Match report December 10 2011

The final weekend of league action before the Christmas break saw the 1st XI slip up against Fareham, the 2nd XI frozen off, and the 3rd XI romp to victory against Sanderstead

1st XI 3-5 Fareham
As games go this was as about entertaining as they come. 2 top of the league teams wishing to play attacking hockey.

We welcomed back Trickster with his new team Fareham and it took one minute for him to make his presence felt when thwarting Rippers in our first attack follwoing great work from CV. Fair to say we controlled the first 15 minutes with CV smacking the post, a loose ball just evading Gaving and crosses coming in with the final touch lacking. to go one down follwoing a swift counter that ended up in a short was a downer, especially as it was a soft goal fromour angle.

Nevertheless we were on equal terms shortly afterwards with Patrick notching our first corner only for Richard Jenkin to score the first of his 4 from Fareham's next corner. at this stahe we were still on top but just could not score. Jenkin was a thorn in our right side looking dangerous every time he picked up the ball but it was not a one man show from Fareham as they soaked up pressure and cuaght uis on the break with swift counters. Two goals in the last 3 minutes of the half hurt but we still felt we were in with a shout.

Will Langmead poached one on his debut to make it 4-2 and we sniffed a way back. Corners came and went, along with a number of Fareham players with yellows but crucially we could not score the third. the post was hit again and whilst down to 10 men Fareham won a short and Jenkin did the rest. Knappy made it 5-3 and push though we did but not have the luck to pull back the deficit.

Fareham were magnanimous in victory and said that on another day we would have won 6-5 but it was not to be.

Hats off to Fareham who came to play hockey and benefitted from their organisation and pace. Never a game that warranted 5 yellow cards and a smattering of greens.

All to play for in the second half and looking forward to the return fixture in March and who knows what will be riding on it? Merry Christmas to one and all. Rex Harrison

3rd XI 5-0 Sanderstead
OC’s finally took to the pitch on a sunny Saturday morning with 14 players, which we were particularly pleased to see included a proper goal-keeper, in the form of Matt Olley. If Matt had been following the 3’s results in recent week’s, he must have been thinking that he would see plenty of action........how wrong......for most of the match he was able to sit on the back-board and polish his stick......no pun intended!

After a 30 minute delay to push-back due to icy patches on the pitch, the early exchanges were pretty competitive, but gradually OC’s started to move into the ascendancy and fluent moves gathered in momentum. An early niggle to Giles saw Nick J introduced to action much earlier than planned.......after several good openings, the ball was slipped back across the D and Nick J converted. Not long after another strong and slick attack end with Giles finshing-off Smeer style on the left post.

From this point on OC’s pretty much dominated for the rest of the game. The constant ebb and flow of subs, did not seem to knock our rhythm, Louis hit the post (twice?), with 2 further goals coming before the break.....Rob finished off off strongly from close in and Nick J later did like-wise.

The second-half continued in the same vein, but OC’s just could net get the ball over the line. Dom had countless great runs and golden opportunities, but it was just not going to be his day ......shooting practice on the menu mee thinks?? Evenutally late-on Nick J came back off the bench to sniff out a hat-trick and seal the 5-0 result. In dying embers of the game, Louis did however manage to hit the right post yet again.....absolute precision shooting always has been his brand!

Robin had brought his full fan club and probably did enough.....when not sitting in his deck-chair at the back......to convince them that he knew which way up to hold the stick. Overall a very strong team performance, which should have delivered more goals, but even more pleasing, it was the first clean-sheet of the season! Worth noting that one of a key defensive rock’s (or blob’s?) was missing! Nick Jocelyn

Match report December 3 2011

Crushing defeats for three sides were slightly eased by a 3-2 win for the 1st XI at Southampton which put us second in the league with one match to go before the break

1st XI 2-1 London Academicals
Another win but another week where we made life difficult for ourselves. Without playing particularly well we went into half time with a 2 goal cushion courtesy of Rippers finishing a loose ball from our first short and Bentsy on hand to sniff out a second, a good poachers goal. Other than that, not much to shout about with CV adjudged to have deliberately stuck out a foot and earning a yellow and Coops dealing with the few shots that were on target. All we needed was a third to kill the game off but not make the most of the corners we won and very nearly paid the penalty.

Yours truly whizzed the ball off the side of the pitch from the push back but at least did not make the same mistake 30 seconds later from the restart after Southampton's first goal.... As it was and with their tails up the home side drew level after some poor defending allowed the ball to bounce around in the D which wa sharsh on Coops who made an astonishing save before the ball was tapped home from the rebound. From this point on we started to play some decent hockey, earn a few corners and eventually score with 14 minutes to go as Patrick did a Cookiey to score his first goal for the club.

We did manage to do our utmost to let the home side equalise when CB was yellow carded for what looked like a Sam Warburton tackle but was really quite inoccuous but Southampton's short corner drill was off target in the last five minutes as it had been all day and we held on.

We are now in second place, three points behind Eds and one ahead of Fareham and Havant, the latter being the in-form team. Fareham next week and so a win would give us some daylight and very pleasing to have weathered the last three games and earned three wins with no Woody and for the last two no Hunts. Rex Harrison

Ladies XI 1-3 Croydon
A fair result against a team sitting just above us in a relegation place but who looked much better than that. We were under the cosh for long periods but took the lead shortly before half-time when the Croydon defence briefly went to sleep after a re-taken hit. It was one of only two shots we managed all day. We defended with our lives and even though Croydon levelled after 50 minutes we continued to hold firm until a defensive error on the hour allowed them to take the lead and they added a crucial third two minutes later.

2nd XI 2-8 EUHC Gamblers
On paper this was a second v third clash but EUHC are a well-drilled and skilfull side who have to be the favourites to go up for the fourth time in as many seasons. We were three down before the game was nine minutes old and from there on there was no way back.. Trailing 5-1 at the break, we held our own for much of the second half, scoring a second from a flick to reduce the deficit, but three goals in the last ten minutes gave the scoreline a rather unjustified feel.

Horley 8-0 3rd XI
Whilst 8-0 was not the result any of us wanted Horley are undefeated a the top of the table and they played very well. That said the scoreline could have been much worse without some of the strong performances across the team. Adam stood up well in goal (especially as a last minute replacement) Rob and Robin were strong at the back and Captain Nick Aston made some great challenges disrupting their forward line. We were a little unfortunate not to get a consolation goal or two - and CD was definately going to score but was thwarted by the full time whistle... ;>)

Barnstormers 4-0 St Albans

Reading 11-0 Hamstrings