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Frozen tundra fails to ice game

Hell may have frozen over, but that wasn't going to stop the roadsters.

With the road hockey courts buried under a moonscape of snow, frozen slush and Kid-sized chunks of ice the prospects for a game seemed bleak.

"The Inuit have 400 words for snow, but we have one - hell," said Pig Farming Goalie, as he assessed the task it would take for the game to go on.

Even the roguesters, who've persevered through rain and snow to maintain their game in the neighboring court even as the roadsters cowered, were discouraged.

But the roadsters have been in this situation before. In fact, said PFG, it's rising to challenges like this that have built the game.

"It's just the love of the game," said the agrarian goaltender. "What it's really showing is who are the men and who are the boys; the men are showing up and the boys are staying home."

"It's important to keep having a game on Sunday morning," said Smith. "If it's consistent, you're gonna keep going. As soon as you start missing a couple, it's easy to stop showing up."

Getting the court in game shape wasn't going to be easy. In places, the ice and frozen slush was six inches deep, fused to the cold concrete, no small task for the ragtag assortment of plastic shovels and spades wielded by the determined players. Doo chipped at the ice with a hammer. PFG employed a tire iron. Scooby hoisted icebergs over the fence one by one. A trio of players merged their shovels to plow vast swaths through the tundra.

"It's basically the continental ice shelf out there," lamented PFG.

"I saw glaciers," said Smith.

"There was a lot of ice chunks," said Gump.

It was a big job, but the roadsters remained resolute.

"We'd hoped this had all melted, but apparently not," said Smith. "You just have to dig in."

Gump was philosophical. Instead of loosening up with blistering slapshots to his chest, he lifted ice with his red shovel.

"It gets you fired up," he said.

Gump's frosty warmup didn't really reap any benefit, as the veteran keeper struggled to maintain his positioning in the slippery crease, costing his team an early deficit from which they were unable to recover, succumbing 20-14.
"It's a problem because sometimes you slide too far," said the sliding shotstopper.
Powered by the surefooted mobility of Kid and Scrappy, the opposition was quick to take advantage of the keeper's positioning problems. Even the Living Legend cashed in for four goals.
"They had a lot of weapons," said Gump.

Posted by jaysuburb at February 3, 2008 08:27 PM