Fog descends on the North Point ground in Darjeeling during the football match on Thursday. Picture by Suman Tamang

Darjeeling, Nov. 18: The proverbial fog of Darjeeling football matches once again descended on the field, stopping the first semi-final of the All India Brigade of Gurkha Gold Cup for about five minutes today.

But there was no stopping crowd favourite Army XI, which swept past a highly-seeded Techno Aryans to reach the final.

A poem which was well circulated in the hills once summed up football matches in Darjeeling: It happens only in Darjeeling /Football matches are played with the crowd not knowing/ what is happening on the other side of field.

The reference is to the fog which makes it impossible for the spectators to see the play on the other side of the ground.

The dense fog did not miss its appointment today and the match referee had to stop the game in the second half. But at the end, the football crazy Darjeeling crowd missed on neither excitement nor quality play.

The Calcutta-based Techno Aryans were the first to find the ball at the back of their net. Santu Subba of Army did justice to the superb build-up to make the first strike.

Not to be outplayed, Gopal Deb Nath of Techno Aryans equalised in a short span of time, ensuring that both the teams went into the breather at par.

Much to the delight, both teams came out strongly in the second half but the game had to be stopped immediately because of dense fog. Everyone seemed helpless before nature’s vagaries and had to wait to see the fog clear off their field.

The crowd, however, knew how to idle away the time with the spectators indulging in a banter.

“Organisers, please line up to blow off the fog,” said one, while another suggested “everyone should stop smoking” so that it did not add up to the fog.

The game was not held up for long and for the second time in the match, Army took the lead through a well-connected header from S. Raling. Just when it seems that the Army was sailing through, one of the three foreign players of the Aryans, Odama Baba Tunde, scored through a stunning header.

With lights fading and as the North Point ground has no floodlights, the organisers decided to go in for a penalty shoot-out without the 15-minute extra play.

“We might have to think of advancing the tournament by a month next year to beat the weather,” said Jordan Narbu, one of the organisers.

A superb save from the Army goalie, Chrobi Kanta Singh, saw them winning the shoot out 5-4. The team will be meeting the winner of tomorrow’s semi-final, in which Southern Samity and BNR Kolkata will clash.

The organisers said there was a possibility of the state’s home secretary attending the final on November 21.