This evening, Noel and Nancy had organised for us all to go ice skating and play some ice hockey, so trooper that I am, and envigorated by my success skiing today, I strapped on my brace and got right down to it!
Needless to say, we brave soldiers of The Annex were winners of the knock out tournament, with two resounding wins, 4 - 0 Vs. Cougar / The Nest and 3 - 2 against Cedar. Admittedly, the main reason we won was the unrivalled skill of Mr. Will "wags" Wagstaffe, who played Ice Hockey for Plymouth University during his time there. However, I like to think of him as Marlon Brando in The Godfather: clearly the best individual, but with a strong supporting cast.
Some highlight for me:
In the first game I hung back a little, not wanting to get involved in the melees around the puck, but I made some (obviously invaluable) interceptions while chanting DE-FENCE! DE-FENCE!
In the second game I was much more involved and was pleased with a couple of moments of puck control on the left wing. At one point, one of their players broke through and pushed the puck in front of himself to shoot, but I heroically dived across the ice to knock the puck away from him with my stick. However, my favourite moment was when I received the puck on the left, evaded one of their attackers, brought it forward and took it past a defender to be clear on goal. I pushed the puck to my right and in front, raised my stick and brought it down with tremendous power . . . which was wasted, as I swung to the right of the puck, missing it completely, and the momentum from the swing carried me away from it, and the moment was gone. Next time. Next time.
I had a lot of fun, as did everyone, and Noel and Nancy had also laid on some Baileys-hot chocolate for us all to enjoy by the fire that Noel fuelled generously.
So many thanks to Nancy and Noel for organising the evening, and bloody good show to everyone who picked up a stick and got involved. Cracking.
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