17 in their three games). To be fair we were second best throughout this game but thanks to our keeper and the ref* we managed a 0-0 draw, so W0 D1 L2 at the end of first day. * Airdre actually scored, a punt into the box was spilled by the keeper into the net, Airdre wheeled away celebrating and the Lards stood heads in hands until the ref pointed for a foul!!!! He actually said to the Airdre player that he had jumped for the ball with his eyes closed when challenging the keeper so it was foul! With the final game on day one finished everyone agreed to get an early night in preparation for the 8:00 am start against Exeter. Showered and changed, Headingley it was. The Skyrack closing coincided with us departing for our beds, nice and early then. An early rise and at the pitch at 7:40 to see a whole Lards squad, including a couple of new lads replacing people who could only make the Saturday. The game against Exeter was played like a game played at 8:00 am on a Sunday morning, it was pretty poor but enlivened by a good run and excellent finish from Ian Loman, a scrappy one-nil win with a few scares out us into the last 16 (it's not often the Lards get 2 games on a Sunday). At 11:00 we played Everton who had managed a lie in because they finished 2nd in their group. Everton were a good side, they knocked the ball about well in midfield, played it wide when needed then blasted things forward to their forwards so hard an Olympic sprinter would have struggled to have caught them. Mark Whitfield notched his second of the weekend to give the Lards a 1-0 lead. Two minutes later a long throw into the box was hooked towards the far post where an Everton player was standing chatting to some mates in what appeared to be an offside position (offside to everyone to Stevie Wonder running the line unfortuanately) and it was 1-1. The game followed much the same pattern from Everton, pass, pass, pass, pass then a long ball to our keeper as the forwards stood hands on hips aghast. 1-1 at full time and it was 10 minutes of golden goal extra time kicking one way. Dave Woolmer duly lost the toss so we played uphill against tha wind for 10 minutes. We had the better chances in extra-time but neither side could convert anything and so to penalties. We lost 6-5 on pens after 9 pens each, the scorers were (I think) Dellow, Woolmer, Marshall, Pollard and Whitfield. Special mention has to go to Chris Pollard in goal who was excellent in goal in the penalty shoot out and made some great saves to keep us in it. The 30 minute game had lasted 60 and Everton were told they were playing in 10 minutes on a pitch over the dual carriageway, a good 15 mins walk from where we were... They lost on pens in that one! Halifax won the vets competition, QPR the main bowl and Bradford the main cup.... An excellent weekend all round, many thanks for all that made it possible, the organisers and the players that gave up their weekend (especially their Sunday lie-in) to play for the Lards. See you all next year.... _______________________________________________ the Leeds List is an unmoderated mailing list and the list administrators accept no liability for the personal views and opinions of contributors. 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