Match Reports - October 6 2012

Another good weekend with excellent results throughout. The 1st XI turned in a slick show to beat Chichester 5-1 while the 2nd XI also maintained their 100% start at Old Reigatians. The Ladies drew 3-3 at Wayfarers while the 4th XI won 5-2 at Oxted and the Hamstringers recorded their first win of the season, beating Old Loughtonians 1-0.

The second goal for the 1st XI early in the first half

1st XI 5-1 Chichester
Click here for match photos
Another scorching Saturday and this meant one thing - danger.

Sam Carne’s skin was now in serious danger of blistering, after once again forgetting his sun block. This has now become a serious concern to the OCs and nearly forced coach Gary into making a late change. Fortunately for us and rather unfortunately for Chichester he made it through the game with no major repercussions, other than the obvious permanent defects he has to bear each day.

In order to divert another potential disaster, teammate Simon Connolly has decided to splash out on a technological wonder to resolve the situation - a solar powered sunhat fully equipped with water spray. This genius invention will allow our pasty, ginger centre back to be fit and ready in temperatures soaring well above 30 degrees. Although not yet approved by the English Hockey League we are hopeful that for medical reasons this will be accepted in the near future.

It was not only Sam Carne who was in danger on Saturday afternoon, all 11 Chichester players were left shaking in their boots when OC’s passed and penetrated with such finesse that Barcelona themselves would be warmly applauding. The return of the Ripley brothers did nothing to boost our chances of winning ‘sexiest team of the year’, however, they more than played their part in and for that we were grateful.

Any nerves that may have niggled prior to the game were quashed within minutes, George Cover slinging the ball from outside the top of the day for Jay Harman to delicately glance over the goalie. The lead was doubled soon after when a short corner was converted into the bottom corner by Hunter, a deserved lead after just 15 minutes of action. A third soon followed, yet another Jay Harman goal, leaving the half time score at 3-0. The players were ecstatic, the crowd were delirious and coach Gary nearly smiled.

The second half saw OC’s balls whizz and whirl past the outside of the post on a number of occasions and short corner opportunities were not captured. Yet the hockey on show continued to amaze. Nobody whizzed and whirled more than Chris ‘Whizzer’ Wiseman leaving the crowds jaws glued the floor and eyes left aching whilst trying to follow the ball when on the end of his stick. Nick Ripley showed his class catching the Chichester defence napping from a free hit and bursting into the ‘D’ before bludgeoning the ball hard into the net off a well placed OC stick.

Charlie Thompson’s confident display up top certainly matched his billing as the ‘new kid on the block’. On numerous occasions he whistled pass the last defender with such ease it was like watching Usain Bolt race a baby, swooshing past each defender with such elegance. In the final minutes it was Charlie’s swirling run, which resulted in a heinous crime by the final Chichester defender and left the umpire with no choice but to award a penalty stroke. George Cover took over proceedings and coolly whipped the ball with precision and power into the upper left part of the netting.

Just like last week the clean sheet was snatched away towards the latter part of the game, a mishit shot somehow diverted its way between Skipper Dan’s legs and dribbled into the corner of the goal. Yet even this was not enough to earn him the coveted ‘Dick of the Day’ award, a clear conspiracy resulted in this honour once again falling on Simon Connolly, who once again was harshly awarded a yellow card. This provided the only dampener on another scorching and victorious day. Final score 5-1. Simon Connolly

London Wayfarers 3-3 Ladies XI

It’s fair to say that Saturday seemed like a battle before we even set foot on the pitch. Whilst the Crystal Palace sports arena isn’t the easiest place to travel to or find, we did eventually get to the pitch and were lucky enough to use their athletics stadium to warm up.

The game itself was tough – Wayfarers wanted a win as much as we did and both teams put in a good fight from the beginning. At point’s it did seem like they had 12 players on the pitch, but despite that, we didn’t let our heads drop. Michelle had a stormer of a game and saved many shots of goal - not to mention the penalty flick that was awarded against us. Sophie, who was nominated man of the match, also had a great game and was a solid defender throughout.

We resulted with 3-3 draw, so a big congratulations to everyone who played. Scorers were Manny, Fletch and Sophie.  Philly Denman

In the interests of fairness, and without naming names, it should be mentioned the coach of the Ladies had an afternoon to forget. After being caught in pretty much every set of roadworks on the way to the delightful Crystal Palace ground he arrived near half time (with the white "away"  shirts) and was then banished to the stands in the second half after questioning the decision-making of the umpire.

Old Reigatians 1-5 2nd XI

It was a convincing outing for those looking for promotion with great teamwork goals and a well controlled defensive performance. One of the oppo commented "you guys are well drilled, you must all go to training ... "

Making up for the 200 emails during the week, Lewi took his goal tally up to five with two more including one reverse stick to the slightly old goalie's right hand corner. Farqs scored two well-earned goals that were created by excellent teamwork, which was also reflected in the team managing to knock up a string of 30 passes whilst playing with ten men. The card was for querying the umpire's decision and no it wasn't Porter. Guessy had a great passing game in the middle of the park and also knocked in the final goal.

Last year this fixture was a 3-3 draw with the OCs throwing away a 3-1 lead in the last ten. Although there was a goal in the last play of the game, the current side is different and benefits from an influx of experienced players bringing both composure in defence and ball skills down the wings.

Oxted 3-5 3rd XI

As usual for away games we turned up with the bare minimum of 11 players; much to the credit of Chris for his hard work at getting that many of us to travel to Caterham.  A very good team performance against an Oxted side mixed with some of the club's youth players.  With some very good passing Old Cranleighans took a comfortable three goal lead before half time.  In the second half we continued to play in the same fashion and added a fourth and fifth goal.  Ten minutes before the end when we thought the game was won we stopped playing, switched off and conceded three very soft goals to take the gloss of what was a very impressive performance. Ed Brown

In mails which followed Chris Bents singled out Nigel Hawes for his excellent first-half performance. Nigel admitted the second-half shipping of three goals may have been closely linked to his hangover kicking in during the match.