Sunday morning saw the annual fixture between the OHAFC Vets and the Harrow School beaks played on the Sunley Field in the usual tricky conditions.

Vets skipper John Wyn-Evans had a full squad available for the eagerly anticipated game and was able to call upon former School 1st XI captain Ryan Dyer for his first over 35's appearance. It was not quite the debut the South African expected however, the lack of a referee meaning that he was asked to spend the first half with a watch and whistle and correctly ruling out any threatening teachers' attacks by blowing for offside, even when it clearly wasn't.

As it was, the teachers helped themselves to two goals in the opening quarter of an hour, the first a fine strike capping off an excellent move, the second an absolute gift after Wyn-Evans bizarrely tried to throw the ball out into the galeforce headwind only to see it loop back towards goal and into the path of the grateful striker.

But as the half wore on the Vets gradually began to assert themselves and were hugely unlucky not to reduce the deficit prior to the break when they twice struck the woodwork in quick succession. Ben Durling connected sweetly with a header from a near-post corner only to see his effort thump into the upright, a few minutes later Lederman went even closer, collecting a stray ball in midfield, skinning the last defender and firing a left-footed shot across the 'keeper only for it to hit the inside of the post, roll along the goalline and away to safety.

With the wind behind them in the second half the black-and-white stripes expected the going to get easier, but it wasn't to be. For whatever reason, the Vets struggled to get going in the second period and the game stalled somewhat with neither side able to put together much flowing football.

The hosts scored twice more, again one of the two thanks to a poor piece of defensive play, but the visitors scored the goal their first half display merited when Lederman broke down the left before squaring inside for Chris Hollins to beat his man and place a pinpoint shot into the far corner.

There was just time for one magnificent piece of 'keeping from 'Steve' in the visitors' goal who flung himself cat-like to deny one of the teachers who had apparently left him for dead on the edge of his six-yard box.

But the final score of 4-1 reflected the superiority of the younger, fitter teachers.

There is no fixture arranged for the Vets apart from the Cup semi-final in mid-March with the weather preventing any play at the Bank of England Ground for the foreseeable future.