Match Reports - November 10, 2012

The 1st XI extended their lead at the top of Hants/Surrey 1 to seven points with a 4-2 win at bottom side Yately, while the 2nd XI remained four points clear in Surrey 2 with a 4-2 win at Cheam. The 3rd XI followed their victory last weekend with another – 5-2 over Barnes – to ease into the top half of Surrey 2. The Ladies, however, slipped to a second consecutive defeat to move off the pace in Surrey 2. The Barnstormers won 6-3 at East Grinstead but the Hamstrings lost 0-1 at home to Chelmsford. 


Yatley 2-4 1st XI

Character Credits:
Jay Harman – Spiderman
Mighty Mouse – Chris Gray
Mowgli – Daniel Osbourne
Super Boy – Charlie Thompson
Mr Incredible – Stu Ripley
Iron Man – Chris Valentine
Superman – Frank Ellis
Batman – Nick Ripley

To be sung to the tune of "Cartoon Heroes"

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_LPJllaogU 

We are unbeaten in the league
Illusions of a fantasy
All shots and plays that speak and say
We mean to win each game we play

We played last week against Yately
Doing things coach wants to see
Goal by Goal, back to defence

Our foes are so unreasonable
They try to make it difficult
Tackling hard and standing in the way
What they want is what we wish to do

It's all a game of sticks and skills
Doin' unbelievable things
Goal by Goal, back to defence
Man for Man, right to the end

We are the Cranleigh Heroes - oh-oh-oh
We are the ones who're gonna fight for victory
We went to three home venues - doh-doh-doh
And walked out onto a water based astro

Here comes Spiderman, deflection wonder man
Poaching the OCs first goal
Here comes Mighty Mouse, Pete Sampras look-a-like
Scoring the OCs next goal

We started to play a four-three-three
And to track back right from the start
It's true, but we conceded then
With Mowgli hanging from goal posts

And all the things of craziness
Super Boy got a ball in face
Mr Incredible, Ball to the Head
Man for Man, bodies on line

We are the Cranleigh Heroes - oh-oh-oh
We are the ones who're gonna fight for victory
We went to three home venues - doh-doh-doh
And walked out onto a water based astro

Here comes Iron man, Flash car lover man
Tipping in OCs third goal
Here comes Superman, drag flick from never-land
Scoring the OCs fourth goal

Second half is so mysterious
Don’t take it all too serious
Batman was unavailable
What we do is not what we should

We are the Cranleigh Heroes - oh-oh-oh
We are the ones who're gonna fight for victory
We went to three home venues - doh-doh-doh
And walked out onto a water based astro

There's still more to come
And all our fans will be
Welcomed at the
O
Cs
Party
Coach


2nd XI 4-2 Cheam

Report possibly to follow


London Edwardians 1-0 Ladies

We had a good game against London Edwardians. Unfortunately the result didn’t reflect that at 0-1.  We held most of the possession, with most of the play in our attacking half. We managed to win more than five short corners. After a constructive half time talk we came out hungry, the second half of the game was our best. We worked well as team, with some great one to ones. We used the width of the pitch and had some shots on goal. London Edwardians goal keeper reportedly felt the pressure. A big shout out, to our (sometimes overly vocal) supporters.... the Merrys!

3rd XI 5-2 Barnes

The only good thing to report about Saturday was the 5-2 win over Barnes Beavers and the fact that we scored six times. It was a score line that rather flattered us only because by the time Barnes had figured out that they couldn't influence the umpiring themselves in the game they were 4-1 down...although they hadn't actually scored their goal themselves.

The scoring was opened by CB after a short corner was awarded. With his woeful pushout followed by Jock's even more woeful shot going wide the ball was slapped in and the nerves settled. A second short corner followed after some good work down the left and despite the continued protestations from the Barnes defence including the gem of telling a qualified umpire to "calm down yourself before you tell us to calm down" and "get a grip" before subjecting him to another tirade of poor verbal reasoning about a decision which he probably got right if we had the hindsight of slow-mo replays. Anyway another woeful push out, another woeful shot but at least on target this time and CB picked the ball off the keeper and flicked it past the the defender into the net...some more protestations not sure about what but the goal correctly awarded.

A third followed and then a fourth except that was scored in the wrong goal by us but it was well taken nonetheless. Then just before half time some more sterling defending by the back 4 led to a quick break up field and Jock found himself getting further in the D on his reverse stick and then scored. He claims he saw the keeper leave a gap between the post and his foot but I think the ball slipped off the end of his stick as he tried to square the ball to Bentsy who was standing unmarked with an open goal on the p-flick spot.

An inspired half time talk by Bentsy led to a pretty dire second half. They scored one, we were under the cosh a bit but the defence held out admirably. As the game stretched OC's scored another and then game fizzled out.

During the last few weeks I've been party to a few emails about, rather sadly, the ungentlemanly conduct and language that some players have seen fit to use against umpires  - the people who give up their time on a Saturday to facilitate other people's enjoyment. It was something I hoped I wouldn't experience following the last couple of weeks emails but it seems that the message needs to be filtered to a wider audience. Despite the win it was hard to enjoy the game.

East Grinstead 3-6 Barnstormers

We went, we saw, we triumphed. (to paraphrase history). The mighty EG were felled by the lethal Barnstormers strike force in a great game on Saturday afternoon that saw revenge for a 13-0 drubbing last year.

Bitter and dejected by our performance last week against Basingstoke we vowed to turn the ship around. We dispensed with a squad of 15 and manned up to the fact that we would all play 70 minutes. Justin felt a little aggrieved by this so sauntered up 5 minutes late. We warmed up (much to Louis’s surprise) although he was in for a bigger shock later! Mick smoked half a packet watching us.

End of first half and we were 3-0 up. Happy days. A Cleghorn strike, an own goal off a Virge misplaced pass and a Strover special. Team working together well. Lots of calling. Captain Rosco upbeat at half-time.

Their second half onslaught started on the whistle. It made no difference. Break to the other end, ball to Sheriff, reverse stick- bang 4-0. Then they struck (can’t remember how). Si Duncan then decided the pace was too much and got himself yellow carded for a rest. We hunkered down – did we miss him? Cruthers covers every blade of astro. Bud gets physical. Pun chases everything. We stand our ground. Virge then sniffed one off the end of Louis’s stick from the regulation 3ft. They came back to 5-2 (again the detail escapes the writer). Rosco’s voice begins to go up a few octaves – he’s worried. Cavalry charge continues and score goes to 5-3. Three minutes to go and Newton decides to stop passing to his opposite number and fires one into the back of the net. 6-3.

We then warmed down. Louis needed briefing on what this was. First time ever apparently.

Cheers and beer all round. Great team effort. Simon Marshall

Hamstrings 0-1 Chelmsford

Report  not going to happen