PASTY and Thad reflect on last weekend’s derby matches.
DERBY DAYS
In the heady heights of Manx hockey there are often games filled with tense rivalries for bragging rights between teams of the same club. This is something we thought we’d take the opportunity to explore this week. With two Bacchas, Valkyrs and Vikings teams in the Premier League, two Bacchas and Castletown teams in the first division and two Castletown and Ramsey teams in the second division, derbies are often the order of the day.
These games are usually tight, tense affairs which require the utmost focus from all involved. To get into the mindset of one player involved in a derby last weekend, we decided to go behind the scenes of twice-retired blog idol Laurence ‘Fat Cat’ Watterson for his thoughts playing for Southerners v Cosney at the weekend.
So how did he prepare for his biggest match of the season? ‘I get up when I want’ explained Laurence, ‘except this Saturday, when I got rudely awakened by the captain. I put my shinpads on, have a cup of tea and I think about leaving the house’.
Laurence continues ‘I feed the children, I sometimes feed the puppy too, it gives me a sense of enormous wellbeing, and then I’m happy for the rest of the day, safe in the knowledge there will always be a bit of my heart devoted to it’
We have been asked not to mention that the fifth team that Lar has played for all season until he was called up for the fourth team this week actually won the derby, or that he scored an own goal of staggering proportions en route to defeat, so being the responsible bloggers we are, we won’t.
10 GOALS FOR A PINT?
Fancy a frosty pint (J20 for the Colts) from your favourite hockey bloggers? You’re in luck; we are running the same ’10 goals for a drink’ competition as last season on our Facebook page. If you can nominate someone to score 10 or more goals in the Mixed Leagues and they achieve the feat, we’ll provide you with your choice of beverage. If they don’t, you are buying us one back (Pasty’s is a fruit shoot). So far the following nominations have been made so keep your eyes on the scoring charts!
Robin Masson nominated by Sibby Bentley
Chris Hill nominated by Aaron Hannah
Dave Callow nominated by Richard Lepage
Kim Carney nominated by Cassandra Quirk
George Powell nominated by Zara Sweeney
Andy Harding nominated by ‘Slitherin’ Sam Spooner
Mark Castle nominated by Mark Castle*
Jamie Brown nominated by Tom Wilson
Graeme Brown nominated by Laurence Watterson (excluding Graeme’s goals against Lar)
Harry Brindle nominated by Jules Watterson
Elaine Wiseman nominated by Paul Wiseman (awwwww)
Steve Cottier nominated by Stacey Meakin
Andrew Whiting nominated by Phoenix Kneale
Gareth Morris nominated by Andy Whiting
Alex Bell nominated by Jon Whiting
Katy Stopford nominated by Pasty and Thad (we have no idea how the drinks will work here!)
Christian Forbes nominated by Chris Hyde
*Is this for real? [Ed.]
If your pick isn’t there, get yourself on the Facebook page and stake your claim. Competition closes this time next week so get involved for a gamble!
STOPFORD-WATCH
Some would think this feature might be getting tired, but we haven’t yet accomplished our mission to make Katy the most famous Katy Stopford on the whole of the internet. And we don’t have a great deal else to write about so we thought we could probably stretch it out for another week.
This week we asked Katy to provide her own words to summarise her performance but she declined to comment, which is a nice gesture, leaving her team-mates to fill the missing links. They contributed terms such as ‘brilliant’, ‘exemplary’ and ‘superb’.
If you’ve been affected by the issues raised in the above paragraph, or if you have any friends who have delusional or hallucinagenic tendancies please contact, err, Chris Hyde. He’ll sort you out. He’s good like that.
ERRRR... ANAGRAMS
This time last year, on another weekend where we forgot to write down anything entertaining that happened on a Saturday, we wrote a load of anagrams and left you all to sort them out. Similarly bereft of ideas, we’ve decided to do exactly the same thing once again. The first person who posts it on the Pasty & Thad Facebook Page wins the opportunity to do the predictions next week. It’s a privileged position folks...
Here goes, see what you can do with these. They are all well-known names who are involved this year.
Whining Jot
Spotty Fork Ad
Hi, Odd Grandma
Gulp Aloud
A Ninja On Chat
Eats Eve Calmly
Arises Quick
Iron Garlic
Manhole Carver
Loaned Jug
Finally, spare a thought for Mark Bratt. The internet anagram creator we used to create the above managed to find anagrams for every single name we tried, except Mark Bratt. He will spend the rest of his life being completely unable to reorganise the letters of his name in any way remotely humorous.
BRATTISTICS
Speaking of Mr Bratt, he’s well known for giving a detailed analysis of each game in the pub after the match. As a treat, therefore, we’re opening a weekly Statto corner for all the interesting things facts and statistics you may have missed during the week.
BRATT ATTACK: ‘During Ramsey Rookies’ victory over Saracens Sharks at the weekend, hotshot Dan Stevenson scored an impressive six goals. This equates to an average of three goals per half. If he kept up this scoring rate in his next game, he would have scored 12 goals in total.’
PREDICTIONS
Well it turns out that mums don’t always know best, Kirstie finishing someway behind George’s predictions score last season with a meagre six points for the week. Luckily, Pasty was enough of a gentleman to receive the exact same score, showing Saracens stick together.
Top of the pops, however, was Thad who gained almost double his opponents’ scores with an impressive 12, including a correct scoreline in his own game for the second time out of three games...I’m sure there’s something fishy going on.
This week we’ve got a treat in the shape of Michael ‘Giggsy’ Moore. After representing Bacchas last year he’s been thrown to Vikings this year purely to even up the predictions game after they performed so well last year. Despite numerous attempts, he has dug his heels in and does not appear to have yet been thrown back, so we’ll let him have a go...
Have a good ‘un!
Pasty and Thad
P.S. In the absence of any hockey news, please find a photo of an impressive hockey ‘bruiser’, prize for first one in to pastyandthad@manx.net who can identify the player from their injury!
GIGGSY’S PREDICTIONS
Premier League
Castletown Celts 3 v 1 Vikings B
Bacchas B 0 v 4 Valkyrs A
Ramsey A 0 v 3 Vikings A
Valkyrs B 5 v 0 Bacchas A
Division One
Castletown Cushags Colts 1 v 1 Castletown Cammags
Bacchas C 3 v 2 Saracens Sabres
Harlequins A 2 v 2 Bacchas Colts
Vikings C 1 v 3 Valkyrs C
Division Two
Castletown Cosney 1 v 4 Ramsey Rookies
Ramsey Ravens 7 v 0 Vikings D
Saracens Sharks 0 v 3 Harlequins B
Valkyrs D 2 v 1 Castletown Southerners
U16
Harlequins U16 0 v 3 Vikings U16
Valkyrs U16 2 v 1 Ramsey Rascals
PASTY’S PREDICTIONS
Premier League
Castletown Celts 4 v 1 Vikings B
Bacchas B 2 v 6 Valkyrs A
Ramsey A 1 v 3 Vikings A
Valkyrs B 1 v 5 Bacchas A
Division One
Castletown Cushags Colts 0 v 4 Castletown Cammags
Bacchas C 1 v 3 Saracens Sabres
Harlequins A 2 v 0 Bacchas Colts
Vikings C 1 v 3 Valkyrs C
Division Two
Castletown Cosney 0 v 4 Ramsey Rookies
Ramsey Ravens 3 v 0 Vikings D
Saracens Sharks 3 v 2 Harlequins B
Valkyrs D 1 v 2 Castletown Southerners
U16
Harlequins U16 1 v 1 Vikings U16
Valkyrs U16 3 v 4 Ramsey Rascals
THAD’S PREDICTIONS
Premier League
Castletown Celts 3 v 0 Vikings B
Bacchas B 2 v 4 Valkyrs A
Ramsey A 2 v 3 Vikings A
Valkyrs B 1 v 6 Bacchas A
Division One
Castletown Cushags Colts 2 v 1 Castletown Cammags
Bacchas C 4 v 2 Saracens Sabres
Harlequins A 1 v 1 Bacchas Colts
Vikings C 1 v 2 Valkyrs C
Division Two
Castletown Cosney 0 v 5 Ramsey Rookies
Ramsey Ravens 6 v 0 Vikings D
Saracens Sharks 0 v 5 Harlequins B
Valkyrs D 2 v 2 Castletown Southerners
U16
Harlequins U16 1 v 3 Vikings U16
Valkyrs U16 6 v 2 Ramsey Rascals