Match Reports - October 20, 2012

Wins for the 1st XI and 2nd XI meant both teams consolidated their positions at the top of their respective leagues. The 1st XI beat bottom side Havant 5-2 while the 2nd XI came from 3-4 down to beat NPL 5-4 thanks to two late goals. The Ladies beat Wimbledon to move third in Surrey 2, but the 3rd XI were well beaten at Sunbury to slide into the bottom third of their league. The Barnstormers beat HAC 4-2. 

Havant's keeper kept a clean sheet in the second half with a string of excellent saves

1st XI 5-2 Goan
Click here for match photos

After three games Old Cranleighans were sitting like the Queen on top of the throne waving prettily at the peasants at the foot of the table and guess what, the peasants decided to show at the OC stadium this week. Although Havant were squatting at the bottom they had a point to prove in this top Vs bottom clash.

This was a fixture that delighted our ginger centre back, who had three of his ginger brothers playing in the opposition line-up. The ginger quartet spoke in ‘ginglish’ throughout the game, a language only known and spoken by that breed of human being. One passer by was quoted as saying “it was a sight for sore eyes” and another saying “they should be locked up, they were vulgar throughout”. One thing was for certain, nobody envied them. Their look, their style, their complexion, left a lot to be desired and ginger quotas are being looked at more seriously by the league officials following this unprecedented turnout. Complete exclusion may be the only way to quash this epidemic.

Gingers to one side, the game begun just as the capacity crowd would have expected. Just like Prince Harry’s very own Jewel Crowns in his Vegas hotel suite, balls were pinging to and fro between OC sticks.

It was only OC’s who were doing the laughing in the first half. The forwards moved quicker than the Jamaican relay team, the midfield worked harder than they had ever worked before and the defence, well, they just watched and applauded. Which left Mowgli with absolutely nothing to do. One onlooker said he saw the Jungle-born and raised goalkeeper watching most of the game swinging from the branches of the treetops (in full goalkeeping kit).

The goals flew in. Chris ‘Whizzer’ Wiseman whizzed in two early goals, celebrations were mild, OC’s were hungry for more and Jay Harman netted in No. 5 for the season. A rampant OC’s showed little signs of sitting back and whilst Havant hit one on the break OC’s fired back with two more from both Cookiey and Simon ‘Spaz’ Connolly from close range. A relentless and persistent first half display left the score at a firm 5-1 smashing to OC’s.

But, if ever there was a game of two halves this was it. An OC team talk demanding more of the same resulted in very little of this. A poor second half performance? A better Havant display? Perhaps a combination of the two. A half to be forgotten from the OC perspective. Some missed chances, but sadly some hockey played in stark contrast to that of the first half resulting in Havant scoring the only goal of the half. This left OC’s in despondent mood come the final whistle and greater efforts need to be made to ensure that the high standard of hockey achieved can be maintained throughout the whole game. This is of paramount importance come next week’s 1^st Vs 2^nd clash away at Barnes.

Smiler Update: Scowls only this week from Coach Gary and he actually said “OMG” to the Umpire. Despite achieving 4 wins out of 4, he is running dangerously close to a vote of no confidence. Simon Connolly

In the interests of our family audience certain references to the intimate areas of members of the Royal family have been edited

NPL 4-5 2nd XI

What a morning. Firstly I am writing this purely because the opposition’s captain didn’t get back to me and let me know where the pitch was or what shirts we were to play in etc. With some disruption to the team very last minute it turn out that I also got the numbers wrong and ended up with only 11 players.

With absolutely no warm up, we strolled on the pitch still half asleep and completely unprepared. Subsequently we started slowly and gave the ball away very easily, eventually after the opposition missed a couple of golden chases to catch us in our sleepy states there was a scrap in the oppositions D with Charlie Smith coming out on top and slotting it past the keeper to put us one ahead.

We then started moving the ball around quite nicely and just when we were starting to look good the game got a bit heated, Ports in fairness didn't do anything but the opposition kicked off about nothing and they somehow both managed to get yellow cards! We then lost our heads when we should have been capitalising as the other team seemed to be falling apart, but then they scored to make it 1-1. After the restart an aerial went up and Alan Cheung very expertly picked the ball out of mid air in line with his ear, he then very kindly makes the umpires decision easier as he very generously walked off the pitch and practically gave himself a yellow card! Now down to nine men and no subs the game took a turn for the worse for us and the opposition scored two quick goals to make the score at half time 3-1 to NPL.

We knew the next goal was key and that we had to bring ourselves back to the level of hockey we know we can play, rather than getting sucked down to their level of hockey. We started playing well and working for one another. With Ports and Harry bossing the midfield expertly; CB making great runs and helping me out on the right wing and Tom Merry doing exactly the same with Nick Lewis on the left we started looking like the team we have been all season. Everything was working great and the opposition were seeing very little of the ball. The end result was two good goals from myself and Charlie to even up the match.

With tired legs and not one person to help rest the midfielders; the running took its toll and the defence lack conviction on one of their breaks and they capitalised on it. 4-3 down. We all knew that we had come too far by this point to let the match slip away. We took a couple of deep breaths and Heardy started shouting!! It work and the OC’s once again moved forward with precise passing and by not panicking we created some space for Gav and just like last week he slotted his back stick past the keeper and we still had more in us. The next 5 minutes had all the passion and feel of the recent Ryder Cup and a team that were pulling together. NPL made their last move and put everything they could into it for Ross to make the save of the game by stretching out this left foot to stop the ball going into the bottom left corner of our goal. That was it, I could barely breath at this point and just as my legs were giving way ports puts the ball into space for me to run onto and before I even blink, CB has spotted my weakness and has stormed past me to take over on the right wing for me. CB showing all this years of captaincy and leading from the front! After having been out
paced by a now Qualified VET’s player I knew I had to dig deep and the team were building the last attack.

With the whole team pushed forward some great interlinking and no one panicking with a half chance shot,
we bided our time and made sure that the opportunity was there. The pass came in for Gav to dive on his front with an outstretched arm and guide the ball home for a fantastically spirited OC victory. A lippy opposition and generally foul mouthed, showed their lack of team spirit and just like Team Europe we certainly showed ours! The victory tasted good and could define the season ahead. Looking forward to next week. Lewi

Wimbldeon Dev 0-3 Ladies XI

Report to follow


Sunbury 4-0 3rd XI

Whereas we were left wondering how we lost against Goan last weekend, there were no such doubts about why we were beaten on the beach that is Sunbury’s home ground.  The home team played harder, switched the ball round well and muscled – fairly – their way to most 50-50 balls. They also possessed a forward who was a clinical finisher even if he mouthed off at anyone and everyone.

After last week’s loss Chris Bents sent a rallying email to his troops containing the following warning: “Abuse at umpires, is NOT acceptable, they are giving up there time for nothing.  Hockey is getting too like football at times....we need to learn to accept the umpires decision and walk away.”  There was a sense of inevitability – and plenty of sniggering – when Bents was the first to be hauled over for a talking to after forcibly disputing a decision.

The fresh-faced side of a week ago had given way to a more familiar XI but for the first 15 minutes we probably shaded the play without creating much in the D.  tackles and tantrums were enough to cause the umpires to pull aside both captains on the quarter hour and from then on things calmed down.

Sunbury took the lead on 20 minutes after a well-behaved Nigel failed to clear and his defence failed to move.  Nigel was on best behaviour, limiting himself to spending the first half telling George, the cocky Sunbury forward, that he was useless and couldn’t hit a barn door from five yards.  By the time George had completed his hat-trick – interspersed with a spell on the side after louder and more misguided verbals of his own – Nigel had retreated into a previously unseen state. Silence.

Sunbury were the much better side after the break and three late goals may have marginally flattered them but the result did not. Early days still but another tough match awaits this weekend against unbeaten Woking.

Barnstormers 4-2 HAC

Great win on Saturday for Barnstormers against a strong and competitive HAC side with what looks like a comfortable 4-2 win hiding a turning point with HAC hitting the post and the ball bouncing away (Finnegan claims he had it covered but HAC thought that it had hit the stanchion and come out !) and Barnstormers then breaking fast and going straight down the other end to score to make it safe at 4-2. We nearly paid heavily for failing to convert a number of chances. I believe the goals were scored by Strover 2, Sheriff (Norman) and a Tony Jones screamer at the far post from his customary short distance.

The match was notable for David Knapp returning to the hockey pitch after a longer break than he has ever had and Steve “I have moved out of Town” Harmer and Ollie Street renewing their acquaintance with Vets hockey. Even Simon Marshall got through the match without injury as far as I know but Sean Prigmore, who had expressed surprise at this unusual turn of Marshall events, doing his Hammy instead.