Players were told to behave themselves the night before the game and even the coach Ben Walker refrained from drinking cheap bottles of scotch. With this being a first for Ben maybe it was a first that he wins us the toss, but no he couldn’t.

With a full 16 players on the match card there was no room for Brand the wonder keeper, Wilson, Karrrrrlll and our juniors Eddie and Kurtis. But would some one slip up and get themselves a red card and miss the grand final if we made it and then cop a heap of ‘that’s-a-paddlin’ jokes and therefore would make a spot on the bench for one of them next week. Well - stay tuned to find out.

The starting line up was Mark the ‘Kung foo fighting funshine bear’ Harvey in goals. Backs where Ben and Murray Walker, Mitch the flash Wheatley and Matthew ‘the perfect game’ Clarke. Midfield was Mark Aspin, Clare Walker, David Knapp and Phillip Simpson fresh back from his tour of Thailand massage parlors. We’ve never seen him so well oiled. 

Our strikers where Micheal Walker and Adam Green. Our bench was Peter Little, Brad Galvin, Shane Rudd, James Day and Garry ‘twinkle toes’ Halloran.

With the Stingers having the kick off we strung two really good passes together and were looking really good. But then Mark Aspin got the ball at his feet - but he didn’t move. He didn’t know the game had started or just had stage fright with such a big crowd. Condobolin ran past and took the ball and fired a shot straight into the top corner. Seven seconds in and we were losing 1 nil. We knew now that we had a real ‘fight’ on our hands. Would someone special stand up and ‘fight’ for the team.

We had had to regroup fast and ten minutes in we were the the better side passing the ball well and creating chances. Wining a free kick 10 meters outside the box Brad and Ben stepped up to take it, but only one could. With Brad not scoring all season and up for the dreaded nudity run, Ben gave him a chance. It paid off with a nice low but very powerful shot into the bottom corner. Score 1-all going into the break. It was such a nail biter and some supporters were missing several fingers, but we were showing real ‘fighting’ spirit.

With our coaches half time speech we were really ‘ fired up’ for the second half but some more than others. 

We were keen to start the second half the same as we finished the first - on top. Our backs were shutting down their attacks and even Mitch at times was showing some real pace. Matthew was doing a fantastic job man-marking their main attacker to make sure he didn’t score again. Our midfield was controlling the game putting quality balls through to our strikers . 

With constant pressure we scored again with a wonder strike from Peter Little. With good play down the right hand side and then crossed over to the left, Peter ran on to it and hit it first time on the half volley just outside the box. The ball stayed low and passed their keeper and into the back of the net. There was wild celebrations but we still had half an hour to play. We new we just had to ‘fight’ on. We knew Condobolin would come back at us hard but we just keep ‘fighting’.

Then the unthinkable happened with Mark, yes Mark had a rush of blood. He just ran all the way up front and that’s we’re he stayed. We now had new striker and Mark Aspin was doing it, running on to balls and firing shoots at goals.

Now it’s time we talk about the other Mark who is normally so placid and calm that most weeks we hardly hear boo out of him. But something was up, I mean I haven’t seen him this fired up since his brother tried to take him out at training years ago and then Clare tried to crash his date night. In the famous words of the A Teams Mr T, ‘I PITY THE FOOL’ who was going to take him on. It was the other keeper from Condobolin and it wasn’t just handbags at ten paces. OMG - they were trying to throw real punches. And before anyone could stop them we heard Mark saying “meet Mr Fisty and his wife Angnus, their about to give you a paddlin’ of a lifetime”. Both players were shown straight red cards but they weren’t told to ‘hit’ the showers as our change rooms aren’t finished yet.

This meant Micheal Walker stepped up and put on the keepers shirt and he somehow kept a clean sheet with ten minutes to go and the game finished 3-1. What a keeper and the only keeper to keep a clean sheet for the season, but if asked to do it again next week, things could change. Or would Murray or Shane put there hand up? Would this mean Mitch and Clare start up front with Garry and Adam starting on the bench?

Will Mathew Clarke get man-of-the-match again like he did this week or will Ben somehow get some points and beat him?

Well - these questions will be answered and many more next week in the grand final. So come to Forbes and cheer on the Grenfell Stingers as they take on there dreaded rivals the Saints at 12 o’clock. 

Special thanks must go to our wonderful supporters and next week we will have one more, won’t we Harvey. Thanks to our major sponsors the Grenfell Bowling Club, the Royal Hotel, Fly Walkers Butchers and Mitch’s Painting services. And also our minor sponsors Micheal Walkers hair styling products, Gary’s old time bicycles buy-swap-and-sell and Phillips dating service.