Shall we Sing a Song for you?

I haven’t managed to get a report of this on so far due to a combination of lack of internet, drunk Poles (we were warned at Reunion!), CY Dinners and suchlike. But, before my memory of it totally fades, here are the main events.

Renwick started with Walker (!) in nets as he wanted to save himself for rugby later on, and Gavin replacing Ard’s wounded warrior this week with Phil moving into the middle. AJ, still injured from last week, was going to give it a miss, but declared himself fit enough to be on the bench just before kick-off, and Jonny McClure started up front alongside me. We raced into the lead with two über quick goals. First, Mark blasted home from 25 yards and then Jonny M finished off a move to make it 2-0. COI had started with a girl (!!), but soon took her off. Not before she tackled Phil though! Frustratingly, at 2-up we took the foot off the ‘gas’ rather than push on for a nice cushion, but we did have other chances. I headed a corner straight at the keeper and Simon skyed a good chance. At half-time it was 2-2 however as first a COI player cut in and fired past an unsighted Walker before some slight hesitation between our usual keeper and the new incumbent saw them roll in an equaliser. It should be pointed out that Walker was ‘fully’ staking his claim for the ‘keeper of the season’ award, even coming and heading a ball…that was inside his box!

In the second half our resurgence didn’t really happen. COI skyed a few chances themselves from close range, and then a shot from a good 30-yards came back off the bar with Walker standing pleasantly having a good smile to himself. Finally, a chance came AJ’s way as he was sent through, and he managed to hold off the attentions of a few defenders to strike the ball into the corner of the net and save Renwick’s blushes. Four in a row.

Wednesday was also notable as the impossible happened, namely, Rosie losing her job, as we brought in a certain SWS commenter and his massive camera to provide us with pictures that featured such rarities as the ball!

Ooh Rah

Piemonger

Goalkeeper action

The Ultimate Male pursued by a fan

Si

Who let him out?!

Throw

Reading between the lines I think Jonny wants the ball

No-nonsense

Jonny about to run under the ball

AJ

Half-time

Gavster

Jonny bursts into the box

Time-wasting

Job well done

Walker, Simon, Strob, Pie

RENWICK: Walker, Piemonger, Joel, Strob, Jonny, Gavin (r: me, 80), Phil, Mark, Simon, me (AJ, 55), McClure

Northern Ireland 2 – 1 Sweden

***Stats updated***

You’ve seen the photos, you’ve watched the video, but still there are many people out there of all ages who could be going on GO Teams this year but who haven’t applied. There are still 44 of the 134 places that need to be filled, with the deadline only a few days away. The deadline isn’t set in stone of course, but it certainly helps congregations to know who’s coming (David McC said at the GO Rally to see who’s coming before you plan your team) – or if their team will even be going ahead!

I want to really encourage anyone who has a free week in the summer and who hasn’t applied for a team to apply for at least one. You get to help a church with their evangelism – doing gospel work, things which will have eternal value – what else could you be doing with your summer instead?!! GO teams are of course a great help in providing much-needed man-power and encouragement for congregations – but as anyone who’s ever been on one will tell you, you gain far more from a week on a GO team than you’ll ever give.

Do these people look sad?

In particular, people at school or uni should really be thinking about going on teams. You’ll never have those long summers again. What could you possibly be doing for 2 months / 3 and a half months that you can’t even fit in one week to do something worthwhile?! Like, seriously, put a list of things in the comments. People with proper jobs put us to shame by using basically all their annual leave on camps / GO teams! Fair enough you need a bit of a holiday, but can you not spend ONE WEEK doing something that will last for ever?! We like to think of it as ‘my holiday’, but in reality “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price” (1 Cor 6: 19, 20) Also people get jobs – but are you really gonna work your entire summer? Do you really need all that money anyway?

But I really do feel people are missing out. You’re not going to get even the amount of craic you get on a GO team on a holiday, never mind blessing! Going by last year, there will be around 140 people at Senior Camp. It’s 16+; so are GO teams. If everyone who is going to camp went on even one team we’d be laughing.

If you are convinced of the benefit of GO teams – encourage others. We’re specially without excuse if our own congregation has benefited from a GO team – are we just going to sit there and not give anything back?

The current list (more up-to-date than real life) of people applied / number requested:

Antrim: 8/12
Cloughmills day trip: 6/8
Bailiesmills (non-residential): 2/8
FAUGHAN: 5/10
Glenmanus: 4/6
Galway: 5/7
Enniskillen: 6/10
Stranorlar & Convoy: 7/7
Letterkenny: 7/10
Carrick: 5/10

And, of course, not everyone reading this can go on teams this summer. But you can all pray that God would use them in the spread of His gospel.

Ha! Look at youthful Stroby!

Renwick beat Tates and Melrose in the the second round (and also the final) of the Belfast Mini-League Cup in the same sandpit pitch as last week at the Ozone this afternoon. Peter had gone back from 4-4-2 to 20/20, so Matt made his second Renwick appearance (his other one was also against T&M) in midfield, as Conor still hasn’t recovered from his broken ankle. Walker was also missing (he had class or something?!) so Pie started on the right with Jonny at left-back.

Tates and Melrose made us stand out in the cold for an hour before they finally turned up, and when they did so they only had 10 men, but found someone else to make up the team. Big Mike Currie played the first half, at centre-back. Renwick were completely dominant for the opening period, and it seemed like it would only be a matter of time before we not only scored, but would be two or three up. I hit a shot wide on the turn before AJ broke the deadlock, heading the ball past their onrushing keeper from the edge of the box. We were unable to get another goal, and T&M surprisingly managed to get an equaliser, with their striker beating Joel to the ball and firing into an empty net.

Our good attacking start had been masking the fact that we weren’t at the races, and our play didn’t get much better during the first half. Phil volleyed in a second from an AJ cross but even that didn’t seem to rouse us. So at half-time it was 2-1 to us, and although we had ended the half pretty well, we knew we could do much better.

In the second half we went further ahead as Phil played a good ball in to me and I dummied it for AJ to make it 3-1. Soon after he went and wrecked himself, but his afternoon’s work was far from over. They pulled one back as a player managed to dance through the midfield and defence before placing a shot past a ‘flat-footed’ Joel.

Tates and Melrose were playing much better by this stage, and won a penalty. They hit in a corner which came off Simon and was heading into the net for our first ever own goal, when it hit a surprised Piemonger on the arm. The resulting penalty gave Joel no chance and it was 3-3. Still, we couldn’t wake up and we finally scored an own goal as T&M hit in a low cross from the inside left position that was going past an unsighted Joel and all Stevie could manage to do was touch it over the line. So that was 4-3 down and we all felt we’d blown it, however no-one told AJ that and within 2 minutes he had blasted in a rocket of a shot from 20 yards that went in off the bar. After another unknown but short period of time it was 5-4 to Renwick, as Johnston got himself on the end of a corner and looped a header in that went all the way into the top corner. We had more attacks after this, and AJ even hit the post, but we couldn’t get another to give us breathing space and were left with another tense finish. They had a couple of successive corners, with even their keeper coming up, but finally I volleyed out one of their throws in what turned out to be the last touch of the game as Daphne blew the final whistle from the sidelines.

So, absolutely brilliant! We didn’t play at all well but we won the cup. That’s 3 wins in a row – crazy stuff! Sadly Conor misses out on a winners’ medal as he missed the entire cup campaign, but Pete gets one for playing in 50% of our matches! There is an actual cup apparently, but we haven’t got it yet. Time for Jimmy to build a trophy cabinet in Renwick! None it’s over to friendlies against the sizable number of teams who want a match, with the re-match against the ministers probably taking place between the students finishing their exams and starting placement.

Phil flights one in

An action shot of Joel?! Whatever next? – One of him making a save?!!

Really getting into the cross-community thing

Stevie flights in a free kick

More Joel action

Stevie steaming out from defence

Not ‘g’

More defending

Through the fence you can see the queue of traffic that kept our opponents an hour late…

Renwick attack

Penalty

RENWICK: Joel, Piemonger, Strob, Steve, Jonny, Phil, Matt, Mark, Simon, me, AJ