Well, what a seasonus horriblus, as our Monarchy's ruler might have said! Three teams, three flops; although to be fair, the Old Boys did excell in finishing runners-up in Division 2 of the Masters League... but that was a five-team division made up of the also-rans! So, overall, the 2003/04 season resembled a poor show for Temple Fortune.
It is of course sad to lose the Club's Div.2 status in the MSFL after several seasons of survival there. The Second Division in that particular League has been a closely fought affair in recent years. It has been evenly contested and has provided a relatively tight table, with most teams beating each other. Temple Fortune's first string had the capabilities of defeating the top sides just as much as they might fail miserbaly against the basement teams. Sadly last season, unavailability cost them dearly; when it mattered against crap outfits like Scrabble, a diminishing club in PANYC of extinction, the Firsts didn't have the manpower to overcome them. In one match against the aforementioned team, the Firsts had to draft in a couple of ageing Old Boys players plus a pair of retired misfits just to get the fixture fulfilled. This resulted in wasted points, allowing poor opposition to leapfrog above the Yellows and leaving them in a precarious position. Despite a brave recovery towards the end of the season, during which an encouraging run of unbeaten games looked like saving the day, it proved to be too little too late. Bottom place was assured even though Fortune gave champions-elect Chigwell a very good game on the closing day.
The Second Team were elevated having finished in 4th place at the end of the previous season. Then, they miraculously recovered from a horrendous sequence of opening defeats to rocket into their increbible final ranking, just falling short of the Second XI's all-time record of unbeaten games. As amazing as the recovery was the decision to accept promotion in Division 3. The Club's management, oblivious to the previous struggle in a lower division (albeitsomehow turned around for the better), said Yes to the League's invitation. Maybe the thought that nothing ventured nothing gained entered the minds of those taking this momentous decision, but in reality, they were blinkered regarding the Second Team's obvious limitations. Seven consecutive league defeats in Div.4 just a few months earlier showed that a table higher was always going to be a huge challenge. Yes, a fantastic run orf unbeaten games followed in the latter half of the 2002/03 season, but the stall had been set for a season of incredible struggle comes September 2003. And so it proved to be, as predictable as it was to me. I praise Andy Fridkin for taking on the responsiblity of promotion - definitely against my wishes had I been consulted (which was unlikely as his team surviving in Div.3) - but it came as no surprise that, despite winning the first 2 games, the Seconds then slumped to a miserable 11 defeats in succession. In fact, they were not to enjoy the taste of victory throughout the remaining 16 fixtures after the second of their opening victories. So, for Mr Fridkin, there was to be no Houdini-like escape for the second season running.
With the Club's two MSFL teams failing, maybe the Old Boys were not expected to fare much better in their Masters campaign. Especially because the League structure was to have an initial 10-team division which included the 5 better sides involved. Yet, the Old Boys started in the worst possible way, losing to Clayhall who recorded their inaugural Masters victory. Such an unpredictable opening result against the League's whipping boys paved the way towards a dire first half of the season, the only brighter moment being a draw against the perrenial nasties in the form of Brady. Bottom place come the New Year - below even Clayhall - was pretty dire. So then the Old Boys entered phase 2 of the newly structured Masters section in the so-called Second Division, realistically a group of the five worst teams. But they started well, winning the first 2 games 4-2 before slumping to 3 defeats and a mid-table/lower-table position. Fortunately, other results went Fortune's way, including a shock Clayhall victory over Ashlodge in the final fixture, giving Temple Fortune the runners-up spot despite having a 50% win-lose record! Nevertheless, the records will show the Old Boys in second place, so well done to them. As for the Ralph Epstein Memorial Trophy, a long-running end-of-season match which has surely outlived its welcome now 20 years on, Temple Fortune Old Boys beat Bushey to capture the pot for the tenth time. But just look at the colours Temple Fortune played in... GREEN SHIRTS! Green shirts! Do I HATE green! That's like putting Liverpool in royal blue and Chelsea in red. Jeez, I always thought Temple Fortune were yellow yet they had to play in a revolting shade of green. Even more frustrating about this was the coverage that the Jewish News surpringsly gave the game... and there we were, plastered within a big colourful spread covering two sports pages, sporting shirts of fecking GREEN! Arrrrggghhhhh! Sick bag at the ready!
And that just about finalises the 2003/04 season from where I was looking... a soggy, collapsed cake with a nice bit of glazed cherry just about holding up on the top. No, the 2003/04 season was nothing to write home about and hardly one to be remembered with pride. Let's hope for an improvement during the 2004/05 season.
