The day had finally arrived......
Sun is shining….
The day had arrived.
“Sun is shining, weather is sweet” Bob Marley (a massive footy fan) had once sang. BBC Weather must have had a record number of hits on it’s website……from me, in the days and weeks that ran up to the day.
Waking up with a drowsy head, I didn’t feel the best. Probably those 10 pints from the night before. But that was slapped firmly into touch when I caught sight of the rays of sunshine beaming through my cheap version of a curtain.
It was sunny! But it was hot……..hotter than me on a Friday night (allow it, my imagination runs away from me).
First thing that could have gone wrong, was annulled. Remember we were planning on over 40 of us kicking a ball into an onion bag. Not just that, but we had spectators to cater for. It could have been a disaster if the Heaven’s had of opened up on the day of our tourney.
The Prelude
I had to finish up a few things off at work, and then we had a strong troop of helpers with some of the logistics. Huge thanks to Hannah, who let us borrow her car boot, so we could ferry some of the equipment over to the park. It was only a 5min walk, but was a massive relief to know we could just get everything down there. Bibs, the referee’s stuff, balls, cones, a pump, notes, food and drink for the spectators and the trophy.
Only a few days earlier, I had heard that Luca’s wife and his parents who had flown in especially from Italy were to be present. Hearing that, had hit the sadness home. It was fun and stressful organising the event, but mentally draining too. Remembering why we had setup this mini-tournament was ever present in my mind, a painful reminder. But I was determined to make this a success. I owed it to his family and his wife, Alessandra.
HR again and the wonderful Holly (she had pretty much helped me organise the whole event), were a brilliant help. During the build up days to the event, they had promoted the tourney at all our company emails and also rallied the troops with comms sent out. So the turn out was tops! I was really impressed. We had a few drop outs which was to be expected, they were all unavoidable, nobody came up with any lame excuses. But we had some last minute signups to negate all that. From what I could see, we had 4 teams, so we could probably have 6-8 a side games. I thought we’d be lucky to scrape 5 players a side, so I was really touched.
The tribute
We all arrived at the venue. This was my first time organising an event, so naturally there were a few hurdles. The venue hadn’t bothered to set up the pitch and there was the odd twig (more like tree) laying on the pitch. A quick warm up, tidy up of the pitch and moving the goal posts into place was required and we were ready!
Meeting his parents and wife, was a scary moment, but it was nice to see them there. I just hoped that we had done them proud. Only time would tell.
Luckily one of my colleagues had given us the idea of a minutes applause, which is customary to celebrate someone’s life in Italy. I’ve always found the English minutes silence, well thought out but often awkward. I had a hastily prepared speech, which I delivered, hopefully riding the waves of nervousness which seem to be hitting me constantly. Everyone clapped for a minute, apt recognition to our fallen comrade.
The Semis
Then we began! Being our 1st tournament, we were a bit scrappy in getting the teams together, a bit of confusion ensued but we got there in the end. We were behind schedule but luckily we had enough overrun to make this up.
The Clara Incident
The first game kicked off, and a few crunching tackles flew in, which was good to see in a sense. You need a bit of competitiveness! Poor Clara was our first victim. A blazing shot from our Iranian maestro John, firmly planted itself in her face. This was followed by a powerful shoulder barge from the same guy. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone fly before. Clara was a first.
The first match was ten minutes a half. But after the 1st half, we quickly realised that the heat was kicking in. That and the fact that we were incredibly unfit. The shade was diminishing at a rapid rate, so the spectators were following it at the same speed.
We quickly agreed the 2nd half should be shortened so we dropped it to 6 minutes. Hallelujah!
The first game ended up in a 3-0 win for my team. I was more the organiser, rallying the spectators and making sure everyone was socialising. HR had Luca’s family covered. The drink was flowing too. I think I kicked the ball 5 times and I managed to twist my ankle on the aforementioned twigs on the pitch. It didn’t take me out completely. I think I was buoyed on more by enthusiasm than common sense.
I looked around…on and off the pitch and saw a lot of laughter and happiness. Given the circumstances of the event, this was warming to see and lifted me further.
Back to the action, and standout player of the match was Jumbo (yes……..the same Pele hating troll from earlier).The girls, Monika, Cathy, Clara, Poonam, Becky to mention a few, who were taking part were really enjoying it too, some of them had never played before, and they took to field like regulars.I was slyly scouting out some of the other players too, we had some top players, I would have to remember this for later, with my aspirations for setting up a 5-a-side kick around as a minimum.Sean and our IT boss Kevin all showed some silky skills. My boss Luke was as nimble as a cat between the posts. Steve was showing some concrete resolve in his defensive duties.
The Maurice Moment
The 2nd game was quite dour, as it was obvious, we had some defensive king pins on show. The tedium was briefly broken by the late arrival of Maurice, the only man I’ve seen with arms bigger than his legs. They were like cannons. In the rush of getting to the game, he had forgotten his top. Not to worry an impromptu striptease brought cheer to the fans as he donned just a bib.
Eventually we had to decide the game on 1-step penalties and after a total of 8, one was missed, and a victor emerged.
It was at this point where it kinda hit home. We weren’t sure what to do. Initially we were going to do a runner up match. But time was short, and the sun was bearing down on us. We were all struggling with fitness so it was decided we would fast forward to the final. Cue the arrival of Michael, our CEO. Quick introductions were made, and it was decided that we would make him ref the final. I think it was a nice touch. It showed how involved everyone was at the company. I was beaming with pride at this moment.
The Final
Jumbo was still complaining that he hadn’t had enough time to recuperate, as the teams come out. This game brought some of the excitement back. I had shaken off my earlier ankle injury to spray a few passes about like a magician and slide tackle a few opportunistic attacks from our opponents, I was beginning to think I was playing a sort of Daniele de Rossi/Paulo Sousa game. This was after 2 minutes, and then I was knackered. Fitness was the loser in this 1-to-1 battle.
The first half was full of attacking flow, but our opponents grabbed a 1-0 lead shortly before our CEO blew the whistle. The game was evenly poised.
The only thing more plentiful than the attacking, flowing football was the banter on show. My fitness had me settle into a defensive midfield position. But that still meant I could hear Jumbo’s continued protestations at the other end of the pitch. To be fair, he was our best player, deftly skinning several opponents while bitching under his breath at the lack of a rest period still.
It was at this point that Frodo (remember him!) fell over a few times. He, the one who had debated 2G and 3G pitches with me. Well now he has a couple of battle scars to remind him forever……..of me whooping him in that argument that was still to come.
We clawed a goal back to draw level, but the tiredness was setting in and gaps were beginning to form as our opponents and Silky Sean and Maurice’s power in particular began to exploit them. Shortly after us equalising they took the game away from us with 2 quick counter attack goals.
With us stretching to pull back the 2 goal deficit, we were punished again with the goal that killed the game off. 4-1 it ended.
Aftermath
The winners were crowned, and they were given their moment in the sun (literally!). Clara adding the trophy to the Sports Day cup she had won a couple of weeks before.
Luca’s parents thanked us all and we briefly chatted to each other. They were humbled and Luca’s wife translated their appreciation to us. In a last-minute thought, it seemed fitting, that we give the trophy to his family.
Time for the pub, the King’s Arms I believe for a well earnt pint.
Everyone had thoroughly enjoyed themselves, we had show cased football and got people to take part who had never played before. Most importantly, I hoped we had done Luca proud.
In the days that followed, stories of some of the matches were regaled, Jumbo’s grievances were bought up again and some astro turf scars were on the mend. Luca’s family had chosen Great Ormond Street
Hospital as their charity of choice. We had made an amazing £2500.
I had tasked some of the spectators to take pictures of the event, with the aim of getting our creative whizzes on the 6th floor to knock up 3 x photobooks of the day.
Credit Card John, the same guy that had come up with the applause tribute, had managed to speak to Fulham FC and get them to donate a club shirt which we planned to get framed.
There’s a gallery of the day, and the framed shirt and photobook we got created at the bottom for you to peruse. Alessandra had visited the office so we could give her our gifts. I also had a personal story to tell her but more on that later.
She once again told me how moved she and Luca’s family were. I was so proud of our company’s efforts; it was a representative of how we all thought of Luca.
On a footballing note, I was really hoping that this was the beginning of something special, the kickstart to our footballing journey. People, men and women were so enthused, talk of a regular weekly game, a league maybe and some of design team on 5th were eagerly drawing up kit designs.
……….The Lighting of the Touch Paper
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