Work smart,Play Hard.

Reverberating Reminisces: The Rush of Roller Hockey

With the sharp shrill of the *Fox-40 marking half time, the Roller Hockey match came to a deadlock of 3 goals to 3. The stop-watch had completed 20 minutes of blistering action. And the same time still to go. The match was a clash of the Titans. The two teams - STS High School and A.B.K. Union School, advancing on their unbeaten bull run up to the finals of the Roller Hockey Championship at AMU, were finally locking horns. Face to face. Man to man.

During the 5 minute break, tensed moments prevailed. Sweating and swearing broke off among the players of both the teams, recounting the bruises, bashes and lashes and the disgracing goals landed over by the opponents to each other. Welcome to Roller Hockey folks, excuse me mama’s boys.

A.B.K were the favourites – bagging Gold in the last five iterations of this annual event. STS were the under-dogs, their hope surviving on the vague memories of their seniors bringing the Gold medal stamp on the CV of their school, way back in 1993. But this was 2004.

The shriek of the Fox-40 ended the water-siphoning 5 minute break, summoning the gladiators on the amphitheater called Rink. The ball was placed on the center. All set. Whistle. With Swiss clock-work precision, the teams began passing and possessing the ball. Passes being perfect – both long and short. The ball moved faster - diagonally and sideways, back and forth. The passing drill went faster. Checking became aggressive.
And then, it happened. Striding swiftly towards the blue line, Union’s forward fired a deadly slap-shot from center right. The ball propelled like an RPG, homing towards the opponent’s goal post’s top-left corner. But the attempt was balked out by an STS defender, who, in a split second timing, lunged forward his stick in mid-air. The mindless reaction wasn’t good enough; it just botched up the situation. The ball only took the edge of the stick, got deflected from its projectile trajectory, hit the iron pole of the goal post and ricocheted off it, landing right at the shaft of the stick of Union’s star striker – Waseem Rehman. With an agile move, like a trained dance choreographer, he executed a clever scoop-shot; the ball seemed to float in the classic banana-shot style and got neatly parked behind Atif, the STS goalkeeper. Waseem tossed his stick in the air – his trademark signature after scoring a goal.

Ecstatic jubilation erupted in the A.B.K. camp, their well-wishers cheering wildly to mark the score at 4-3. A.B.K always enjoyed a strong lobby of supporters among the spectators. Rehman. Rehman. Union. Union. This demagogue became the lullaby, spell-bounding everyone. Loud cheering followed for Union, dealing a deadly blow to the hopes of STS.

It is one of the most characteristic peculiarity of the human race to survive on the last glimpses of even a fading hope. And make a comeback.

Fox-40 shrilled. Order prevailed and the game followed. Masab(STS) intercepted a Union pass, forwarded it to teammate Faizan. Collecting the pass neatly, he hit a powerful slap-shot. The ball lunged forward with a tremendous force and got deposited inside the little iron cage the Union goalie was guarding. Goal! It settled the account to 4-4. The Game followed on. Dodging, shooting, hooking, checking, passing, pushing, pulling, shoving, elbowing - all the ingredients necessary in the making of a spicy Roller Hockey recipe. This stretched the score further, one by one, to a nerve-wrecking, nail-biting 5-5. Both the sides were showered equally with wild cheering, hooting, and booing. The clock had raced towards the final few minutes. The players were drained off their last bits of energy, exhausted, gasping for breath. Heart beats thumped louder. Pulses raced faster. Limbs felt numb, stick and skates heavier. They waited for a miracle, for a divine intervention, for a “hand-of-god”. One goal would do it, anyhow. Only one would settle it now, finally, once and for all. A last one, just one. And then it happened.

On the dying moments of the game, a random hit by Ali aimed at the Union’s goal was intercepted but took the edge, got deflected and hit the floor. The ball rose from the floor spinning ferociously, becoming a “googly” carrom ball. Hundreds of eyeballs tried to follow its erratic trajectory. The ball fell near the skate of the Union’s defender and took a bounce and hopped the skate-shoe cleanly. Defender was dodged by the ball. Another tip and it bounced up again. Now just the goalie remained in the way of the ball and its destination. The Union’s goalie squinted his eyes, concentrating on the ball in mid-air, he pin-pointed on his floating target. Taking a sharp aim on the egg-shaped ball, he swung his stick to smash the ball away. Oops! It missed. The ball touched the floor unbeaten, took 3 little bounces, then stuttered across the line between the goal posts, and rolled innocently inside the goal cage stopping at the inner end. That did it! Goal! 6-5! Wild jubilation erupted again. The crowd stood up and roared to life.
Now the time seemed to dilate, seconds became longer. The clock went Tick-Tock. Slowly. Wasting no time, Rehman started with a pass and headed towards the STS goal to try the last moment equalizer. Tick-Tock… 58, 59…

The Referee blew hard on the Fox-40; the shrill resonated up in the air. 5 sticks were tossed high in the air and the STS players dashed towards each other, jumped and tumbled upon each other.
A deafening roar erupted from the spectators. The crowd stood up again, as if in a standing ovation for the spirit of the adrenaline rushing game of Roller Hockey. Wild cheering, clapping, waving, thumping, hooting, fist-pumping followed. They went berserk. Minto Minto Minto – seemed like bellowing from a trumpet and echoed in the vicinity.

I stood upright in my bed, gasping for breath. My head ached. Was it just a dream…? No it cant be … my body ached badly. Regaining a little more consciousness, I slid my hand below my pillow, my fingers fumbled over a small metallic disk and grabbed it. I brought it out in front of me, rubbed my eyes with the other hand, and opened the grip of my fingers. It gleamed with a golden shine. I stroked my fingers over it feeling the engravings. It read – AMU Roller Skating Championship. I put the medal back beneath the pillow. My right hand felt numb. Oh I hadn’t taken off the STS High School Captain’s arm band. I took it off and slid back in the bed into a deep slumber.
© Zaki Khan

[* Fox-40 is the brand of the whistle used by Referees]