Our run of eight games in eight weeks came to end yesterday with our first ever game in Hyde Park. Fortunately, the run ended after the game. Earlier in the day, it looked like there wouldn’t be one.
The trouble started at around 9:30 a.m. when Kevin O’Kelly texted to say he was delayed at work and wouldn’t be able to make it till noon. By 11:40, he had pushed his arrival back to 12:30.
To compound matters, at that point, 40 minutes after the scheduled game start, we still hadn’t heard from one of the other players. And since that player had bailed on a bar game earlier in the season, we scrambled to find a replacement.
Host Matt Kade tapped Brandon Peters, a friend who had never played but had expressed interest in giving it a try. Peters said he could get there by 1. Good thing, too, because we never did hear from the missing player.
At 12:35, O’Kelly texted again to say that he simply couldn’t get away from the office. That prompted an emergency call to me. I said I could be there by 1:30 but that I’d have to leave by 5, as Meghan and I had plans.
So, at about 1:30, two and a half hours after the scheduled start time — and despite a plea from Kade that the game start on time so that he could watch his Patriots play at 7:15 — Game No. 233 finally started with new player Peters in France and new Weasels Brendan White and David Goldfeld in Austria and Russia, respectively.
It ended in Spring 1908 in the following center counts:
Austria (Brendan White): 1; 0.309 points.
England (Nathan Cockerill): 0; 0.000 points.
France (Brandon Peters): 14; 60.494 points.
Germany (Mike Morrison): 1; 0.309 points.
Italy (Jim O’Kelley/Kevin O’Kelly): 3; 0.000 points.
Russia (David Goldfeld): 6; 11.111 points.
Turkey (Matt Kade): 9; 25.000 points.
Kevin finally showed up with beer at around 4 and took over for me in Fall 1904. I wish I could have played longer, as I was having fun playing with the new guys. Per club rules, neither of us scores the position, but our square was factored into the sum. Thus, the scores for this game total less than 100 points.
A couple of things before I turn it over to the other players for comment.
First, the game featured five players who live in Hyde Park: White, Peters, Morrison, Goldfeld and Kade. Hopefully they’ll form a solid core for future games there, and perhaps we can pull in additional players from the university.
Second, like Peters, Goldfeld is a friend of Kade’s. White, meanwhile, is a friend of O’Kelly’s.
Okay, the supply center chart is here. Note that Turkey played short after this first two adjustments. He waived a build each year.
Let’s hear from the players.
