"The Rabblers" 3 Christ Church FC Old Boys Travel Club 3
at Coldharbour Sportsground, Chapel Farm Road, Mottingham, SE9
In the early days of the last century it wasn’t uncommon for the privileged & educated from the university towns of Oxford & Cambridge to set up missions in our inner city areas of Bermondsey, Peckham & the like to bring pleasure to the humdrum lives of the poor. And whilst times have moved on in the one hundred years or more since, albeit with a lot of their work being wasted in the east end across the water, today, in the modern twenty-first century, the vastly differing class and culture of ourselves from “The Rabblers” crossed and intertwined we played host to the academics of Christ Church College, Oxford.
Or to be exact a group of their old boys, who play football for fun, just as we do: Christ Church FC Old Boys Travel Club. Presumably so named, as like us, they like to travel across Europe to play football too. Not a bad thing either, as we will be ‘nicking’ some of their footballing contacts in Germany & Portugal for future reference!
We’ve played some ‘strange’ outfits over the years, and some ‘rough’ ones too! But I doubt if we’ve ever playing anyone as posh as this lot! You almost expected them to say ‘after you, Claude!’ as you went for the ball, such were their good manners! Maybe I exaggerate slightly, but then one of my proudest accolades,many moons ago, was to be called an ‘inverted snob’ by an Oxford chap, when I was ranting on about posh people. Once I got home & actually looked up what ‘inverted’ meant in the dictionary I was quite proud of myself! But I digress…
Officially this is our last game of the 2007/08 season, though the football never ends for us. All hope of a win evaporated as we saw the scholars warming up, they looked as though they knew what they were doing! Following on from our last win against the ‘Ladyboys’ we’d have to be on top form to get a result here.
But before the small matter of the football both teams stood around the centre circle to remember lifelong Hamlet fan 72 year old Brian Weber, whose funeral was on Friday afternoon. A fitting gesture to a great bloke & truly ‘one of our own’. A big thank you to the Christ Church chaps for agreeing to this.
So it was now time for the game to commence, but not before honourary Captain for the day Nicolas Lucas has called ‘heads’, or whatever that is in French, having made the 560 mile round journey from his home town Namur, in Belgium, to play today. They say that you don’t have to be mad to support Dulwich, but it helps. I think there is no doubt at all about the craziness of Nicolas!
And while this was a wonderful match to watch it really was a ‘game of two halves, Brian!’ With all of the first half honours going to our boys in Pink ‘n’ Blue.
We took the lead through…well as much as Ian Gannon was desperate to claim the goal, I’m afraid it can go down as nothing other than an oggie. If this was ice hockey, maybe, but it’s the middle of flaming June, and we play football I’m afraid. And deep down he knows it. In his own words: “I can’t really claim it, but at my age I don’t get to score many anymore so I will”. What actually happened was he turned one of their players, knocked the ball across the area, past the keeper, only for one of their chaps to put into his own net. But they all count, no matter who scores! Our next goal certainly had the last touch by a Hamlet man. Again Ian was in on the act, playing the ball for James O’Shaughnessy to tap in. A wonderful Fathers Day present for his dad Mick, controlling things from the touchline. So much so it was all the old man got from him for Fathers Day!
It was while the goals were flying in that you realised these weren’t the usual run of the mill opponents for us. As we extended our lead one of their cohorts tried to gee them up from the touchline with the words: “Come on lads! What would Churchill do in this situation?” To be honest I have no idea what Winnie would have done, but hazarding a guess, with a few of us being trade unionists out there, he’d probably have us shot, so just as well he wasn’t in charge for them! All these bizarre calls were rubbing off on us, because at one point our keeper Shaun Dooley exhorted: “Come on Dulwich! Keep our structure!” Eh? If we ever had structure to start out with our nickname would be 'Twin Towers' not 'The Rabblers'!
With seconds to go before the interval we added a third, thanks to an exquisite through ball from within our own half by Steve Rickerby, which pinpointed Chris Garrett perfectly, who took the ball forward & scored. There was barely time for the kick off before the referee blew for the break.
The interval seemed shorter than usual, but we were still as organised & as professional in our outlook as ever, as you can see!
We may not have all been bubbling with optimism before the start, but though three nil might seem flattering, it was deserved. How things were to change. So quickly! Perhaps our ‘biggest mistake’ is to chop and change & give everyone a run out who wants one, & several older legs were thrown on at the start of the second half. And within fifteen minutes or so of it it was even stevens! But in truth that’s not a mistake at all, but something we should be proud of, where results are secondary to enjoyment & inclusion of all Hamlet fans, regardless of age &/or ability, indeed it is the very thing that makes ‘The Rabblers’ special.
But before their comeback commenced we had a gilt edged chance to extend our lead. James O’Shaughnessy had a shot saved by the keeper, who parried it out to the feet of the usually dependable Larry Marsh. But instead of hitting anywhere into a gaping net, he politely passed it back into the keeper’s grateful hands. After the match in the bar, one person was cruelly overheard to say that ‘even Gareth would have scored that!’ Ouch!
Then came the educated fightback from the graduates. The first was delicately lobbed over the advancing keeper, & before we had a chance to regroup, about a minute later there appeared to be a mix-up in our defence, and to was 3-2! Cue a rallying cry from their touchline: “ Always believe in your goal Christ Church”. Not quite echoed by our sideline comment of “For fuck sake, sort it out Dulwich!” Well you can take the boy out of Peckham…
Well we did start to sort things out, but not before conceding the equaliser. After that we finally did start to re-group, and get back into the match. In truth we didn’t deserve to lose, so a draw was probably fair, but then they no doubt thought they should have won, having staged such a superb turnaround.
The remainder of the game was end to end stuff, with both teams having chances. Alex Bushell pushed forward a few times, in his first appearance of the season, having been away for his last year at Leeds University, & went close. Christ Church had a shot, which ricocheted off the bum of Nicolas Lucas, & we then played the ball up the other end, where a shot from James O’Shaughnessy was only agonizingly inches wide of the post. There was still time for the Oxford brigade to chance their luck with a powerful long range shot, only to be thwarted by Shaun Dooley tipping the ball over the bar; another sterling performance from him between the sticks.
And so the final whistle went, and after a heartfelt ‘three cheers’ from both camps, and the obligatory team photos it was time to retire to the bar.
All friends together...
And on our own:
Back row(left to right): Ian Gannon; James O'Shaughnessy; Andy Tucker; Phil Baker; Shaun Dooley; Nicolas Lucas; Steve Rickerby; Larry Marsh; Mick O'Shaughnessy.
Front row (l. to r.): Paul Verrico; John Prendergast; Chris Tabrett; Chris Garrett; Ferenc Morath; Alex Bushell.
The game was played in a great spirit, and they were worthy opponents for us. Hopefully this match will be the start of a long friendship between the two sides, and with a bit of luck, we will be able to go up to Oxford some time next season to play a return fixture.
To finish, hopefully the injury to Ian Gannon is not as bad as he fears. He hobbled off in the second half, having hurt his foot, in the same spot where he had previously broken it. Fingers crossed it’s not long term, & he’s fit to play in our tour games in Estonia & Finland at the end of July.
“The Rabblers”: Shaun Dooley; Alex Bushell; Steve Rickerby; Lawrence Marsh; Andy Tucker; Ferenc Morath; Chris Garrett; Chris Tabrett; Nicolas Lucas; James O’Shaughnessy; Ian Gannon. Subs: John Prendergast; Phil Baker; Paul Verrico.
