By John Cassy They say that only the great teams can cope with an 11am start but this Leopards squad really is something special. Two games in 24 hours would have finished most teams. But not this one. This was Cambridge. This was THE tour. And by lunchtime on Sunday, 100% effort had become a 100% record. Students � get back to the library! Athletes all, this remarkable band of nine men, one Animale and a Rodster had barely finished warming up at Queen�s sports hall before demonstrating just why they are one of Britain�s most watchable teams. Showing tactical cunning beyond even his own years captain Larry White sent out a team with two keepers on the wings and himself in goal. And what entertainment it provided. No sooner had the game kicked off and the old crooner was playing to the crowd. Sensing no immediate danger from the first Caius attack, he came bounding out to collect a woefully under hit cross. Then he stopped. Why? We do not know. Perhaps it was the tequila still swilling around inside him? Maybe a flashback to the 1947 Cuppers final? Or possibly the onset of cramp from the previous evening�s podium performance. Whatever it was, the ball wasn�t showing the team�s elder statesman any respect, bouncing dismissively over his head and rolling casually into the back of the net. Caius 1- Leopards 0. Larry, what have you done? But then, this is no ordinary football team. An extraordinary mistake prompted an extraordinary performance. Within moments the Leopards were a changed team, pouring forward like 11 men with appalling hangovers. Howard was terrorising the left back with his flanks, Pete powered relentlessly from box to box, while Larry just stood there dazed, trying to work out where it had all gone wrong and whether he could blame his hamstring. It was not long before the Leopards were rewarded. Chazzy floated in a superb cross, Bernard rose majestically to head it in and the Leopards were back in it. Then tragedy struck. Alex, grappling with a second 18 year old in a matter of hours, fell awkwardly and damaged his collar bone. Rushed to Addenbrooke�s in the Mardi Gras, the diagnosis was not good: a break and out for several weeks. Back at Caius, the Leopards were not doing much better. Down to ten men they had let in another goal. This time Larry needed no excuses. This was a shot and it went in. Chances to drag it back came and went. Chazzy, handed the Stevenson sand wedge when Alex went off, chipped over from two yards. Dr Crewe beat four men then crashed a shot against the bar. The equalizer just wouldn�t come. Until the moment that will live in infamy for ever. Breaking from the back with a look of determination rarely seen in rational men, Roddy was off. To cries of �Run Roddy, Run!� from the superbly talented and good looking Leopards support (and Ed) his raw pace enabled him to outpace the Caius defence and smack his slaphead onto the ball with such force that it flattened the keeper and rolled into the net. 2-2, game on, and the students were on the rack. Sensing the danger, Miles jumped ship immediately - saying he�d never wanted to play for Caius anyway and only felt truly happy in the Leopards shirt - and five minutes later the visitors clinched it. A swinging cross from the left, and there was Maxmin � the engine�s engine � motoring forward to meet it. �My life passed before me,� he admitted afterwards. Fortunately for the Leopards it didn�t take long and in an instant the ball was rocketing goalwards from his head. Roddy, sensing that someone was about to steal his thunder, unleashed the slap head once again and finished it off. No-one is sure if the ball had already crossed the line. The Referee said it hadn�t, Maxmin replied �If you say that again I will frickin� kill you.� No-one else really cared. It was the third goal and the students had no reply. William Wordsworth, Stephen Hawking, Jeremy Paxman, Thandie Newton, Prince Charles: Your boys took one hell of a beating!!! |