Conditions Have Rarely Been Better For OC Day

Conditions Have Rarely Been Better For OC Day

Carthusians v Old Carthusians

On: Saturday 23 September 2017

Venue: Big Ground

Score: Lost 0 - 5

As the strains of Ramin Djawadi's magnificent 'Game of Thrones Main Title Theme' wafted over a Big Ground dappled in sunshine, it was tempting to think of anything other than the football. To imagine a world of seven kingdoms and the stress and anxiety involved in trying to claim an Iron Throne, which looks a far from comfortable seating option. No one died on Big Ground. There were no horrific injuries. Ed Sheeran didn't appear. And, while various families in George RR Martin's sprawling opus, spend their time smashing each other up, or, well, doing other things to each other, it was positively testimonial-esque on the home of football, as fathers played sons, and brothers took to the field on opposite sides in a spirit of warm-blooded bonhomie and cosy camaraderie. Everyone, in short, was having a lovely time. The cucumber sandwiches were probably crust free; the Darjeeling tea would have been a smidgen short of 85 degrees and the scones would doubtless have been busy melting the cream and jam to create the most sensational of taste sensations. Conditions have rarely been better for Old Carthusian Day. How super. What fun.

But on the field of play, things weren't so rosy. The Charterhouse coaches were glum. The words of Bono were reverberating around the cloisters of the Godalming campus: 'Did I ask too much? More than a lot? You gave me nothing, now it's all I got. We're one, but we're not the same. Well, we hurt each other, then we do it again'. The great Malcolm Bailey was in town, along with Lew and Bob, rather like that scene at the end of 'Return of the Jedi' where Luke takes a break from that weird party with the Ewoks to see the apparitions of Anakin, Obi Wan and Master Yoda smiling benignly at him. But he'd just blown up the Death Star and saved the galaxy from the evil machinations of the Emperor! While we were tanking 0 - 5 against the Old Boys. There may have been no benign smile, but there was one interesting aside. The game was always kept in the calendar, said Malcolm, because it was a test of character. He never minded if the side lost 0 - 5 as long as they kept fighting and scrapping and never lost heart. That's how he knew. That was how he knew.

We love our players; we'd go into battle for them; we rate them as blokes; and we have this crushing, almost visceral pain in our very being when the team doesn't perform like we know it can. We wear it on our sleeves; we take it home; we battle away at demons in the night thinking about the game and wondering what we could have done; what we should have done; what there is to be done. And we'll come back for more. 'We hurt each other, then we do it again'. It's the ISFA Cup on Wednesday. It's the single most important game of the season so far. We need to be more like Daenerys than Viserys, more like Rob than Brandon; frankly more like any of the Lannister siblings. In fact, we need to become like Cersei. We're very much where she was at the end of season five. We've done the walk of atonement. We've been humiliated in front of a crowd, stripped to our bare bones, metaphorically spat on as bells rang out around us. We need to recover and absolutely wreak vengeance on everyone around us. We need to board ourselves up and let loose the dogs of war. We need to blow trumpets, bear witness, take up arms and go in search of a relentless orgy of slaughter in the desperation of claiming what we hope might be ours. In short, we need a monumental reaction against King's Chester on Wednesday. And that, hopefully, is how we'll know.