roadhockey.net

For the love of the game

When Gump saw the frozen expanse of the road hockey court on Saturday, he knew more than just Sunday's game was in peril.

With the season already reeling from three previous game cancellations due to weather, attendance flagging, and many of the league's stalwart veterans indifferent to their commitment, the veteran shotstopper sensed the loss of yet another game could be the death blow, the beginning of a long slide towards Sunday mornings spent in front of the television watching Oral Roberts instead of chasing the evil orange plastic ball or spearing the Kid.

"I looked at it and I thought about the long term roadsters," said Gump.

So he got the emergency shovel he keeps in the trunk of his car and he set about chipping away at the moonscape of frozen snow and slush that had entombed the concrete court. He only got about halfway, but it was enough to give hope to the rest of the roadsters, who showed up in force Sunday armed with shovels, rock salt and renewed determination.

"This is huge," said Gump, taking a break from the pre-game work gang. "This is the roadsters saying nothing will stand in our way. This is what road hockey is all about. This is why I love the game of road hockey."

It was that love for the game that fueled the roadsters as they toiled for almost an hour, chopping doggedly at the frozen remnants of two weeks of snow, ice and rain storms, then pushing the chunks into the corners as other players salted and scraped the remaining icy patches.

"I'm standing here pounding on the ice with the butt end of my stick and normally I'm pounding on another player with the butt end of my stick," said notorious gameshow host gone bad, Wink, who labored just as hard as the others, even though he had to leave before the game could begin in earnest to service the onerous demands of his exploitive employer. "That tells you we really wanna play. It would have been easy to look at this today and just go home."

"This is a hell of an effort," said Beetle Boy, as he prepared to play his first game in almost three months. "It shows the true spirit of road hockey."

That spirit has been challenged like never before this season. Only one game, the second of the season, has been played in completely dry conditions. Weary of the wet and cold and the possible injuries the slick concrete court could cause, many of the roadsters stayed away; Lobsterboy, Pig Farming Goalie, the Colonel, Shakey and Wendel have only played once, Paul One, John Boy and Buzz have yet to start.

"It's been pretty tough to get motivated to come out," said Beetle Boy, an avowed fair-weather player who blames his truancy this season on work commitments. "I mean, the weather has just been crazy this year, with snowstorms and rainstorms and windstorms. It makes it tough to get up in the morning on Sundays."

"I think (the weather) affected the game, until today," said Wink.

Indeed, it was as if the roadsters' heroic effort to clear the court and not lose another game to adverse weather was their declaration that enough was enough.

"Weather's been part of the story all year," said Billy Idol. "But there's absolutely nothing you can do about it, you've just got to grin and bear it and come out here and play."

"I think you see by all the guys here that they're getting a little cabin fever," said Wink. "They're not happy with the way the season has played out so far."

"It was important to play this game," said Smith, who travelled 40 minutes to make the start. "We had a great time and that reminds us why we're out here."

"This is one of those things that can really bring people together," said Gump. "This is what road hockey has been lacking all season, a little bit of spirit."

The spirit of the pre-game cleanup carried into the game, as Gump and his mates hung on for a 20-16 win despite a ferocious comeback by their feisty opponents that narrowed the margin to two late in the contest.

"We were sitting back a little towards the end," said Smith of his side's late-game lull that almost cost them the victory as their advantage shrank from five goals to two before they ended it with a flurry. "We were done, we'd been shoveling snow and we were exhausted."

Posted by jaysuburb at January 22, 2007 07:19 AM