Nothing To Separate Vintage and Reading Rustics
By Paddy Tripp
Vintage 2 – 2 Reading Rustics
Team: (all Vintage unless detailed) Frost (Magnets), Harding, Bishop (OC’s), Kumar (Magnets), Silverleaf, Dunn, Abdullah (Nomad), Cheng (Magnets), Beaney C (Magnets), Lowe, Hitch, Waller (Magnets), Wright D (OC’s)
Umpires: Borrow & Reynolds
Scorers: Wright D, Dunn.
Another mixture but less need for introductions. Reading introduced their team early and registered their age group to be over 70 – or so they said! But my mind said that we levelled it by bringing players back to hockey etc and refinding their touch, which they can only do on a competitive pitch.
The first half was pretty well balanced with us scoring first with a well struck shot from Derek Wright but then, as is fairly normal, we relaxed and then, as is fairly normal, they equalised and cheekily went ahead but it still looked an even game. Mike Silverleaf made an excellent run from right half to the circle but sadly failed to convert.
Half time and some solid advice from Ru and off we went again but we did it with more purpose. Our passing and positional play improved. Silverleaf tweaked a muscle so we were down to 12 but we fought on. Certainly it showed the benefit of having played together for many years but we fought on. Rob Dunn was given free rein to attack – a masterstroke! – he scored!
A sporting game until one of their players received a card – the first I have seen in a Grandmasters game – but the oppo seemed to think it was correct.
Decent social and a fun chat to finish.