Football - Match Report by Mr Day

A man was walking along the beach one day. Ahead he noticed another, older man picking up a starfish that had become stranded on the sand and throwing it back into the sea.

“Why do you bother?” the man asked him. “The beach goes on for miles and countless starfish get stranded every day. You can’t really make a difference.”

The old man looked at the starfish in his hand and then he threw it to safety among the waves. “I can make a difference to this one,” he replied.

Countless children feel stranded at school. For some Calder House can make a real difference.

Tuesday, 02 February 2010 00:00

Whereas Mr Perks had the advantage of taking our gnarled savvy U13 veterans to Grittleton my task was that much harder here as our young raw recruits, many of whom playing their very first representative match, prepared to take our experienced opponents on in football.

Led by our very own Sergeant Major Harvey, our recruits nervously prepared for the match. One or two had requested at the last minute not to play as nerves had got the better of them but with a few kind words of encouragement they took to the field in readiness to take on the opposition.

Harvey won the toss and chose sides and for 15 minutes Calder Cougars defended for their lives. Bodies were thrown in the way of shots, last-ditch tackles were made and our lines were cleared time and time again. Harvey was majestic in goal. Tom and Alex were rock like in defence and the midfield of Erin, Sam and Jamie all played their part in keeping Grittleton out. Our two strikers, Matthew and Lucas, tracked back to support as much as possible.

At half time the boys were exhausted. For 15 minutes they had used every part of their body to keep shots at bay; legs, heads, torsos were all bruised and battered from the resilient defence.

A reshuffle was needed! Mathew and Lucas moved to shore up the midfield leaving Sam as our out and out striker. Grittleton immediately took advantage of our reshuffle to score three quick goals. Instead of letting our heads drop Harvey inspired the boys to fight back and thanks to some quick thinking Sam managed to grab two great goals to stun Grittleton. At 3-2 we were back in with a chance……

The match seesawed back and forth with Grittleton unfortunately scoring more goals to come out on top. The boys realised that they had come up against a very strong team but had played their hearts out to give their opponents a tough game. As parents enjoyed a much-earned cup of tea the two teams mixed well as they discussed the game and the merits of the Jaffa Cake over the Bourbon cream.

The boys will learn from this and gained much from the experience. With two further matches against Wycliffe and Monkton coming up the scene is set for our raw recruits to develop into the veterans who were so successful at Grittleton.

Andrew Day