A great victory that ended in a brawl

Quarter 1.    Shute shoots and scores after 16 secs.    Holah fouls and is removed from the fray after a further 30 secs and again removed from the fray after a further 90 secs for a similar offence.  Narwhals strong 11 starters had dwindled to a bare 8 with only 136 secs of play, given the Match Day Ms occasioned by Dario’s oncoming illness (I may be feeling ill later) and Finch senior’s non-appearance and silence on all wavelengths.  Looking forward to explanations and doctor’s reports.  We also had to man the table.

But undeterred the great 8 soldiered on, determined to build the 1-nil lead into a powerful win we surged forward.   Another goal by Shute put us into 2-0 lead halfway through the quarter.

James Smith scored his first official goal for the Narwhals, but this was just the start for him. More of this later.   Poor defending allowed the Blue Marlins back into the game and by the end of Q1, we were all square at 4-4.

Quarter 2.   A blur of thrashing Marlin fins brought three quick goals for the visitors 4-7 ahead.  A triumph of activity from Shute and DeMari dragged Narwhals back to contention, despite a delightful miss by DeMari who, having turned his defender, sunk him out of sight and with not even the goalie anywhere near managed to sky his shot high and left, while the call of fluffer resounded round the stadium.   Half time 8-8.  All to play for.   Whoever was manning the table managed to put half the third quarter events in the second quarter tabulation, which had the writer confused for a while.  But I had done the exact same thing when I last did the table.

Quarter 3.   The majors were stacking up denuding our limited numbers of our team reducing us  to playing without fouling so obviously.  Holah on 2 majors decided to do the table rather play in Q2.  However he returned to the white water and received his third major at the end of Q3.  Back to the table for Holah.  But by that time the tide had turned in our favour courtesy of the youthful James Smith, who, despite a few wobbles scored two delightful goals, supported by Adam, Gamble and Shute. James first hat trick in a Narwhals skin is worth celebrating.   The first of many we believe. 6 goals in one quarter while the blue fin tuna steaked their claim with just 2.  It stood at 14-10 going into the last quarter.

Quarter 4.    But Narwhals reputation for successfully fouling the opposition and not getting caught was beginning to fray the tempers of the opposition.  Dirty deeds were afoot.  The Tuna steaks #2 was clearly frustrated at losing and heads were beginning to butt, elbows were raining down on young Finches head and the referees placed their bets on it being our fault.  So with Holah permanently dismissed, young Finch going the same way and Gamble on 2, Narwhals hung on at one end while DeMari celebrated fatherhood with three from the pit putting the icing on the soggy cake.   18-11 it finished, the last few seconds of the game resulting in an operatic duet in Italian between Demari and the unlikely named Italian tuna steak, McCartney, and a few ineffectual blows between Shute and McCartney, while young Finch nursed his wounds and Shute kicked his own goalie in the nuts.

A win for Narwhals against the Blue Sardines, while the referees whistled an end to the game as the fracas erupted and washed their hands of it all saying that what we do in our own time is our own problem.

Man of the match was given to James Smith for his stunning hattrick.  Demari and Shute scored more but they have won this accolade before.

Moment of the match went to James for his second goal which seemed to fly off the hand like a rocket.

Fluffer was a toss-up between Holah for his many and unambiguous majors, Smith for his shocking man up pass and DeMari for his miss in front of goal, but we can’t let James have all three and Demari scored 5.  So Holah gets it.   

MDMs for Dario and Matt.

Forza Narwhali