Grizzlies hand out a good old fashioned walloping

Week 4 of the Spring Pennant saw the Grizzlies face off against the Cardiac Concerns. Those of us who have been around long enough will remember the Cardiacs as the underwater hockey equivalent of Mohammed Ali - fast furious and damn near unbeatable. That was until the famous final 8 years ago when the Grizzlies won the Grand final against a previously unbeaten Cardiacs outfit. Ah glory days…..The lack of self confidence and a team list which frankly looks better on paper than it is under water ensured that the Cardiacs would never seriously threaten the Grizzlies again. The Cardiacs like Mohammed Ali had become a shadow of their former selves. They were, however still capable of a "lucky punch" as the Grizzlies found out to their dismay in May 2003 when we lost 8:4. However since then it had been one way traffic and we weren't about to let that change.

In contrast to their usual limp-wristed efforts of late, the Cardiacs, bolstered with some new recruits had scored a win and had shown some promising signs against some of the stronger teams. The Grizzlies were in fine form scoring two wins and a draw in the first three rounds of the pennant (see previous reports).

With Scotty, Sam, Floppsy and Gaffers declaring themselves unavailable, it was left to Max, Killa, Ned, Cheesy, Martian, Lynchy, Big Nob and Crusty to fly the Grizzlie flag. In an inspired bit of pre match strategy, our erstwhile captain decided on a 5-forward 3-back formation rather than the more conventional 4-4. "I figured most of the action would be in their half so it was important have more forwards - and besides I want to keep up with Cheesy and Martian on the goal scoring ladder " Max confided to this reporter at the post match conference. The strategy worked a treat with wave after wave of rotating forwards maintaining the pressure on a beleaguered Cardiac defence.

In a gold medal winning performance, Martian (sporting a new hydrodynamic haircut) put away 7 goals to add to his 5 last week to claim outright first on the goal scoring ladder. His passing and positional play were outstanding (there must be something to this training-on-Mondays lark after all). Martian was ably assisted up forward by Cheesy with 4 goals and Killa and Max chimed in with 2 apiece. Ned showing that great determination and skill will beat lack of enthusiasm and little skill every time played a great game, setting up a couple of goals before putting one away herself.

The backline, between discussing plans for the coming weekend and chasing down the rare break away into our half showed that they were not content to be mere spectators in the massacre unfolding up ahead. Lynchy, Crusty and Big Nob dispossessed the Cardiac forwards with ease, setting up many of our forays into their half and showed great stamina to see out a full 30 minutes of game time with no subs. Crusty even got into the goal scoring action with a goal. The final score at 17:0 ensures that the Cardiacs remain our favourite punching bag and source of percentage boosting points.

A forfeit in the following game allowed the Grizzlies to avoid reffing duties and get to the pub earlier than expected. Conversation at the pub was pretty muted with most of the attention focussed on the Olympic basketball game between the Australians and the USA. The Silver medal of the night goes to the Prince of Wales for holding off with the hot food (3 platters!!) until we got there. And the Bronze medal goes to the Grizzlie team for polishing off their platter and half of another one in a record breaking 2minutes 25s. Our only "loss" of the night came in the lucky beer ticket raffle where, against overwhelming odds our run of luck continued. The elusive six pack of beer is proving harder to win than the Powerball jackpot. Still you gotta be happy as long as we keep winning where it counts….. at the bottom of the pool.

Womens beach volleyball distract Cheesy and Killa from their beer and chips.	Martian shows off his new haircut and seven goal smile