IGMHF Nottingham 2025 – o70s Men

Oasis was what it felt like in a bone dry Nottingham for the anticipated reunion of 70s band “Thistles”.  Led by our very own Gallagher brothers: Noel (Ward) and Liam (McCreath) and promoter Ian Pett we held six gigs at the IGMHF festival.  When asked what the aspirations for the week were Noel said “A medal Definitely, Maybe”.

 

Axeman Derek Johnstone took centre stage with his virtuoso performances supported on either side by Donald Dunbar, Garry Hardwick, Johnny Sudale and Keith “MC” Raper.  Up front the barbershop quartet of Peter Klein, Tim Lorimer, Brian de Mattos and Phil Sykes were in perfect harmony with Tim and Phil hitting the high notes of goals.  The horn section behind guitar and in front of bass of Peter Haines (saxophone), John Michalik (sousaphone) and Ian McCreath (iphone) were All Around The World as needed.  The bass line doing Whatever it takes were strongmen Neil Ward, Ian Pett, Peter Reid and Tony Walker.  Whilst beating drums in goal to keep us all on track was Ian Roberts.

 

A Thistles gig is always a big draw and against the Argies that proved in-Evita-ble.  Opening with the perennial favourite: “Let the Oppo Score First” it needed big licks at a PC from Derek when after a keeper save he roofed the riposte with a real Stratocaster.  Next day was LX White.  The band were hot and our passing riffs reached crescendo with Tim sliding the ball past the LX keeper. With us 1-0 up the LX crowd surged forward shouting “We prefer Blur” and whilst we were trying to work out if they meant Tony Blur the ball went in our net.  But LX played chopsticks on Tim and at the resultant PC he decided You Gotta Roll With It straight to Derek and another High Flying Bird flicked into the net.  2-1 up and the Thistles Ladies yelled for Wonderwall in defence and with multiple encores we stood firm for a famous victory.  Top of the preliminary league we retired to the bar for some Estrella, the nearest thing to Champagne - Supernova toasted Liam.

 

Next day a new league and for the Dutch Noel asked us What’s The Story, Morning Glory?  The Dutch wanted Focus but it was Thistles that did the Hocus Pocus with Derek soloing his Radar Love for the goal to meld with Tim on vocals and we won one nil.  After a night of Cigarettes and Alcohol (metaphorically speaking) the hangover hung over; we were not our best and repeated our opener – Alliance were one up.  A demand came from Liam to Stand By Me and we jammed in two goals – Phil forcing his contralto and Derek from PC with vibrato.  A 2-1 win and Some Might Say it was our worst game but We Be Here Now and top of our medal classification league.

 

Even with a day off our great play couldn’t Live Forever as tiredness and injuries took over.  LX Red (gold) beat us 0-5 and the next day Sixtiberians (silver) beat us 0-4.  But with three and a half wins and topping two mini-leagues plus a bronze medal to take home Liam encouraged us to be very proud and Don’t Look Back In Anger at what might have been.

 

It was so much fun getting the band back together though one of us will be forever missing and we agreed that it was only by Standing On The Shoulders of Giants like Mike that we did so well.