Match report October 23 2010

The 1st XI maintained their unbeaten run and went second with a 3-1 win over bottom side Southampton, all three goals coming from Rory Alexander. The 3rd XI had an entertaining 1-1 draw at home to Barnes Beavers while the 4th XI continued to find the going hard with a 1-2 loss to Woking. The Veterans won 2-1 at St Albans.

1st XI 3-1 Southampton
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Another bogey side to conquer and conquer we did. We took the opportunity to blood Dan Marshall for his first league game at 16 and with Ross in goal at 20 we reduced our average age by some distance with Gavin and Rippers unavailable.

The first part of the match was very scrappy, neither side playing with any pattern or cohesion and the away side had the better of the first 10 to 15 minutes although neither side created anything in the way of chances. 2 Jonny Hunter short corners were dealt with very well by the Southampton keeper who had 2 good displays against us last season. As the half wore on we began to dominate in midfield and justly went ahead when Rory squeezed the ball home mid way through the half. Jonny could have made it 2 with a deflection that went narrowly past the post but he made amends when a powerful run and firm cross was deflected home by Rory.

On occasions we chose the wrong option in the final quarter and so did not add to the scoreline until early in the second half when a Knapp shot was saved by the keeper only for Rory to complete his hatrick by popping home the loose ball. Handbags at noon followed shortly afterwards between Rory and Knapp and although having chances did not add to the 3 we had scored. Instead we seemed to work on the basis the game was won and took our foot off the pedal, becoming sloppy with our passing and running off the ball. We allowed Southampton a consolation goal, their converting their penultimate short corner beating Ross at last following his making a number of top saves.

Highlights of the day were the impressive performance of debutant Dan after a shaky first 10 minutes, a very effective performance in goal by Ross and the constant running of Cookiey throughout the 70 minutes. Rory announced his intentions by scoring 3 but as a team we do have to be more aware of our options all round the pitch to ensure that we do not allow teams back into games. The main disappointment was Danny P's twisted ankle that will hopefully not keep him out for next week.

The next two matches are against Bournemouth and Havant 2s, both of which are huge games. David Knapp

Bank of England v 2nd XI


3rd XI 1-1 Barnes Beavers
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It was a frustrating game, even though the result felt like a loss as we trudged from the pitch. Copious chances to put the game out of sight were missed. Jock seemingly more interested in not getting his new magic stick chipped managed to blaze one just past the top right hand corner! Close but no cigar. Aside from the chances missed it was a much improved performance coming on the back of two abject defeats, decent hockey was played. Dunx and Chris holding the middle of the park well, with Alex twisting and turning up front made for some cracking stuff. A special mention should go to Nige for some outstanding goalkeeping yet again. All in all if we play like that for the rest of the season then we should do ourselves justice in this league. Chris might actually score one too. Chris Bents

Woking III 2-1 4th XI
It was a bright and crisp Saturday afternoon as the 4’s prepped for the start of the game. The impending clouds both literal and looming, did not dampen the enthusiasm we started the game with.
Without doubt it was a solid start, with some great interlinking play, one touch passing, triangles, movement up the wings and finally a raft of Penalty Corners. We dominated the field for the first 20 minutes, and certainly had our chances to open the scoring.
As it was Woking were quick on the counter, and broke through eventually with a ball whipped into the D, through a melee of players, and deflected into the air. Fubs stopped the initial travel, but it sneaked through past my air, and with a spin and drop I was half an inch from getting enough of my stick on the ball to stop it rolling over the line.
Undeterred we forged on, not losing our heads, tackling well, passing firmly and fairly cleanly. Woking’s big hit 16 approach allowed us to pick a few off, which eventually got one to Bish just in their half which he skilfully ran up the right wing. A solid ping into the D, met by Howard’s shot deflecting it up into the net. 1-1.
As the rain fell the clouds loomed!! As we neared the 30 minutes Woking began to attack more cleanly, with some fast forwards picking up loose balls. Solid defensive tackles from Kevin, Crumby & Nick stopped the majority.

Sadly their umpire then saw something that at least 4 OC players in close proximity did not. A shot played in toward the D which a Woking player tap turned and followed.
The OC’s did not challenge or chase it as it had run away from the Woking forward. Fubs let it run it course into the goal, at which point the Umpire whistles and signals a goal.?!?!?!?

His eyesight is obviously far superior to the players on the pitch, including the Woking forward who was made no initial celebration gesture or clamour, so a bulk order of bottle bottom thick magnification specs has been requested for the remainder of the season.

Despite a positive half time team talk, and a second half which had us tot up as many Penalty Corners in this game as the whole of last season, we simply could not score. A few more interesting whistles were added, with a PC awarded against OC for the ball being stuck under Fubs, when it wasn’t, and he can only signal a decision, and a PC not awarded to OC when their Keeper was blatantly lying on the ball!!!
Defeat softened by Smiths version of Heston Blumenthal’s Lemon Tarts, helped to sweeten an otherwise sour taste. Nigel Smith

St Albans 1-2 Veterans
With an availability of only 9 definates and 1 probable on Thursday night including 2 good lads living North West of London helping us out and with the oppo providing the two umpires this looked a tricky fixture.

Delightedly with Dave 'QC' Burles making a late dash from Wales even though he has scored his annual brilliant goal already this year and Richard turning up we had 11 good men and true take to the pitch in this northern outpost of the London league.
Even Tim Green turned up 'early' with 2 mins to spare!

Sadly this chipper turn of events was not to last. St Albans scored early and then our stalwart full back Matt Speers bent down to bravely stop a shot on goal and took one for the team......in the chops leaving him with an impressive shiner and leaving claret all over the pitch. Much as he wanted to continue he was persuaded to slap on the steri strips ( Andy Eve has taken to keeping a large supply handy now given our form for needing these things) and watch the rest of the game where his constant encouragement and noise more than made up for his lack of participation on the pitch.

So down to 10 and 1-0 down. Not looking good.

Enter El Presidente Peter Shanks who had clearly decided that he was due for the game of his life. We lost count of the number of shots he stopped but one short corner..........and they had a few........ must be mentioned. I think the defence had given up after the first block but Shankey boy got up and stopped the next shot as well... and the next and then the ball went of the pitch. Nothing would get past this brick wall. There were no lucky f**ckers today!

I should add that whilst this game defence was going on...and mention must be made here of the fabulous efforts of Richard Wheatley and Wade Pollard for repelling almost every attack ... Just letting the odd few attacks pass so Shanks could get a good game, that men were falling down like flies through injury.

Peter Stoughton-Harris pulled up like a lame horse with a hamstring but gamely continued to make a pest of himself at left wing. Dave B did his calf but continued to hold firm in his trench at right back. The rest of us just got knackered chasing the ball but a strange thing happened in the 2nd half. I think the oppo lost heart and just thought that they would never score.

Enter stage left our wonderful skipper and general good egg Andrew Eve!

We managed to get a short corner. If fact I think we had 3 in the game and the less said about Jon Gray's pass out the better as it missed the writer by more than 5 yards!

Fortunately the A team were back to their brilliant best with Eve receiving the ball and rifling.....ok topping the ball into the net to get the score to 1-1.

But did we stop there..oh no.

Yet again getting the ball from defence, the ball was worked to our hamstrung left wing then on to the absolutely tireless Tim Green up front who passed it back to the skipper on the top of the D who really did rifle this one into the net.

Hockey, bloody hell ... eat you heart out Fergie. You have no idea mate.

We managed to hold it together for the last couple of mins and couldn't stop smiling after the game. How did we do that? I'm still smirking like a Cheshire cat writing this. Tommy Trinder

And this was a match so good that David Burles also filed a report!

Gordon Shanks, that’ s what we call him. We all remember Banks from the 1970 World
Cup and his wonder Pele save (we in the Vets can sadly recall it from living memory) but he has nothing on our Pete. Read on …

We pitched up at St Albans unbeaten. We were eleven good men, strong and true – for
about ten minutes. First Matt Speers departed with a smashed eye, looking for all the
world as though he had been ten rounds with Tyson. We were down to ten men. Then
Burles’ calf packed up midway through the first half (now 9 ½ men) and then Pete
Stoughton-Harris suffered a hamstring followed by a split and bloody shin (effectively we were now 9 men). The only miracle on the injury front was that Tim Green, that master of the 90 second appearance followed by 88 ½ minutes crippled on the sidelines, survived the game and indeed played with undying spirit and to great effect for the whole match.

In the midst of our casualty list St Albans sliced us open early in the first half. It looked ominously easy – a few crisp passes with their inside left flicking the ball deftly over the keeper into the net. 1-0 and we were rocking.

A few minutes later and they opened us up again, our back five spectators as the ball
pinged to their three strikers, lining themselves up. A goal looked inevitable but not with big Pete in ‘ they shall not pass’ mode. The ball was smashed to the middle of the goal only for Pete to get a good foot on it but alas it rebounded to St Albans striker No 2. Smash and Pete goes down again to keep out another, falling to the ground to defend the goal. The OC defenders look on admiringly but again the ball falls to an orange shirt. Surely a goal is now inevitable, but no, Pete springs up and manages to lunge out a foot to knock the third strike out for a push. This was stirring stuff and it galvanised us (sort of). We struggled to half time a goal down, but a one goal lead is never enough, as the wise old heads had been saying in the changing room as they reflected on the Tring game.

Our back five looked solid enough, Richard Wheatley performing heroically. Tommy T
was ever-strong, Wade tackling heroically and down the right the old ‘ axis of evil’ Gray, Hothersall and Burles got some crisp movements going. The tide turned.

Eve quietly converted a penalty corner and suddenly it was all possible. With Matt
bellowing encouragement from the sidelines and big Pete making save after save we
began to believe. Sure enough Eve struck home a second and St Albans heads went
down. We battled to the end, claimed the three points and carry on unbeaten. It was a fine match, we played well – both as a team and individually, but none played better than big Pete. We left grinning.