Match Reports - November 17, 2012

The 1st XI maintained their seven-point lead at the top of Hampshire/Surrey 1 despite a 0-0 draw at home to Epsom but the 2nd XI are now only one point clear in Surrey 2 after going down 0-3 to London Edwardians. The Ladies moved back to third in Surrey 2 with an excellent 4-2 win at second-placed Tulse Hill, the 3rd XI lost 1-2 at Wanderers while the Barnstormers thrashed Tring 5-0 

The key moment as Epsom's penalty-flick on the stroke of half-time is saved

1st XI 0-0 Epsom

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This week’s match report was entrusted to the live-wire traffic hazard Cookie.  It duly arrived but gave every impression that he was not so much off the pace as watching an altogether different game, possibly a different sport altogether.  The only hope was the filed report was an attempted parody, but Charterhouse is not renowned for teaching such skills so the jury is out on that one.

The game others played in and watched was a gritty battle with all but one of the few chances going to Epsom – indeed we only called on their keeper to make one  real save midway through the second half.  For our part we relied on doughty defence and a series of good stops from Dan Osborne; the key one came in the last minute of the first half when Nick Wood cynically/intelligently, depending on which bench you were sitting on, prevented a certain goal and Dan saved the resulting flick.

Most of the second half was played in the middle third of the pitch where we picked up cards for some innocuous tackles, briefly threatening to make a placid game boil over.  That we failed to win a short corner after the break was a fair reflection on our failure to really exert enough pressure or make the most of our possession. However, the first clean sheet of the season for OCs was indicative of the fact the chances for Epsom (barring the stroke), were restricted to a short corners and balls across the D for deflections. 

At the final whistle a share of the spoils was probably a fair result even though Epsom had the lions share of possession. The drop of two points was made all the better when immediately after, Bournemouth, who could have cut our lead to five points, lost to tenants London Academicals to leave us seven points clear.  

It seems only fair to give the final word to one of Charterhouse’s finest alumnae.  “After the whole game camped in their own 25 Epsom were relieved to hear the final whistle blown. A beer after a victory always tastes sweet however, a beer after dominating a game with so many high points and positives tastes almost as sweet, and it was a sweet beer drunk in the bar by the OC team after the game this week.”

Perhaps Cookie had been at the “sweet beer” a little too much?

Tulse Hill & Dulwich 2-4 Ladies

Report to follow

London Edwardians 3-0 2nd XI

The 2’s had a tough game away against London Edwardians who have also had a good start to the season.

It seems London Eds had heard about the OC 2s ambitions this year so they turned up with 14 (or was it 15...one of the players wasn't in their team selection on Friday) and a quick glance showed that some of those playing had national league experience...although he did start on the bench. Still it's the standard of hockey and level of players we strive to play against and we had enough experienced heads in our squad too. But it turned out to be just one of those days where the little bobbles and luck didn't go our way. But let's take nothing away from a very good Eds team, it was a very enjoyable game and they showed they will be there or there abouts at the end of the season. 

With some new faces in the team and a few players missing , it took us a far too long to find our feet which ultimately lost us the game. Within the first 10 minutes we had conceded two goals from loose play and one such attack that lead to a 4 on 1 which London Edwardians made the most of.

A few tweaks were made and a new OC’s team was very visible. We started playing our normal hockey and held the lion’s share of the possession. We had 3 or 4 short corners and a few missed opportunities that went begging before half time. It also needs to be mentioned that the London Edwardians keeper also made 2 or 3 simply fantastic saves that in any other game would have all gone in.

After half time we continued as we left the first half with a lot of the ball and creating short corners as well as again a few opportunities, alas the frustration was being to come out and it was soon clear that we were pressing harder and harder to make the break through but to no avail. It was clear that this was not to be our day. After sustaining the pressure the opposition did what they clearly have practiced and are very good at doing and took the ball from their 16 to the half way line in 2 passes with 1 or 2 defenders back the result was inevitable and they slotted in their third goal.

What is clear from this game is that we had most of the ball and didn’t take our chances. Having had around 7 short corners, the obvious question is how did we not score any? Answer – we don’t practice them and deciding on what to do 3 seconds before we do it and hoping the end result will be the desired one just simply will not work.

Not many came for beers after the game, fair enough I was told about 3 or 4 of them (CONGRATULATIONS to Cato for having his second boy only on the Monday – great commitment in playing on Saturday and managing to persuade the wife to let you out. NOT SURE HOW YOU DID THAT!!) also people wanted to rush off and watch the rugby. The few that did go for a beer came to the conclusion that we really need to think about what we are trying to get out of this season. What was discussed and what I will be proposing moving forward will follow in an email with this week’s team sheet.

Overall a good game some good performances but a distinct lack of direction in what we were trying to achieve moving forward and ultimately how we were trying to achieve it. 2^nd defeat of the season and now we are only 1 point ahead of next week’s opposition wanderers 4’s who are 2^nd in the league. This is an absolute must win game for us! Lewi

Wanderers 2-1 3rd XI

Report to follow


Barnstormers 5-0 Tring

After last weeks superb victory away to East Grinstead the Barnstormers were looking to consolidate their league position with a win at home against Tring.

We started well but with Tring packing their midfield we found it difficult to get our passing game going. However, we eventually turned our possession into goals and our first came off a short corner variation. Sheriff cunningly dragging his strike wide of the first wave, keeper and goal for Knappy to sweep it in. We continued to control the match and frustrated Tring at every opportunity. After half an hour we went 2-0 up, courtesy of an own goal – the second in as many weeks. With us controlling the game, Tring became increasingly vocal which resulted in a yellow card on the stroke of half time for swearing…very irresponsible and with no substitutes it would cost them in the 2nd half.

After a few sensible words at halftime we upped the tempo and threw the ball around, switching it around the back at will. This created numerous chances and short corner opportunities but with their keeper in good form saw us unable to increase the score. 2-0 is a very dangerous score line and with Tring trying to catch us on the break it was up to Mick to pull off a superb save to keep them out. Injuries then started to take their toll on us and we had to shuffle the team around a bit. Virge directing things from the sideline (not sure if he was injured, just having a rest or had realised a card was imminent after a string of poor tackles) made an inspired tactical change that saw Bud move up from left back to centre forward. The rest was history and Bud promptly slotted two goals to ease the nerves, the second coming after a flowing length of the field move up the right. Poen completed the rout with a goal from a tight angle to make it 5-0.

Five goals and a clean sheet - all in all a very satisfying way to spend a Saturday.