 Photographs from today are in the Werder Weekly slide show |
Date
May 9, 2008
Participants
Dominic Hutchinson, Simon Hutchinson, Munir Merchant, Kevin Nieman, Wayne Smith
Report
This was the first time Wayne Smith had played since his return from the Maryland Open, held the previous weekend. The other players were interested to hear what he had learned from the trip and a bit nervous of the new tricks and tactics he might use upon them. It was also the first day of two days of Subbuteo, four of the five players present tonight would meet again tomorrow at the same venue (see here).
In the first game of the night Kevin Nieman dominated the first half of his game with Dominic Hutchinson scoring two goals. Dominic blamed the Perfect Flick “pink” polish that had been used on his figures’ bases for causing them to “over slide”, move more than he was use to, and likened it to playing on ice. Kevin’s first goal came in the first five minutes of the game with a chip from the left side of the pitch over Dominic’s goalkeeper and into the top right of the goal. The second came close to the end of the first half with another shot from the left. Dominic did not have a secure hold of his goalkeeper’s handle and the handle spun round in his hand as Nieman’s shot headed towards the goal. The goalkeeper figure ended up in a “mirror image” of the position needed to save the ball as the ball passed it to enter the goal. At half time Dominic worked hard with a polishing cloth to remove the polish, and the second half was more even, estimated at 60:40 in Kevin’s favor, as he had more control over his figures’ movements. The younger Hutchinson did get three shots on goal in the second half: the first struck the cross bar, the second came off the goal post, and the third required Nieman to save with his goalkeeper. Nieman had more scoring opportunities as his faster tempo of play allowed him to find his way through his opponent’s defense. In the last half of the second period Kevin’s pressure rewarded him with a third goal. He shot from the left side of the pitch, Dominic saved the ball with his goalkeeper and he put down his goalkeeper, the ball struck the back of the goalkeeper figure, and “slid” down the rod into the goal. Nieman credited his win to playing faster than he has in the past, hitting moving balls and not allowing time for his opponent to take defensive flicks.
While it is an often used excuse the score was not a fair representation of the game between Simon Hutchinson and Wayne Smith. The two were very evenly matched in the first half as Smith struggled to win possession from Simon. There is almost inevitability that Wayne will take the lead in his games. He did in this one in the ninth minute of the first half from a build up following a corner. The shot was struck from right of center, the figure coming through a gap that Simon had opened in his defense. The equalizer also came from a set piece, a free kick just outside Wayne’s penalty area. Simon’s offensive flick went into an offside position, just a little forward of the free kick. He played the free kick sideways, not putting the other figure offside, and used the offside figure to play the ball back towards shooting line. After several “1-2s” between the figure that took the free kick and the figure that had previously been offside Simon turned the ball around so both players behind the ball. The ball ended up in the same position where the free kick had been. When the shot was taken perhaps it took Smith by surprise as it went over his goalkeeper and dropped down into the goal by the far post. In the second half Smith had slightly more possession than his opponent, and the ball spent most of the time in the middle of he pitch the two shooting lines. Simon gifted Smith a second goal when his spare goalkeeper played the ball to one of Smith’s figures in Simon’s penalty area. The player was half way between the right goalpost and the edge of the penalty area, and about an inch in front of the top of the “six yard” box. Wayne took one touch and Simon played his spare goalkeeper just millimeters away from the ball to try and block the open goal. Smith sliced the ball, it deflected off the spare goalkeeper, and into the goal. Simon pushed forward looking for a second goal to tie the game, reducing the number of figures in his defensive line. Wayne scored his third from a break down the right side of the field, the shot was hit fairly high, going past the side of Simon’s goalkeeper and into the goal. After the game Simon expressed that he had found that his new polish had helped his figures slide, and unlike his son, found that this had improved his game.
Wayne Smith quickly “mercy ruled” Dominic Hutchinson scoring four goals in just 12 minutes. The first came from a shot from the right in the third minute. The second in the fifth minute and the third in the ninth were identical to the first. Then came one of the most bizarre thing both players had even seen in a game. Wayne shot from the left wing, the ball struck the far post, and Dominic whacked his goalkeeper against the ball and the post. The ball was ejected from the goalmouth with so much spin on it that at the far edge of the “six yard” box it made a 120° turn and continued its journey up the pitch to the midfield without striking another player. The fourth, and final, goal came in the twelfth minute and Dominic called for the “mercy rule”. Smith said after the game that his shooting was good and he had managed to put the ball where he wanted to every time. Despite his crushing defeat Dominic felt he had played good defense.
A goal scored in the dying seconds gave Kevin Nieman his victory over Munir Merchant. In the first half Nieman had lots of offense but Merchant was able to position his figures out of the way at the right time to stop Kevin from forcing corner kicks and throw ins. Nieman became increasingly frustrated as despite all of his offense he only managed two shots on target, the rest were wide of the goal and he had given Munir a string of goal kicks. Merchant worked hard on the slow build up and to try a control possession, but this allowed Kevin to get in his way. The second half continued in the same manner. Kevin did have one shot strike the outside of the right goal post. It was looking like the game was going to end goalless until with less than a minute remaining Nieman had the ball in the Munir’s shooting zone having pushed the ball through the middle of the defense. Merchant’s defensive flick just touched the ball and was moved ‘back’. Nieman’s figure was lined up as if the shot was going to come at the near post, which was what Munir expected. Kevin realizing that this was to be the last shot of the game deliberately sliced the ball towards the far post, fooling his opponent who was covering the near post, and the ball leisurely rolled into the goal barely grazing the far post.
Simon Hutchinson dominated the first half of his game against Munir Merchant. Simon had all the offense and struggled to get the ball around Merchant’s defensive line. When Simon lost possession Munir would give it back to him on Simon’s defensive line. In the tenth minute the elder Hutchinson finally found his way through the defense on the right side, and scored with a powerful chip over the goalkeeper. The second half started continued the same way the first half had been. Simon scored a second goal, a duplicate of the first, in the fourth minute. After the second goal Merchant came more into the game and he had spells of decent possession as he tried to drive into Simon’s shooting zone. In the seventh minute Munir came the closest to scoring when his shot was scrambled away by Simon’s goalkeeper and struck the post before bouncing out of the danger zone for a throw in.
Wayne Smith described his performance against Kevin Nieman as “entirely disorganized”. He felt he had no pattern with his defense. Nieman would lose the ball in front of the middle of Smith’s defensive line. Wayne would use the figures from the middle of his line to play the ball forward, thereby, scattering his defense. Smith scored the only goal of the first half in the eighth minute from a shot just outside the penalty area. Wayne described it as a “nice soft” shot that hit the underside of the crossbar and dropped into the goal. He doubled in lead early in the second half. With just six minutes remaining Smith scored his third goal. From a corner Wayne played the ball behind the shooting line, then turned it around and pushed the ball forward to an attacking figure. As Kevin was concentrating on trying to make a blocking flick, Wayne took a slow shot that crept into goal. The action during this game was so intense that both players agreed that it had felt like the game had lasted two hours, not 30 minutes.
Simon had arranged that his 300th game with the SCSC would be against his son Dominic. He son vowed to make it two wins in a row, having beaten his father for the first time the previous week. Most of the game was played in the area between the half way line and Dominic’s shooting line as Simon probed his son’s defense trying to find a way round or through it. Towards the end of the first half the father came round the right side of Dominic’s defense and blasted the ball into the goal at the near post. Simon’s second goal came midway through the second half with a shot near the edge of the penalty area. The third came with just two minutes remaining in the game. Simon attacked quickly down the left side and pushed the ball to stop midway between the penalty area and the shooting line right of center. He shot low and hard and Dominic’s wild fling of the goalkeeper rocketed the ball into the goal.
Munir Merchant described his game against Wayne Smith as “all Wayne”. Despite this Merchant managed to restrict Smith to only two shots in the first half by continually blocking Wayne’s figures from the ball or from having clear shots at goal. Smith scored from the second of those two shots in the sixth minute. Wayne scored from the kick off at the start of the second half. In just 18 second he took kick off, pushed the ball down the left side, and drove the ball into the goal. The third goal came with just six minutes remaining. Despite pressing for another Munir was able to prevent Wayne from scoring a fourth.
Results
| Kevin Nieman | 3 | v | 0 | Dominic Hutchinson |
| Wayne Smith | 3 | v | 1 | Simon Hutchinson |
| Wayne Smith | 4 | v | 0 | Dominic Hutchinson (mercy rule) |
| Kevin Nieman | 1 | v | 0 | Munir Merchant |
| Simon Hutchinson | 2 | v | 0 | Munir Merchant |
| Wayne Smith | 3 | v | 0 | Kevin Nieman |
| Simon Hutchinson | 3 | v | 0 | Dominic Hutchinson |
| Wayne Smith | 3 | v | 0 | Munir Merchant |