If you have read my article dated July 31 you know what I am talking here. The championship matches got over few weeks ago and the sports committee at Indore is waiting for a big occasion to honor the heroes. Certainly it’s my team “Jumbus” who proved that they are the best in spite of the tough competition involving 13 strong teams from across the organization. While the rules remained same for chess and carom, there were slight changes to the football rules that only 6 people were allowed to play football from each team. For Jumbus every game was equally important that only a team scoring highest overall points altogether in chess, carom and football would be announced as the overall champions of the tournament.

While Guru took care of Chess, Tamali and Lu took care of Carom; Myself, Goti, Inder, Nags, Guru and Jagi were involved in football. Though the first two rounds of football league matches were easier ones, we have come across real tough teams in the semis and finals. All I loved is the finals that I will remember forever, and I am sure it’s the spectators who enjoyed the match more than the players.

Here it goes…the grand football finals,


It was always in my mind to make a goal within the first five minutes of the game. Things didn’t go good for Jumbus as we missed couple of goal chances in the first half. However it’s once again Jumbus who dominated the show right from the start. Ball Busters almost had their heart in the mouth when Tripathi’s attempted goal was saved by the goalie, which in turn hit the goal post turning in favor of Ball Busters. Our defenders Inder and Jagi were as good as the Great Wall of China that the opponents hardly get to cross the fence except shooting the ball straight over the top giving net practice to our goalie. The tall man Inder, Man of high spirits, man with courage and determination not just want to play defence, it’s he who always wanted to go forward and shoot a goal, but it’s our strategy and strong opponents who hardly allowed him to move from defence position.

The only man whom I will rate as exceeded the expectations is Jagi. To be honest, it was in my mind earlier to have Jagi standing out for the crucial matches and play Lu instead. But it’s he who proved that he can play any position whether it’s defence or forward and went on to score a goal in the semis and one in the league.

It’s Nags the thief, who put the opponents in a dilemma by stealing the ball every now and then to take it to the D area. However Ball Busters were with a solid game plan that there are at least three players covering our striker Nags alone which prevented him from scoring any during the normal game.

Here comes the man with a golden arm, none other than our Guru who has done it for us in style with a penalty shootout followed by a golden save. I could hear him shouting “Sam come back”, “Come on Jagi”, “Come on Inder” etc., throughout the match that shows the dedication our people had. We are proud of you Guru. A special thanks to Tamali and Manager-Lu for their outside support.

It’s not just football that made us the champions, it’ the hard work from our carom duo Tamali and Lu that took our scoreboard to the heights within first two rounds of the tournament. Also, if there is some one who has done well in more than one game, it’s none other than our Guru who has done it in Chess as well by reaching the finals defeating as many teams in the league rounds.

Overall it was a wonderful tournament to witness and be a part of. It’s the morale and the team spirit that took Jumbus to the unreachable.