Follow the Bear

9^th January 2026

Welcome and Happy New Year, one and all. Our first game of 2026 (twenty-twenty-six (!)) was a highly enjoyable nine aside outing for the following eighteen men (of varying ages) –

Yellows: Ahmed (in goal), Paul, Kanat, me, Mick, Bogdan, Aidan, Johnnie, Patrick Bear

Blues: Simon Ink, Simon Gas, Bradley, Geoff, Joe, Roshan, Morgan, Nick, Timur

With the weather still absolutely perishing, it was a night where you wanted to be able to run around as much as possible and the players on show were full of post-Christmas vim and vigour, as demonstrated by some of our number cycling to the field of play by way of a warmup.

While it looked for a long time as if we might witness one of the very rare goalless draws at Coram Fields, around forty minutes in Joe scored the first goal for the Blues, taking advantage of the Blues playing a very high line to advance on Ahmed with a nerveless finish past the specialist keeper. Up to this point Kanat, Mick and Bogdan had given the Blue forward line very little encouragement, despite boasting the likes of Morgan, Nick and Timur.

But the best player on the pitch, Patrick, brought the house down with an extraordinary equaliser that fizzed into the top right hand corner of the goal, kissing the post en route. The ball made a wonderful noise as it span in the net, a bit like a vicious leg break in cricket. Speaking of which, Johnnie bagged the winner with a speculative curling effort that pitched like an away swinger and foxed the despairing Geoff in goal. At least he had the good grace to buy Geoff a pint in the Skinners afterwards. A mention for Aidan, who after seemingly incurring another toe injury saw a twenty five yard strike smash the frame of the goal and thereafter saw the Yellows home despite Patrick hobbling off with an ankle injury.

Final score: Yellows 2 Blues 1

Plenty of space at the pub last Friday, with topics of conversation including Simon Ink’s upcoming trip to Cuba, a related discussion of US immigration policy, and, of course, some impressions.

See you on Friday.