Match reports - March 14, 2009

The 1st XI did the business with a 3-0 win at Surrey Old Boys, while the 2nd XI left it late, Tom Merry scoring the winner two minutes from time in a 3-2 win over Barnes. The 3rd XI snatched their sixth point of the season with a 0-0 draw at Camberley, while four first-half goals, including a Louis Strover hat-trick, helped the 4th XI to a 4-2 win over Old Midwhits. The Ladies went down 0-1 at Guildford.


Surrey OBs 0-31st XI
On a pitch that traditionally is one on which we struggle this weekend's game against SOBS was no exception but an important win with another clean sheet.

One up in two minutes when Rory converted following a fluent move down the right, we perhaps thought the game would be too easy. We did convert a series of chances but SOBS looked dangerous on the break with our providing far too much space between our forwards and midfield and midfield and defence. The game turned on Tricksters save of a penalty stroke midway through the second half - no flick saves are easy although SOBS stroke taker made a hash of his stroke - the swig of water perhaps unsettling the taker.

Two minutes later the game was killed off, Rory again on hand to slot home a well-worked corner and Knapp had the easiest of chances at 2-0 to make it three and end the scoring. In between times we missed a stack of chances, yours truly deciding football a better past time than hockey on a couple of occasions, but win we did to go into next week's game with all to play for. Another solid defensive performance but slightly lacking at the sharp end. David Knapp

2nd XI 3-2 Barnes
After the high of the victory against the current league leaders last weekend there was always the danger that some complacency would creep in this weekend against mid-table Barnes. Despite unfortunately having only ten men for much of the game, it was a fantastic effort to come away 3-2 winners in a hard fought and bloody encounter!

We started brightly and immediately signalled our intent to move the ball around quickly. The control was rewarded early on with Ed Breton smartly finishing from close range after a unselfish and important pass from Preston Rutt. Unfortunately, it was to be Preston's final contribution as he was summoned to A&E after his little boy, Archie, had been taken ill. We
wish Archie all the best and hope he makes a swift recovery.

Having lost Chris Valentine to the 1st XI late on Friday, this left us reeling with only ten. Unsurprisingly the balance of the match shifted and a fine finish late in the first half from an almost impossible angle meant we were level at 1-1 at the interval.

We continued to struggle at the start of the second half and failed to pressure their goal. That was until Ed produced an almost carbon copy of his first goal. Drawing the keeper out before calmly slotting from close range, it was a crucial turn as we again prised a vital lead.
Barnes then managed to equalize, drawing level following another fine finish.

A couple of nasty head injuries left Barnes without the advantage of fresh legs but still with 11 men to our 10. We hope that the injuries are not serious and wish them both a quick recovery. It was only the arrival of Andy Eve, summoned from his sofa, that allowed us to return to 11 men, plug the gaping holes and maintain some sustained pressure. After a couple of mediocre short corner routines, we finally got the third, which proved to be the vital winning goal, two minutes from time. Again a fine Wobble by Ed and a well-timed pass alllowed Tom Merry to squeeze the ball in from a tight angle. Two goals from two games but fortunately this week the ball ended in the opposition net!

Barnes had chances to draw level again, notably when a shot ricocheted of James Robson's shoulder just over the bar. But a resilient performance ended in an important win that leaves us well placed to challenge for the league. More of the same next week! Rob Merry

Camberley 0-0 3rd XI
Report to follow

4th XI 4-2 Old Midwhitgiftians
This match produced a truly bizarre first-half in which Old Midwhits dominated the midfield, produced some slick passing moves, and found themselves 4-0 down at the break. They paid for failing to put enough pressure on the goal and also for giving the evergreen Louis Strover far too much room. Armed with a new stick after breaking two in as many weeks, he was back to his best and rifled in three goals from four strikes (we only had five in the whole half) in a crazy 12-minute end to the half. Good finishing and poor goalkeeping.

The second half was more low-key, Old Whits using their possession more effectively but floundering against a solid midfield and defence. Nige Smith was called on to make some good saves, Old Whits scored twice from short corners, but they never looked like clawing back the deficit.

Guildford 1-0 Ladies XI
We started the first match of a double-header weekend knowing we were in desperate need of a win to have any chance of staying up this season as well as for team spirit and moral. We started well and settled well, possession being fairly equal between the teams. We conceded a few shorties but also won a few. although neither team being able to capitalise on them. At half time the score was 0-0.

The match was pretty uneventful and Guildford eventually broke the deadlock with a conversion from a penalty corner (which we are not convinced was actually stopped outside the circle but c’est la vie). We piled the pressure on Guildford for the rest of the match and really took the game to them playing some great hockey but once again just being unable to put the ball in the back of the net. The score finshed 1-0 to Guildford. Thanks to Martin for travelling to Guildford to umpire for us. A disappointing result for us but not the end of our weekend…. Jackie Waite

Ladies XI 1-0 Wanderers

Our second match of the weekend saw us playing top of the league Wanderers who began turning up on mass early Sunday morning whilst the OC ladies were clearly fatigued from the late PB the day before (and possibly a few drinks the night before) and turned up in dribs and drabs. To make things worse our favourite umpire (usual umps for Merton) turned up to ump for Wanderers and our hearts sank (see match report from 14th Feb), it looked like it would be an uphill battle! Still we tried to stay positive as our pride couldn’t take a second loss of the weekend. The first 15 minutes were a bit scappy but we eventually settled and began passing the ball about well and pressing the Wanderers defense. We conceded a couple of shorts but defended them well. We had some good attacking breaks and eventually the deadlock was broken. We won a short with the Wanderers goalie deflecting a straight strike from Dor into the path of Manny with another strike deflected in by Ana. We were 1-0 up! We managed to comfortably maintain our lead into half time.

The second half was a bit more eventful. Wanderers came out hard and pressurised us well. We conceded a fair few shortees but defended them all successfully, Steph having to make some excellent saves both from the shorts and in open play. 10 minutes or so in saw one of our players yellow carded, which should have been a red although the Wanderers ump was very compassionate and allowed just a yellow with the consent of the Wanderers captain. We were down to 10 for a good 15-20 minutes and were in slight disarray, with several players out of position and already tired legs having to make up extra ground. But we were not going to lose this match it was ours and OC ladies never like to do things the easy way! We were definitely on the back foot and Wanderers had several shots saved by Steph in goal having a tremendous match and the whole of the OC ladies running our little legs off completely knackered but pushing on defending hard and getting the occasional break which saw a couple of near misses too! Eventually back to 11 we held on to finish the match 1-0. A well-deserved win at last to finish off the weekend on a high! Thanks to Heardy for umpiring and also to our supporters on the sideline!Jackie Waite