Match Reports - September 29 2012

An excellent start to the league season proper with an emphatic win for the 1st XI, while the Ladies and 2nd XI had comfortable home victories. The 3rd XI allowed Epson to twice come from behind to draw 2-2 while the Barnstormers came away from St Albans with a 6-1 win.

Hat-trick hero and new skipper Alex Lewis crosses during the 2nd XI's 3-1 win over Barnes

Southampton 1-6 1st XI

After an inconsistent preseason and a team playing only its first match together the outcome of the first league game of the season could not be called. And as the sun descended on Southampton it was clear that the newly formed team were up for the challenge.

With sweat pouring from the brow, hunger in the eyes and 13 (that’s 11 +2 subs) testosterone oozing men, sought to deliver the dream start to the season. The game started with both times trying to spend to gain some confidence on the ball. Then Jay Harman delivered the first sucker punch, skipping past one, then another, firing his shot before following in the rebound from 2 yards. The team went wild, the crowd were silenced and Southampton were reeling.

 However, Old Cranleighans had no time to be sympathetic they were relentless in attack and ruthless from their penalty corners. A stunningly perfected move converted by Chris “Samprass” Gray doubled the lead. Then player/coach Gary very nearly broke a smile with his near post finish from a second corner. Then with a contender for move of the season (other early competition from Jay Harman’s warm-up routines) – Frank surged up the right, played a one two, before waltzing past the Southampton defence and neatly laying it back to George Cover who took it onto his reverse and smashed it into bottom right of goal sending the Southampton goalkeeper into a frenzied attack on his own goal. Onlookers questioned his sanity. Old Cranleighans simply applauded their forward’s virtuoso finishing. The sun was shining heavily on Old Cranleighans and at half time they went into the break 4 goals up.

Southampton were certainly feeling the heat, as was Old Cranleighan’s pasty ginger centre back, who had forgotten his factor 50 and his skin tone was rapidly matching his hair colour. A second half created more chances, despairing dives and more goals. Samprass miraculously converted a decapitating cross and wheeled away in wild celebrations for his second goal of the game. CV gave OC’s a 6th when fighting off a barrage of wild tackles, before rounding the 4th defender and coolly slotting home. Simon Connolly was shown a cruel yellow card in the dying minutes; a decision which all parties agreed was particularly harsh. This provided the only dampener for the day. A day which shone very brightly for Old Cranleighans. Simon Connolly

Ladies 3-0 Wanderers
An excellent allround performance by the Ladies against a strong Wanderers side which was in the balance until the last five minutes when two late goals killed off what had been an end-to-end tussle.  we had the best of the first half but were unable to convert any chances although, despite us giving the ball away too often, Wanderers rarely threatened.

We took the lead from a short-corner strike early in the second half and thereafter both teams attacked strongly. with Wanderers creating the better chances.  As the game wore on the fresh legs which came from having a full 16-man squad paid dividends and we only truly relaxed when the third went in a minute from time.


2nd XI 3-1 Barnes

“So, the "doodle" proved a doddle and for the first time in living memory, the OC 2nd XI were blessed with a squad of 20 to choose from. In the end, we took 14 and came away with a well deserved 3-1 victory over Barnes to get the season off to a fine start in glorious sunshine at Thames Ditton. Some new faces certainly helped... Mark "Fez" Featherstone has joined to bolster the backline (fez alongside mez - not at all confusing...) and he had a cracking game on debut. Similarly impressive was Robert "Rehab" Glazbrook who had fun in the sun, trying to dribble round the whole team (he almost did). Some returners too - our resident apache pilot Sam "Bomber" Blackmore back after a year learning to fly and Jon Heard back to his best after an injury-plagued last season.

And so to the game. In truth, the OCs should have buried it early in the second half when they found themselves 3-0 up and in the ascendancy. But alas, a touch of complacency made things tighter than they needed to be. The 3 goals all came from the stick of the new skipper Lewi who was in inspired form. Rarely does a hat-trick include three topped strikes which beat the keeper but this was one such rarity. He was leading by example though - if you're going to top it, top it on target. There were others who chose to top it just slightly off target - you know who you are!!  The less that's said about the way we leaked the soft Barnes goal the better. At 3-1, with 15 to play, Barnes had some renewed strength and there were times where it looked like it might get to 3-2 - not least when they missed a stroke after Chris O'Neil Dunne got caught playing footie on the goal line (accidentally I should add).

But we shouldn't take anything away from a good OC performance. Bar one crazy lapse, the defence was solid and it was good to have some legs in the midfield. Farqs had a good game up front, setting up Maughan late in the first half with a lovely pass. Will Guess, Neil Grimes and JP Wack were all industrious in the midfield and Henry was a constant threat going forward. Let's hope that this is a sign of things to come and with some other regulars to return in the coming weeks, it would be good to get on a roll. Also good if we can continue to savour victories with a few post-match beers.

A final word for the umpiring which was good. (In fact, it was very good if you were sporting OC colours.) On another day, a few decisions may have gone the other way. But they say you make your own luck in this world... long may ours’ continue!  Well done boys.” Tom Merry


3rd XI 2-2 Epsom

An entertaining and well-fought game in the late summer sunshine ended all square which was probably a fair result, although it took some excellent goalkeeping from the ever-vocal comeback king Nigel Hawes to keep us in the match in the second half.  Twice we went ahead, and twice Epsom levelled within a minute, although we had - and missed -  a chance to steal the points in the last minute which would have been a little harsh.