Jan 29, 1997	Saint XI (Steve Jones)
Sep  7, 1997	Old Testament XI (Steve Jones, Marco Paserman)

===================================================
From: Steve Jones - JON 
Subject: Another pointless XI (was Re: Get thee to a law school)
Date: January 29, 1997

Rich  wrote: 
>There simply isn't a team full of saints and if there were they'd lose. 

Okay so now we need the all time "Saint" Eleven. Unfortunately at the
moment I can only think of Ian St-John so there is a problem anyway.

St Stephen (Good shot stopper)
St Francis "The Animal" of Assisi
St Paul (good leader spreads the instructions well)
St Peter (a great sweeper always shutting the door on strikers)
St George (combative midfielder)
St Patrick (known for his ability to clean up poisonous problems)

St Elmo (Comes in an out of games but knows the way to goal)
St John the Divine (creative genius with a possible drug habit though)
St David (wiley Welsh winger)

St Jude (often over looked but I think an excellent CF)
St Joseph of Arimathea (tireless worker has been everywhere
  and famed for being able to bring home the trophy)

Playing a back three with the sweeper just behind   

                       St Stephen

                         St Peter

          St Patrick   St Paul   St Francis   

        St David  St George  St John    St Elmo

               St Jude        St Joseph

But I have my doubts whether this could beat an OT XI as they have noone
who could shut down the defence splitting Moses.

:-)


========================
Subject: Re: ATHENS 2004
Date: Sun, 07 Sep 1997 23:15:34 +1000
From: Steven Frilingos 

akamoke@aol.com (Akamoke) wrote:
> The good thing about Athens 2004 is that the organizers are pledging a
> return to the traditional roots of the games, I say "two thumbs up" to
> that.

I agree whole-heartedly. Those chariot races should be really 
intense, the jousting will be extreme and the sandals will leave the
nike's and reeboks in their dust!

Those were the days; back when Mozes played fullback for
Jerusalem...

------------------------
Subject: Re: ATHENS 2004
Date: 8 Sep 1997 09:32:28 GMT
From: hm@custard.bnsc.rl.ac.uk (Huw Morris)

The crowds were rowdy as well. Remember the account of the upper tiers
throwing manna onto the pitch?

------------------------
Subject: Re: ATHENS 2004
Date: 08 Sep 1997 09:39:27 +0200
From: Steve Jones - JON 

> Mozes played fullback for Jerusalem

Oh come on Moses only moved there late on in his career, his great games
came for Desert Wanderers in the Egyptian League, I for one will remeber
those accounts of how he destroyed the entire Egyptian national team with
one defence spliting pass (although I have to say the way they dress it
up in metephors plays down the role of Abraham Abrahams who drew the 
Egyptian number 7 (Tut-Tut ?) away to allow the pass through the middle).

What a team they had though.

-----------------------
Subject: Re: ATHENS 2004
Date: 8 Sep 1997 12:18:00 GMT
From: mdpaserm@login1.fas.harvard.edu (Marco Paserman)

I beg to differ. Moses' entire career was with the Desert Wanderers. He was set to move to
Jerusalem, but because of a serious controversy with the coach, he was forced to quit football
before he could ever play a match for Jerusalem. 
That coach had a rather bad temper, but he was instrumental in helping the Wanderers run away
from the rest of the pack in the Egyptian League with that crucial 10-0 win over the
Pharaohs. That was quite a blow for the Pharaohs.

>What a team they had though.

Yes. Don't forget Jerusalem's incredible attacking trio. The powerful striker Saul, 
the cunning little winger David, famous for his speed and for that goal he scored
against the heavily favored Goliath Giants, and most of all Solomon, a very intelligent
midfielder who would always keep the balance between attack and defence.

------------------------
Subject: Re: ATHENS 2004
Date: 08 Sep 1997 15:14:39 +0200
From: Steve Jones - JON 

What a talent that boy was, and with the towering Samson at the back they
had a really solid keeper who was famous for his abilities between the
posts.

But then of course this will just raise up the old arguments of just WHO
should be in the Old Testament all time XI, Personally I've always quite
like the snake for his ability to trap attackers into making the wrong
decisions but most people seem to go for bloody Joseph and his poncy bloody 
getup (thank god for standard kit rules) just on the basis that he saved
the Egyptian Pharoes when they were having crisis against Famine Rovers.  
That kid, can't remember his name used to be called "Chariots of Fire" IIRC, 
on the wing, Joshua the no-nonsense  midfielder. Methusala, didn't it seem 
like he was around forever, the experienced CB. 

Daniel the quick thinking Wingback, Adam the libero from whom all things 
seemed to come.  And of course the much under-rated Jonah who was transfered 
from team to team until eventually he found his niche and did pretty well, 
good player just not so hot on the team work,  Of course no team would be 
complete without the thinking mans player, Noah.  What a talent when 
everyone else was getting bogged down he'd just rise above it and seemed 
to float his way to goal.

OT all time XI

                        Samson

                        Adam

  Daniel        Methusala       Snake   Chariots (Isiah ?)

                Noah    Solomon Joshua

                Saul            David

Cracking side, reminds me a little of Mount Olympus United from the same
sort of period.

------------------------
Subject: Re: ATHENS 2004
Date: 8 Sep 1997 14:25:32 GMT
From: mdpaserm@login1.fas.harvard.edu (Marco Paserman)

I always saw Samson as more of a striker with his devastating strength,
but I see your point: he just had this tendency to make the whole defence
collapse with him on a bad day.

Joseph - he also had some dream moves up his sleeve.
 
Joshua? He had an extremely powerful free kick. Remember how he blasted
one past the Jericho wall to score?

At wingbacks you must put the two angels: weren't those Michael and
Gabriel?

Also, don't forget that in those time nobody played with a libero. It was 
rather the classic "W" formation, with two full-backs, three center backs, 
and a five man front line. 
So my team would look like this: the back three are the classic Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob.

                        Abraham

            Isaac                   Jacob

      Michael           Noah             Gabriel


             Solomon               Moses

David                   Samson                   Joshua


>Cracking side, reminds me a little of Mount Olympus United from the same
>sort of period.       

I'll have to think about this one a little...