Promises

My regular reader will know that ‘The Barber’ is an aficionado of the AFA Senior Cup, the senior competition for the bank teams, old boys’ teams and others who are affiliated to the Amateur Football Alliance.

The games are always ‘battles’, in the best sense of the word, and I’ve yet to see a bad one. Leyton County Old Boys v Old Challoners in the Third Round was the most entertaining game I watched last season and I’ll try to attend at least one tie in every round in the current campaign.

When I was a lad, ‘BB’ was Brigitte Bardot, a blonde French actress described as a ‘screen siren’. She appeared in various saucy films and ‘The Barber’ was a big fan. But there’s no connection between ‘BB Eagles’, who play in the Southern Amateur League’s Division Two, and ‘La Bardot’.

That ‘BB’ stands for Barclays Bank and that team had an AFA Senior Cup First Round tie with Centymca (from ‘Central YMCA’) at a sports ground just off the North Circular Road on Saturday. I reached it via the District line to Earl’s Court and Piccadilly line to Acton Town.

When I arrived, there was a group of Polish chaps having lunch at some tables outside the social club. A few players soon emerged from the dressing rooms, but it wasn’t for the match I’d come to see. BB Eagles’ fourth team were playing their fifth team.

I was in a crowd of seven for the big cup-tie on the pitch near the entrance. ‘BB’ were a goal up in about five minutes, but Centymca had the better of a half that finished 1-1. It was 2-2 after 90 minutes, the visiting No.7 having hit a penalty high and wide, and Centymca booked their place in Round Two with a goal early in extra time.

It was my SEVENTH extra time in under a month. I’m sure they do it on purpose. One curious thing about Saturday’s game was that the visiting players called their team ‘Promise’. For example I heard them shouting ‘Well done, Promise’, ‘Good half, Promise’ and ‘Push up, Promise’.

My two games on Sunday produced a tidy 14 goals. Greenford Giants beat White Hart Harlington 8-0 in the morning’s Hayes & District Sunday League Division Five fixture at Perivale and Old Actonians had a 6-0 win against Ashford Girls in an FA Women’s Cup Second Round Qualifying tie at Gunnersbury Drive. It was so warm on Saturday that I took my anorak off at half-time, but we were back in ‘wet and miserable’ mode by yesterday afternoon.

Last Tuesday I saw Wingate & Finchley lose 2-1 at home to Sittingbourne in The FA Trophy. The total number of games now is 5,722.