Peashooter Fight at the KRAC Corral

Saturday 13 March

Over 35s 2 v Kobe Regatta and Athletic Club 2

A desperate fight between officers of the law and YC&AC cowboys

The KRAC Corral, viewed from a local saloon the day before the deadly football showdown.

The first posse of YC&AC cowboys rode into Kobe on Friday the 13th, three of them aboard the Chu-Hi Express from Cashville. Diners in local steakhouse Miyasu ducked for cover as the saloon doors banged open and none other than Boz Holliday, Butch Plater and Ginger the Kid swaggered in, pistols cocked and plainly loaded.

The feared outlaws from the Eastern capital loudly greeted their YC&AC pardners, heretofore inconspicuously seated in a snug corner of the restaurant, chucked their bags against the wall, and settled down for what might very well be the finest steak dinner in the West.

As the mood eventually mellowed, talk turned from the complexities of Japanese train travel etiquette to the humdrum matter of YC&AC’s chances in the Interport sporting weekend ahead.

Some of us feared a testing start…

Daaarts!

First up on Friday night was the darts. YC&AC had triumphed over KR&AC on our own familiar boards in 2009, but on the Club’s previous visit to Kobe in 2008, an admittedly highly intoxicated young team suffered a humbling reverse against a crack KR&AC outfit.

Many of the same Kobe players were again in evidence as the YC&AC posse strode into the bar, fingers twitchily poised over our darts holsters.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BASTARD! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! NYAA!

Quick on the draw and merciless in the execution, YC&AC finished the contest in a flash. Kobe’s arrow flingers were simply no match for the sharp-shooting Yokohama outlaws. Victories in both team games, all four doubles matches, and all but two of the eight singles matches saw us blaze to a remarkable 12-2 triumph, our second biggest margin of victory ever, after a 14-3 in 1991. Marcel the Sundance Kid and Calamity Alex were the Club’s only casualties.

Over 35s Captain Gordon Deas would later be awarded the MVP pennant by Darts Captain Cynthia Groen for some inspired darts on the night. Butch Plater was excellent also in winning all his games, while Buffalo Buddy was another from the Fives to inflict maximum suffering.

First blood to the YC&AC. 1-0

Captains Will (KR&AC) and Cynthia (YC&AC) pose with the final scoreboard

The Reverse Hustle

Saturday morning, after a breakfast that wasn’t quite the fry-up for which some of us trekked many miles, we were back in the KR&AC bar for the pool.

Just a few days prior to the Interport, KR&AC had installed a bar-size pool table at the far end of the clubhouse, where in 2008 the YC&AC darts team had slumped on sofas for much of the weekend. YC&AC snooker captain me offered to help the KR&AC break the table in. Being squeezed for time and with limited numbers of players on hand, we agreed to make the competition a first-to-five games, sudden death affair.

YC&AC stormed into an early 3-0 lead with stylish wins from Petr Vyvial, Yachi Altinbay and Chris Harrington. Regular snooker players myself and Gordon however found it difficult to adjust to the small-table format (!), and though Simon Warburton came close and Gordon won the second of his two matches to make it 4-4 overall, Kobe were in the ascendancy when Buddy Ferrie entered the room…

Unfamiliarity with the local rules sadly contributed to Buddy’s downfall in the decider and a crushing come-from-in-front defeat overall.

4-5 in the pool, then.

1-1 in the Interport.

Shuttlecooocks!

Petr Vyvial. What a sportsman this fellow is. He doesn’t just play every sport, he’s good at them all. After quickly dispatching his opponent in the pool, Petr trotted upstairs for the lunchtime badminton competition, where he, Greg, Simon and Yachi would face typically excellent KR&AC opposition including a former Indian state champion.

YC&AC haven’t won in the badminton since 2002, and it is to Petr and Yachi’s enormous credit that they took one game at least off Kobe in this most difficult of Interport fixtures.

Pride in a 1-3 defeat.

Yachi and Petr on the way to an exciting victory in a close-fought, high-quality match
1-2 Kobe in the Interport overall then, as we moved outside for the football.

Peashooters!

YC&AC and KR&AC Firsts

Just two games to go, and the pressure was right on the Firsts to win their match and keep the Interport alive. The ref seemed to know it and unnecessarily took all the strain upon himself, flashing cards to three of our players inside the first fifteen minutes, all for nothing infringements.

The converted penalty in this spell for an unavoidable handball (yellow card) meant the Firsts had a long uphill battle ahead of them on Kobe’s expansive sandy pitch. For the first thirty minutes Kobe were like a rash over the YC&AC midfield, but eventually space opened up and the Firsts steadily grew into the game.

Matt Wallace deservedly drew YC&AC level in the first half with a fiercely struck right-foot volley from 16 yards out after a battling run and fine cross from the excellent Neil Shonhard down the right.

YC&AC shaded the second half for possession, with Ginger the Kid increasingly influential down the left, but Kobe’s shufflers snaffled a headed winner late on, and that was that for another year. You can read Joe Takeda’s report of the game here. Well played, lads. Good effort.

1-3, then, and as the Silver Machine rolled out for the showpiece event of the Interport, we had nothing to play for but pride. Well, that and the Over 35s Champions Chalice.

Plus one and missing Sada… Almost the starting line up, if memory serves

Narrow victors over the KR&AC in a feisty corresponding fixture at YC&AC last year but well beaten in Kobe in 2008, the Machine knew we’d be in for another battle to retain the Chalice.

Missing numerous influential regulars, we were grateful to some big names for helping out in this important fixture. Stepping in from the Seconds to add some steel at the back were Tim Williams and Steve McKie, while Graeme Lane and Phil Denham came in to add some quality and craft further forward. In goal we were delighted to welcome into the fold erstwhile First Team keeper Nobuhiro Koka.

The first verbals of what would become a grudgeful affair were exchanged pre-kickoff when the KR&AC’s Alan Gibson tried to smuggle Kobe’s young First Team star into the line up. Warned repeatedly that Kobe would forfeit the game if the captain did not remove said player, the integrity of the competition was eventually preserved and, more importantly, our chances increased.

Fifteen or so minutes in, KR&AC somehow found themselves in front after a minor calamity down the right side of our defense. Possession was lost in a dicey area and the ball was then worked across to the edge of the box, where a loitering Gibson shanked a shot off his shinpad that wobbled into the top left hand corner past the despairing dive of Koka in goal.

Undaunted, we soon pulled one back. Excellent football down our right flank saw the ball ushered across the pitch toward Marc Bailey, who gave it one more to allow an on-jogging me a clean shot on goal, 14 yards out and central. Typically the keeper somehow got something on the shot, but I latched on to the parry and at the third attempt bundled the ball over the line. 1-1.

Third quarter, and KR&AC moved ahead again with another squirty goal. One of their boys did Steve McKie for skill in our box and proceeded to the byline, where Gordon attempted to muscle in and usher out the ball. Unfortunately their man was able to manufacture a cross which, partly blocked by Gordon, ballooned up into the air and dropped perpendicular to our far post, where the combination of spin and a toe poke took it over the line. A sheer fluke.

Our second equalizer was a fantastic goal on the counter. YC&AC’s No. 17 took delivery in our own half of a cool pass out of defense and bombed forward with the ball, hotly pursued by a KR&AC midfielder. Aware of Gordon tearing into space down the right and screaming for it, ten yards into the Kobe half I curled a perfectly weighted pass with the outside of my boot into the channel for Gordon to chase onto. Our captain had plenty to do as he approached the ball close to the byline fractionally before their left back, but nevertheless managed to swing over a superb low cross which an on-running me then joyfully clipped past the keeper from six yards out.

What a goal! WHAT A GOAL!

I was wheeling away from the onion bag and blowing kisses to the Kobe architecture when a commotion caught my ear.

No…. NO! The linesman on the far side of the pitch appears to have his flag up in the air. Four or five Silvers are already right in his face telling him just what I’m thinking as I spot the ref trotting across to sort it out. Has he disallowed the goal? Surely not. I explain unpolitely that the ball was crossed backwards from practically on the byline with the last defender right on Gordon’s shoulder. It cannot be offside. I can tell by the embarrassed look in his eye that the ref knows this, but rather than confirm the facts with his linesman and point to the centre spot, he stops on the way to tell our enraged players to leave the official alone and get on with the game. He’s actually gone and ruled it out.

Honestly. We hadn’t been so angry since the last time we played Kobe.

1-2 then still, and more annoyed than ever we continue to drive forward. Meanwhile the refs (four in total, we endured) continue to give a foul for every fair tackle we make, and we are wrongly flagged offside any number of times more.

We had our defending to do too, mind you, and we will forever be grateful to Koka for pulling off two fantastic leaping diving saves to keep us in the game. The pick of our defenders though was Ippei Iwasaki, who was just outstanding, snuffing out danger early with his reading of the game and snapping into the tackles for the full duration. Indeed, Gordon had Ippei down as a close contender for the MVP award (won, I’m proud to say, by our No. 17).

Remarkably, as it happens, the last time Ippei played for the YC&AC in an Interport clash, he won the MVP award. I say remarkably, because that match was more than forty years ago, in 1969. Ippei was nineteen at the time and doesn’t look a lot older than that now!

Ippei Iwasaki’s MVP pennant from the 1969 Interport

WIth minutes to go, the Machine launches another desperate raid on the Kobe goal. On our last legs now, we do well to hold on to possession down the left and somehow find the strength to work the ball across and set up Boz with a chance for a shot on the edge of the box, central. Time stood still as Boz lined up his effort, visibly concentrating, shaping himself to keep the shot down, on target.

BANG! Great strike, but right at the keeper… Wha! It’s there! Like a bullet the ball flies straight through the keepers midriff and into the net.

The massed ranks of Silvers supporters on the touchline go wild. The Silvers on the pitch can barely summon the strength to punch the air. The natives look appropriately gutted.

2-2.

Peeep! The ref gets a decision right and blows for time.

The Over 35s retain the Interport Champions Chalice.

Party Time

Gordon Deas relaxes with the Chalice

Graeme Lane sports the tour’s pink hat for turning up late etc

From left, Sada Hosogai, Joe Takeda, Nobuhiro Koka, Ippei Iwasaki, Yaw Ofei Amoabeng

The two Steves. Spot the difference.

Squad: Back row, from left: Alan Plater (SA), Steve McKie, Tim Williams, Simon Warburton, Graeme Lane (TW), Marc Bailey, Alex Hendy, Gordon Deas (Capt.), Phil Denham, Petr Vyvial, Ippei Iwasaki, Buddy Ferrie; front row, Nobuhiro Koka (GK), Sada Hosogai

The night was but a dwarf when these pictures were taken, and much more fun was later had off-camera in the wonderful city that is Kobe.

Many thanks to our excellent hosts at the KR&AC, to those who stepped in to help out the Fives and gave it everything, to Marcel for sorting the excellent dinner at Miyasu, and especially to Shingo for making sure everything went smoothly.

Hi-yo, Silvers, away!

By Alex Hendy

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