ORD mood

Yaaay! Going to ORD loh!! Going to start clearing leave loh! Going to get my pink IC back in a mth loh!! Going to escape from Prison (i.e. Cantonment Complex!!) loh! Can finally get time to play sports again loh!!

Team ORA Div 2; Div 4 champions 2004.

The turnout for our very 1st league fixture this season, 6th May.
A bunch of passionate hockey players, meeting every weekend for the friendship born more than a decade ago, and for the love of the beautiful game.

A historic moment in the sport of hockey!

A moving moment in the history of the sport of hockey indeed it was last Sat. I rushed down for our fixture against the Tornadoes at 4.30pm. As I joined my team-mates who were changing up and exchanging the usual “Yo, long time no see man! How’ve you been?” it turned out that I was only the 6th player to show up, and the match was to kick off in 10 mins time. We were in grave danger of conceding a walkover for this fixture. But that wasn’t what we were most fearful of; instead, it was the hefty fine the league committee would impose on us that was sending concerned frowns around the team.

Fortunately, abt 5 mins later our goalie, Bhavan, and one more chap turned up. We now had 8, the legal minimum to start a match. Tornadoes were already on the pitch warming up since like before we all got there……and they had a full squad, 18 players. Boy, were we in for a whipping or what!

But wait! The moment that inspired this blog-post has yet to come! Shahrom was caught in a traffic jam and so wasn’t there with the keepers pads yet. As it is, our keeper is an ikan bilis of the highest order. Put him between the posts without pads, and he could probably hide entirely behind a hockey stick. League rules state explicitly that a keeper has to be padded-up to play in goal. At a bare minimum, he has to at least have his helmet to protect his head from the hockey ball. It was 4.30pm, still no Shahrom. Standby for Bhavan’s illustrious moment in the history of hockey……a sight which I’ve never seen in all of my 14 years of playing hockey……Bhavan turned up in goal with his head protected all right…….with MY MOTORCYCLE HELMET!!

Sad to say, I didn’t have my camera at hand to snap that historic moment. The lads tried hard to restrain their laughter but didn’t meet with much success. We didn’t have much of a choice, it was the only way we would be allowed to start the match and not concede a walkover. The referees for the match must’ve been stunned beyond disbelief, and one of them just couldn’t wipe that grin off his face for the 1st 15 mins of the match no matter how hard he tried. So, that’s how the match kicked off, 8 of us against 11 Tornadoes, fully equipped to blow us away.

The Tornadoes started the match in a highly complacent mood, confident of whipping the living daylights out of us. Can’t really blame them, we looked quite a joke. 8 of us, including Bhavan who was by now attracting the attention of swimmers from the neighbouring swimming pool…. without any warming up…. and some fat boys who were past their glory days of dominating schools hockey. Hehehe….but write off a bunch of Rafflesians at your own risk, as the Tornadoes soon found out. We started off stringing some fluid passes and trying to hold the ball to stall for time while the rest of our team-mates who were on the way got there. The Tornadoes laid off with an air of confidence that it was only a matter of minutes before they started tearing us to shreds. We gave them the perfect present for that cockiness when our very own Tamil Tiger, Pavi, wheeled into the D with some exquisite samba(l) skills and slammed in a cracker of a shot to open the scoring for this 8-man Rafflesian team. Subsequently, we played some of the best hockey we’ve played this season, with impressive play-ups. But our opponents superiority in numbers and Bhavan’s unprotected state soon gave in, and in quick succession they put in 3 soft goals. Fortunately, right after that Shahrom and Kahar arrived and we now had the keeper pads and 2 more players. The Tornadoes were a team quite high in the league table, and as such, despite our reinforcements they expected to continue their demolition process. After Bhavan got his CORRECT helmet, and the rest of his pads, we kept the Tornadoes at bay all the way till the last 10 mins of the 2nd half, when they managed one more short-corner goal to wrap the game at 4-1.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Bhavan gets interviewed by some international hockey mag for his unconventional choice of hockey keeper’s helmets for the 1st 20 mins of the 1st half :P Hahaha, man, who said hockey was a dangerous sport? It generates so many moments of stress-relief like this day did. Oh god, what would I do without hockey?

Happy 21st Birthday Anil George Mathew!

Well well....look who's all grown up and an adult now :P
Its that mallu punk of a buddy of mine, Anil, from Edinburgh, Scotland...haha..
Well Anil, I wish you all the best in life as you enter this new phase in your life...premature adulthood...hehehe...but that doesn't mean you now have the license to let your already wild hormones run berserk dude! Keep a leash on it, aight? Too bad you ain't here for us to strip you, douse you in confetti & chilli sauce, and throw you out onto the UCC open carpark.....hehe......thank your lucky stars..

That said, the No.7 Man now proposes a toast..... to a good pal, and our friendship.

Take care buddy, and best wishes again.

p.s.: I'm really reeeaaalllly tempted to post a pic here of you that would have immense blackmailing potential, but I'm gonna exercise all the restrain I can possibly manage, and not make life too difficult for you...hahaha!

p.p.s: And while we're at birthday wishes, I might as well wish the mighty nation of India a Happy Independence Day as well! Be merry all Indians! Billa billa India!