A2A- World Cup Party Chapter 3
"Gene, you can't just start drinking before the match's even begun." Alex was apparently munching on one of the Milky Way bars as she looked at Gene taking a gulp from the beer.
"Bolls, I've just sung God Save The Queen with plenty of gusto and macho there, when do you suggest I start then!"
"The Ref's blown the whistle…." The commentator's voice was noticeably excited.
"Guv, Match's started." Ray's voice was also energetic now along with Chris and Shaz.
"Ray Wilkins…"
"Looking for Steve Coppell straight away."
"The left back rather from France…"
"Isn't that Michel Platini?" Ray asked.
"No, it's Bossis." Alex answered the question correctly with Gene and the rest of the men looking at her with the "what the bloody hell expression."
"Don't you guys ever listen to the commentator!" Alex replied curtly.
"and a great shot, and it's a goal by Bryan Robson!"
"GOAL!" Ray and Chris shouted as the commentator continues to cheer on the English Captain marvel.
"Bloody hell!" Chris was laughing, while Shaz could only look at him with loving eyes and grinning from ear to ear.
"Now can I start drinking, Bolly!"
"Well…"
"It's not a question…" Gene now came across as a very calm character while Ray and Chris began belting out Men of Harlech. Weird choice of music to cheer on England, Alex thought.
"You could sing it in Welsh!" Alex noted as Ray and Chris begin to realise that maybe they should switch to "For he is an Englishmen"!
Just as the commentator continues to observe with glee, the English lead over the French. Ray and Chris decided to offer their own commentary.
"That bloody commentator talks like as he's from bloody Coronation Street!" Ray didn't like commentators who spoke in monotone and definitely didn't care much about the words there
"There's Steve Coppell out there, beating the French bastard to the ball."
"Oh what a miss by that soddin Trevor Francis…"
"Well I would prefer to listen to the experts…" Alex winced as she sees Gene once again munching on another garibaldi biscuit.
"Let them do this, Bolls, you ain't no Nurse Ratched!" Gene shot back.
"Well should I let you be cuckoo Macmurphy then!" Alex was surprised that Gene actually saw the film with Jack Nicholson in it (She's once again forgotten the movie name)
"Why not! Come on Bolly, do you know the joy of police commentary in football!"
"I wouldn't want to know." Alex looked up at the ceiling as if she didn't really bother.
"And there is Michel Platini, thinking his French frog skills is going to save his team, Hell No!" Gene declares as he joins the commentary.
"Mind you, he's going to save European football in the future."
"Over my dead body! Bolly!"
"There's Ricky Rix, he's got the ball now." Chris was now joining the drinking parade.
"It's Graham." Alex corrected the mistake.
"Ricky sounds nicer." Chris claimed as Ray continued the commentary
"He's got the bloody ball, now where's soddin Trevor Francis, He's asking?"
"Why I'm here, Trevor Francis calls, but bloody hell the ball just went to that batty Battiston!"
"Right those French fucking frogs are never going to beat the mighty three lions." Chris was now getting more and more excited while the commentator gets more and more boring.
"And this Manc Lion is going to beat the Beeb commentator like how I beat any bloody suspect!" Gene was at his chauvinistic funniest, and Alex had to admit the exchange between the three stooges were increasingly funny, and more enjoyable to listen to.
"The ball's with Rocheteau now…" Even Shaz was joining in as she reads the list of French players and English players together.
"And there's Miguel Hidalgo, charming man." Alex took a sip of the wine now.
"Oi! Bolly, Ron Greenwood's hell lot of a better!" Gene was now perplexed to see everyone joining in the commentary.
"Because…"
"He's bloody English and that bastard Hidalgo is French." Alex would realise that the English and the French have a lot of bad blood, and it's bound to continue.
"Kevin Keegan with that crazy hair of his…" Ray continued while he passed around the Tudor Crisps.
"King Kev, you're saying Ray?"
"Yeah! If he scores, Ma'am." Shaz looked at Alex as she decided that it was time to read some women's magazines as the match turned even more boring than the first few minutes.
"A Soddin miss by Mariner, what the bloody hell was he thinking!" Gene's occasional curses coupled with a lot of beer-drinking did do its best to liven up the match.
"Bolly, you reading magazines while England's fighting its guts out against France, Come on show some balls and eyes, and some dastard loyalty, will you!"
"Oh, Guv, this is not a good sign…"
"Bloody Platini,with the ball."
"Platini now passing to Girard…"
"Who's that French bloke at the other side?"
"That's Samson out there isn't it?" Ray was getting panicky.
"Where the bloody hell is Fred Thompson?" Gene too was starting to panic.
"Another French twat with the bloody number 12 , with the bloody ball."
"Come on, get the ball out of that bastard!" Gene was shouting at the television.
"Giresse passing to Soler and…" The frantic commentary soon halted immediately as it fell to an awkward silence.
"And it's a French Goal…." Alex declared as she finished the sentence, with Gene's seething anger.
"It was just half way through the first half!" Gene gulped down another beer while Alex could hear the French neighbours above screaming "GOAL!" Right above Gene's head.
"Peter Shilton couldn't save this one." Chris could only shake his head as he grabs another one of the fudge bars.
"Who could?" Ray wondered as he continued grabbing another packet of Tudor Crisps and chomping down it.
"Lets pray God gives those English lads some courage to defeat those Napoleon Bastards!"
"It isn't you to pray, Guv?"
"Well Bolly, you stop your French supporting, and I think we can continue a conversation pretty better than we're having."
"I'm an English fan, I don't support France."
"Then stop declaring France's got the ball and give us some positives to work out."
"Excuse me, I have just given you a place to watch football!"
"Enough, Guv, we're still watching." Ray burst out, apparently he couldn't handle any more arguments.
"Definitely better than Luigi's." Chris mumbled as he grabbed one of the Guinness beers and drunk it with glee.
"Ma'am, you wouldn't want to know what he did to the television when England lost to Italy."
"What did he do?" Alex was curious to know what happened in 1980.
"Well it's not as bad as 1978!" Alex signalled Chris to continue
"We were watching Scotland versus the Dutch at Sam's place and Scotland won but lost out due to goals and…"
"I shot the television!" Gene declared as Alex gaped her mouth in horror.
"Game's Over!"
"Bang!" Alex could imagine Gene shooting it in Sam's house and Sam having that same horrified expression like her now.
"I hope you don't do that to my television, Guv, it cost me…"
"Then you better start supporting England, and get yourself in the game!" Gene didn't sound very threatening and he himself knew that if he ever did that, Alex would never speak to him again for a few months or so.
It was an agonising twenty minutes, as England and France wrestled to get another goal in.
"Terry Butcher's got a yellow, yet we still don't get a goal…" Ray had his hands covering his face.
"The French are strong, Ray."
"Have they ever won a world cup?" Shaz asked Alex.
"Well France will win it."
"Will! Bolly, Its not in 1982, is it!"
"Nope!" Alex was confident that she had the numbers right this time.
"Good! I'd like Platini to hear that." Gene shouted and gave the thumbs down sign to Platini which made Alex feel as if he was yet another child.
"They will win it in 1998."
"You going psychic again, Bolls?"
"Yes and England will lose it for at least 25 more years!"
"Oi!" This time it was a collective call from Ray, Chris and Gene, the three men hated any curses.
"I'm betting with ya, that England's gonna get it right this time round!" Ray was defiant as he decided to tell the gang a story of how he met Bobby Moore.
"Bobby Moore was at West Ham then…" Ray was continuing the story while a slightly surprised Alex was focusing on him instead of the television.
"I think that was Viv's story, wasn't it." Shaz spoiled Ray's devious surprise as Chris and Alex had a good laugh over it.
"Yeah, but it was a good story, wasn't it!" Ray decided it was time to have a cigarette.
"Any cigarette butts on the floor, Gentlemen, I will personally see to it that you will pay for the carpet!" Ray soon got his lighter back in the pocket, no point getting fined for having one cigarette at your superior's office.
"Half-time's whistle blown by the referee." With that, Chris went to the toilet immediately while Gene got himself out of the sofa for a stretcher.
"We're going to wait for match-time analysis, it seems." Alex was now having another glass of wine.
"I think we could play some good cards now!"
"Poker?"
"Yeah, what do you think we will be doing then, bloody lady's solitaire!"
"Good idea, Guv." Ray joined along.
"I think we should talk more football than just cards." Alex never liked the fact that one would play cards during half-time. It just reminded her of Peter Drake.
"Cards!" Gene dismissed Alex's request and they soon got into a quick poker game.
"Do you know that Poker descended from France?"
"I don't want to bloody know Bolly that I've been playing a French game for almost half my damn life!"
"I'm calling your Bluff, Ray." Chris grinned.
"Chris, did you actually let her look at my cards or what!" It seemed pretty obvious to all of them that Shaz and Chris were cooperating.
"Oi! No lovebirds spoiling games of poker here, either you play for yourself or you play for your bloody lover!" Gene dictated the rules again, while Shaz blushed as Alex smiled chirpily.
"How many more minutes to kick-off?" Ray asked.
"A few more to go, Ray."
"Ron Greenwood better give his side a good pep talk, I want to see England smash those French frogs out of the bloody World Cup."
"Sadly, you won't be seeing that…" Alex thought to herself, imagine what if she just said what she was thinking again to Gene.
"Whoever loses this last round first has to clean up Bolly's apartment, Unless DI Drake decides to lose her cards first, capisce!"
"Yeah, Guv." The team agreed as they started their last round of poker before kick-off.
"Second Half's up, Guv!" Chris was back to the chair as he saw the green fields on the television screen.
"I don't need to know that, Chris! I just want to know if I can beat Drake to getting the pot here!" Gene was an avid poker player.
"I suggest you guys start watching now, the match's going to be very exciting!" Gene felt a sense of misfortune as Alex raised her voice when she said the word "Exciting" Yet again it's maybe not that misfortunate after all.