2015

Accies

What a start to 2015 !! The first 30 mins of Thursdays game was possibly the best we have started in my reign as team captain . We looked solid at the back , the midfield was up and down tackling and passing and we looked like scoring Everytime we got into their half. All the way through the team we where excellent , Charlie filling in goal was brilliant and his communication with the back four was superb and that save In the first half ... Superb. I though Lee and juddy especially in the back four were excellent. Steve and thorny ran the midfield both looking sharp even at their age !! Jon on the right handside was my man of the match scoring two goals and skinning the handside all day long and offering cover for our right back. Simon on the left had a great game , I mentioned he was playing like Zidane on the left and i didn't mean his comb over !! Cheyenne making his debut was a constant danger and looks like he could score goals for fun. All in all a magnificent start to the year and it was great to have the support of the trialists and stu and Luis . Oh did mention my free kick ??

Great start accies let's look forward to a great 2015

Greg

A few pictures from my Accies archive of an extraordinary man

I've managed to dig out a few pictures from my Accies archive of Graham Dietz. He will be sorely missed by us all.

I have this picture dated December 2001, Graham having just been presented with a farewell gift.

A Dinamo Bar Pitch team picture before Graham left.

Pictures from the inaugural Anglo-Dutch trophy match away in Rotterdam.

Pre-wedding football match with Gaffer Holmes.

Clearly Graham would have fallen flat on his face after this was taken - he's using his right foot!

Graham offering some quiet words of advice to Ian no doubt.

Apparently Graham enjoyed his music(!).

Yet another pic of that heinous kit…

…but at least there are also some Accies kits in this one.  Photo kindly taken by Courtney of last night's two teams following the entertaining 4-4 draw.  Effra were disappointed not to win having been 3-1 and 4-2 up (with Perre scoring our fourth goal on his last night before his Argentian adventure), but it was a good night on the whole.

Forget Football: Here's Floatball

If a match can 'happily' take place in these conditions, maybe some of our games earlier this year shouldn't have been cancelled due to flooding?

Flamin' Hell…

I've been searching for good things to say about the new kit worn by this week's oppo Southbank Cuaco.  All I can come up with is: at least it doesn't clash with our team's colours.

Hideous.

Not wild about this stat…

We've played 38 11-a-side games so far in 2014.  Only 12 players have played in more than half of those matches.

Effra On Radio 4

Effra gets a mention on this episode of The Museum Of Curiosity.  Sadly it's not our esteemed football team that's being discussed, but instead the underground London river which inspired the first part of our club's name.  Still worth a listen though.

There's an interesting piece about the River Effra here.  "In his book Thames: Sacred River, Peter Ackroyd writes that the Effra took its name from the Celtic word yfrid, meaning 'torrent'."

I suggest we score a torrent of goals this Thursday, to mark this fact.  I for one will yell "Yfrid!  Yfrid!  Yfrid!" when our 5th goal goes in.

Friend of the Accies…

Bregje!

Charlie Brooking?

Stanchion, best football word?

Accies In Spain 2015

In your email inboxes round about now, or possibly your Facebook message inboxes, you should find a message about next year's Spain trip.  The date for the trip is confirmed as:

FRIDAY 24 TO SUNDAY 26 APRIL 2015

As it says in the email, we're particularly pleased that Crystal Palace & Dulwich Super Veterans plan to join us for this trip, making a three- or four-team 11-a-side tournament on Saturday 25 April a probability.  It promises to be a great trip…

Please reply to the email ASAP!

Two Victories In Europe

More pics from our 2014 Spain and Holland trips can be found on our Facebook page, but here are the team photos from the European tours.  Wish you'd been there?  Watch this space for the announcement of the date for Spain 2015!

Love Is A Many Splendoured Thing

While rooting around for photos to bring with me next Saturday, I came across these two, taken by Luis in the pub after the 2012 end-of-year awards dinner.  Steve may be a terrier on the pitch, known for the occasional crunching tackle, but off the pitch he's a lover, not a fighter.   Here he is sharing tender moments with Luke and Thorny…

Hurrah! I've scored! Boo! I've fallen down a hole…

From an email sent almost 13 years ago…

Somewhere in my Accies archive I have a 'news report' from our old website entitled 'The Night We Won The Cup', all about the events of 8th November 2001.  At that time the club was divided into two 5-a-side squads, Dinamo Bar Pitch and Streatham North End.  While I search for that, here's an extract from an email sent by Streatham North End's gaffer (also Effra's gaffer, aka The Gaffer!) Ian Holmes about the evening:

"It was wonderful to be a part of it ... we scored SIX goals and every one of them was worth the admission money (although I would personally have paid well over the odds just to see the Patterson equaliser against Soma and the Rudd winner against Lard !!!!).  Add to that the best goalkeeper of the night and I reckon we deserved it.

Dinamo were encouraging in their support and sporting in their congratulations.  And let's not forget that they played no small part in our win ... their point against Conway ensured that the best team in the tournament were knocked out... their win against Exo was the biggest win of the night ... and Graham was (I reckon!!!) with four goals the leading individual goalscorer."

 There's a lot in those few words that shows why over the years it's been so brilliant to play for the Accies.  Oh, and here's the trophy:

Rotterdam 2014 - Your Club Captain's [B]Log!

Playing for The Accies is an extraordinary thing. 

Quite apart from the joy of Thursday night football in Crystal Palace, the club has been built around  regular club trips abroad – most recently Cantoria in Spain and Rotterdam in Holland.

I just wanted to take a few moments to write about these magnificent trips, as your Club Captain, friend and well…bloke.

It is always hard to put into words how fantastic these trips always are – but I thought now was a great time to try to do just that about the trip to Rotterdam .

Someone booked my train tickets for me. The club contributed £50 towards it. I’d increased my Accies subs by £10 a month many months ago so that accommodation was basically taken care of. I met my brother and Luke at King’s Cross at 11am on Friday, had a couple of beers before boarding the Eurostar with a few more train beers in hand. My accommodation was booked for me too. A bike was rented for me and several team-mates were always there to get us from A-B without getting lost.

On the Friday evening we met up with several other Accies already in Rotterdam and had a few beers near the accommodation by the harbour.

On Saturday, I had a lovely leisurely  breakfast with my friends and team-mates, a bike ride to a Pancake restaurant by a lake for a small lunch and then cycled as a team to the stadium where the big match was due to take place. We started the game with ten men and were losing 1-0 at half time. We went 2-0 down pretty quickly at the start of the second half, but the belief was still there with The Accies, you could tell.

Then we scored. Then our 11^th player arrived and the turnaround and comeback accelerated. 4-2 to The Accies, final score. Hat-trick for Graham Dietz, a cracking goal also from Scott Greenwell. An impeccable goalkeeping performance from Dave Rudd in goal – and a solid back four made up of myself, Stuart Dade, Luke Fallon and Simon Mesner. A fantastic return to playing action from Phil Caldwell. Superb play,  and communication from Perre. Goliath effort from Sam Herbert in midfield. Scott and Graham up front – a double left footed pain for the oppo. A much needed stellar performance from late-comer Chris.

Just writing the words doesn’t do it justice. WHAT a game – what a cracking bunch of lads the oppo continue to prove themselves to be!

Does it get any better than winning 4-2 after being 2-0 down, away – with 55 minutes with ten men?

Well, yes.

After the game – the generous Dutch provide several crates of lager. One of them, Dutch legend Nils then provides storage for bags and accompanies us to the Excelsior ground – having arranged for the entire Accies team to get tickets for just ten Euros each for their clash with Dordrecht (final score 1-1). Great atmosphere, more beers during the game – great company and yet more smiles all round.

Surely, the day couldn’t improve?

How about being on the guest list for an album launch gig with now Accies friend Bregje Lacourt? Thanks to the friendship between Simon Mesner and Bregje – which started some 7 years ago on a previous Accies Rotterdam trip, we found ourselves supping more beer whilst watching this fantastic gig.

Then on for more beers, in several bars etc. with some taking the opportunity to rest up at the accommodation, or hit the clubs – ultimately and basically just have a fantastic time, in the company of friends and team-mates.

I doubt I’ve even covered 10% of the magnificence of this latest Accies club trip – and my only regret is that more Accies weren’t there to experience it as well.

We have the 15^th Anniversary game and celebrations coming up on Saturday 4^th October and I look forward to enjoying that with you and your friends and family. Plans are already being made for Spain 2015 and Rotterdam 2015 – and my extra £10 a month into the club is definitely going to continue to ease the financial burden of these when they come around.

My advice is to do the same if you think you need to. Get the dates in your diary as soon as you know them, along with all the other social events – because these weekends and events are without question an integral part of the past, present and future of the Effra Academicals – and without question are some of the greatest weekends I’ve ever experienced – and will continue to do so for many years, hopefully in your company.

Up The Accies!

Andrew Dade

Effra Academicals Club Captain and Club Secretary.

Just updated the ALL-TIME ACCIES 11-A-SIDE STATS…

…I note with interest that Perre Heath, or DhaniDhanz to his army of YouTube subscribers, is on 99 goals, one short of becoming our second ever 11-a-side goalscoring centurion. He's scored in the last 3 consecutive matches.  Hope he doesn't read this, because that would surely jinx any chance he has of getting his 100th goal tomorrow night…

[Update, 12 September: the wait goes on!  He'll have to score it in Rotterdam now…)

If I had my way, all Accies players would be on the same money as this…

What Falcao earns

H and H brief match report.

Just wanted to register my appreciation and admiration with regards to last night's match. We really shook H and H out of their misplaced complacency with what I would say was the best TEAM performance for a while.
Although we lost, it was only really in the last 15 minutes when the oppo started to feel that they were going to win.
It would be disingenuous to pick out individuals as I thought we were excellent as a team however Perre looked hungry for the ball and linked up well with Scott and the midfield. Andy and Simon were solid there and I thought Dane caused lots if problems on the right.
Lee and Barry worked well together at the back and overall we chased and compressed them whilst also offering credible opportunities up front.
We were good value for the 2-2 score line at half time and they knew it.
Only near the end did H and H start to dominate but we always looked threatening, something that started to play on their confidence and really shook them, in the first half in particular.
Well done. You should be proud of yourselves. So let's take this on to the next game. Self- belief and a great team spirit will always be successful!!!

Now That's What I Call A Football Blog

Non-league dogs.

Tonight's game OFF due to heavy rain.

Hey guys, always remember when something seems too good to be true, it is. As you may recall Palace told us that the grass pitch would be available all summer except for the 3 dates in late June/July. However the pitch needs re-seeding (no surprise, as this is what has happened each of the last 10 years) and we can't use it during August. So we have booked the bar pitch astro for 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th August. Kick offs will be 8.30 pm, meet from 7.45 pm (the earlier kick offs planned will have to start in September). Sorry about this but it's the usual Palace poor organisation. See you on Thursday in astro boots.

If I scored an own goal this spectacular…

…I think I'd have to celebrate it.

Last week

Gents

Where do I start. Last week was the most embarrassed I've ever felt being the captain of the team and I don't make that statement lightly. I'm supposed to pick the squad based on form fitness and commitment, well we might need a few ringers after last week. By commitment I don't just mean the hard tackles and the occasional shout I mean the countless times we swung a lazy leg at a misplaced pass or the countless times we left one of our Own players surrounded with no one to pass the ball to. At the back especial the first half we where a shambles I don't remember a tackle on there striker he was allowed to turn again and again. The midfield offered no help to the back four or the forwards and we allowed them to just walk towards our goal with ball way to many times.Upfront we where flat footed and I asked for there defence to be pressurised which didn't happen. There was a slight improvement in the second half but the damage was done and when the oppo offers us there keeper so their star player can go in goal and give us a chance only shows how bad we really where. Some of you may think I'm going overboard but I think this needs to be said. We may aswell scrap the 3 touch rule as those who do stick to it we only seem to be able to play the ball backwards until we either get tackled or boot it out of play, but much worse there are still players who cannot get this rule and those who when asked to play in a certain position seem to think they know better than me and go where they like!! Well gents why not put your name in the hat for captain then you can put yourself wherever you want but until then if this happens again you will be immediately substituted and don't be surprised if you miss the next week. The only saving grace is that we play Monday night so not long to get this out of our systems.

I hope we can take this on board and get going again ASAP

Up the Accies

World Cup Final Preview

Thomas Muller's celebration if he scores the winner?  I look forward to replicating these moves on the dancefloors of Rotterdam and London this September and October…

Pretty sure he meant it