Reports 11th November 2006
Men's 1st XI cruise to a 4-0 win over Bourne II
Men's 2nd XI suffer a 0-0 draw at Boston II
Men's 3rd XI continue their winning ways with a 6-2 defeat of Boston III
Ladies' 1st XI go down 6-1 to Market Deeping I
Mixed XI lose a tight game 5-4 to Ely City
Cambridge South Men's I 4 - 0 Bourne Men's II
H/T: 2 - 0
Scorers: Rupert Webb, Mike Thorogood, Chris Baker, Finn Johnson
Cambridge South, proudly sponsored by PwC, proved that last week's success at St Neots was no fluke with a solid victory over bottom of the league Bourne Seconds.
Bourne enjoyed the majority of the possession throughout the game but were unable to convert this to goals. South goalkeeper Steve Parker was on top form and did well early in the game to thwart a Bourne forward when through on goal. But when the home side got the ball forward they were clinical in their finishing with goals in the first half coming from Rupert Webb and Mike Thorogood.
Early in the second half the home side stretched their lead through Chris Baker and Finn Johnson. Next week Cambridge South face fellow newly-promoted side March Town 2nds away, and will be looking to continue this run of good form.
Captain Chris Baker commented that "It was a business like rather than impressive performance by the team, but it is another vital three points."
Team played: Steve Parker, Ron Oren, Jim Thorpe, Chris Graveling, Rich Morgan, Kevin Rowland, Mike Thorogood, Tim Clapp, Chris Baker (c), Finn Johnson, Rob Garrett, Rupert Webb, Eliot Read
Boston Men's II 0 - 0 Cambridge South Men's II
H/T: 0 - 0
Scorers:
MoM: Andy Bleach - a demonstration of solid defending, and turning defence into attack wherever possible
A clean sheet and a good away point against mid-table Boston. Cambridge South were the better team for most of the match, and were unlucky not to snatch a win. The away team had chances, with efforts from John Greaves and Rob Barton disallowed, the latter particularly unluckily as a defensive infringement was spotted as the ball was travelling rapidly towards the net. Both had other attempts, mostly thwarted by the excellent Boston keeper, and in the best defence splitting move of the match, a Suk Pannu cross/shot was narrowly missed by skipper Greaves ghosting in at the far post; his excuse was "It came to my wrong foot".
South used the width of the pitch with wing halves Andy Lewis, Samin Ishtiaq, and Phil Harper frequently making inroads, and the Suk Pannu / Russell Johnson / Gareth Hebbron central midfield partnership was at the heart of many good moves. A good number of crosses were made - sadly unconverted, and short corners won.
The defence were also composed, with keeper Jon Price and defenders John Benedikz and Andy Bleach pouncing on anything in the D and dispatching the ball with no ceremony while Jan Brynolfsen frequently set up moves on the left wing; everyone played his part, although Gareth Hebbron managed to get injured simultaneously on his head and knee at one stage, returning bravely to the fray within minutes.
The last four or five league games have shown that Cambridge South can match any team in the division, helped by a settled core to the team, and an increasingly familiar formation and roles. We now need to build on this confidence and convert it into convincing results in our favour.
Team played: Jon Price, Andy Bleach, John Benedikz, Jan Brynjolffssen, Gareth Hebbron, Samin Ishtiaq, Russell Johnson, Suk Pannu, Phil Harvey, Andy Lewis, Rob Barton, John Greaves (c)
Boston Men's III 2 - 6 Cambridge South Men's III
H/T: 1 - 3
Scorers: Simon Ta (2), James Cobbe (2), Tim Waller, Ian Evans
MoM: James Pope - for owning the pitch
South 3rds, sponsored by PwC, kept the pressure up on Division 7NW leaders Wisbech 5ths with a comprehensive win over a distinctly youthful Boston side.
Goals came at regular intervals throughout the first half, with one of South's own youngsters, Simon Ta, giving them the lead before James Cobbe and Tim Waller added further strikes, surrounding one back from the hosts. That goal had gone past keeper Jon Price off Ian Evans stick, but he made up for this by turning in a short at the right end (aka stealing Tim's goal right on the line!) to ease South further in front early in the second half.
Chances were coming regularly for the visitors, as the young Boston keeper was kept busy. He showed his promise on numerous occasions, but could do little with the chances that James C and Simon converted from close-range for their braces in the match. The final goal action was a really good goal by the hosts, a deflection to a driven ball finding the top corner. Give them a couple of years playing together and this Boston side will be extremely competitive in this league.
However, South are competitive now, and Simon came within inches of completing his second hat trick of the season with the last touch of the game. Tim's driven cross from the right found him lurking, unmarked, by the left post, but his sweep into a seemingly open net just didn't find the target. Despite this, Simon remains the sides top scorer with ten goals, seven of them in the league, in six games to his name so far.
Team played: Jon Price; Ian Evans, Ian Glover, John Sharp, James Pope, James Raikes (c), Tim Waller, Wilco Dijkstra, John Somerville, Tom Rosselli, Simon Ta, James Cobbe
Market Deeping Ladies' I 6 - 1 Cambridge South Ladies' I
H/T: 3 - 0
Scorers: Gemma Thomas
MoM: Sarah Martin - for her work in the middle
An early start was called for as South travelled to Stamford to play top of the table Market Deeping on a cold rather wind swept pitch.
Again South were not 100% fit and another new look team line up was implemented. On a positive note after last weeks neck injury, Tash (who was in high spirits despite the early hour) was fit enough to play.
Market Deeping looked like a well organised team in their pre-match warm up and this organisation could well have intimidated South as they got off to a shocker. A bit of football in the D gave the home team their first short corner which was fired hard and low into the bottom left hand corner. A few minutes later and it all happened again, although this time there was a foot on the line to clear the ball away, oops, the second flick of the season conceded, however this time the well taken flick flew straight past Loopy's right arm and into the back of the net (her 100% record against flicks gone).
South began to have spells where they looked to be getting into the match, with a few forays into the oppositions D, but some excellent defending meant very few shots were actually fired at goal.
Slightly unsure of the half time score but I think Deeping went in 3-0 up. Second half, could South pull it back? Well, no; Deeping were good on the break and always seemed to have someone free to pass to, and were soon 5-0 up.
But then South began to have more fluid passing and more attacks on goal, one even resulted in a goal, Liles passed to Gemma who turned the defender and passed the ball under the keeper. There followed about five minutes of pressure in the Deeping D, with some more shots narrowly missing, but then Deeping broke away and scored a sixth.
The opposition did say that the score line didn't reflect the game at all, so all is not lost and we will just have to work on keeping our heads up when we go behind so early in the game. Despite the loss, South remain third in the league.
Team played: Lou Tonkin, Margot Overbeek, Julie Sadler, Becca Lumb (c), Jodee Webb, Sarah Martin, Liles Dee, Hayley Sharpe, Jenny Smith, Tash Cox, Gemma Thomas, Jo Read, Louise Gutteridge
Southerners (Mixed Team) 4 - 5 Ely City (Sunday 12th November)
H/T: 1 - 2
Scorers: Chris Baker (3), Gemma Thomas
MoM: Chris Baker; for a hat trick and good driving midfield performance, on the back of two curries and eight beers imbibed on Saturday night in celebration of the 1sts' win
South's mixed took on Ely City on a mild November lunchtime at the Abbey.
Ely had been forced to travel with only eight players, after a hard Saturday, so first up some of South's legion of available options were directed towards the visitors. These were Julie Sadler and Phil Harvey, and not least James Raikes, who not only swapped sides, but also donned the keeping kit for only the second time since leaving school.
Even with this somewhat scratch side, it was the visitors who began strongest, going two up within the opening five minutes. First a bouncing ball was rammed home with a reverse stick effort after a high glove save from South keeper Lou, and then a counter-attack sprung Ely guest Phil Harvey free in the right channel. He drove into the circle and wound up for a big shot. Only to top it, which took the pace off and sent it wide of the left post, which wrong-footed and confused South defence and left Ely's winger with a simple finish.
After that poor start, South began to exert themselves. Rupert, Chris, Gemma and Liles were combining well in the midfield, and this allowed South to test James's keeping skills with a number of shots. Unfortunately, they proved pretty damned good. He has been hiding this light under a bushel, hasn't he? Especially impressive was a charge out to narrow Rob G’s angles when clean through, forcing the speedy centre-forward to drag his shot wide. Towards the end of the half, South finally found a way past, when Kev drove down the right flank to the byline and pulled the ball back to Chris B, who, with a spin and a shimmy was in open space and able to flick past James from five yards.
Some half-time rejigging, with an umpire swap of Rich for Jan, was quickly exploited by Ely. Before the new defence had settled down, the Ely centre-forward managed to move off his marker, just about collect a shelled pass from Phil in midfield, and place a classy shot on the spin inside Lou’s far corner.
South went looking for a way back, and came mighty close when Gemma's shot from the top of the circle require a full stretch kick away from James. However, not only did he save it, he also found a teammate with the kick allowing Ely to launch a high speed counter with South's midfield caught in the opposition 25. Nice sharp ball movement saw the outnumbered South rearguard bypassed, and the Ely left winger was in free running at Lou. Rupert, desperately trying to scramble back put in a (stick-) tackle on her as she was shooting. A clear penalty flick, or it would have been had Rupert's efforts not deflected the ball straight passed Lou.
4-1 down and all might have seemed lost, but that wasn't really so. South were actually holding the midfield well, and Ely's defence was being to look tried. Spare men in the 25 were being created by some nice off-the-ball running, and a goal back was found when another James R save only fell to Chris B, who again had a flicked goal from a handful of yards. 2-4 quickly became 3-4 from a short. Simple routine with comedic effect. Rupert injects fast, Gemma cracks the ball at the corner, James R does the splits whilst failing in his attempt to reach it, and then falls forward on his face.
If South could just score the next goal, a win in a mixed game was on. If, if, if. The defence dawdles on a ball and gets mugged, the Ely centre-forward breaks into the circle and plays a lovely cross goal pass taking out Lout to his winger and she gently taps home for 5-3. Damn.
But even then, there is still time, and South are quickly back to within one, with the best team goal off the game. Jan breaks up and Ely attack in his own circle and passes out hard to Liles in midfield (Gemma showing greatly agility to jump over the ball as it rocketed towards her feet from near point-blank range at it’s source). Liles takes the ball up, pulls the left-back central and then slips it down the open wide channel she has worked to Rob G, who is looping his run around into the zone. Rob picks up, drives to the byline and fires into the centre, where the diving Chris B gives the move the finish it deserved. Classy goal.
Back within one, but with time fast running out. A short is won. The final whistle blows. It's now or never. We don’t manage a clean routine, with Gemma being met at the opt of the circle by the Ely defence before she can get her shot away. But we keep things alive and ship the ball on by Gemma, Rupert, Rob to Jodee on the far post, who whacks home. 5-5! Or not, as it turned out Rob had shipped it on with his size 10, and Rich had spotted it. So it ended 5-4 to Ely.
Apart from the final result, this was exactly what Sunday mixed friendlies are meant to be about. Played in an excellent spirit between two good sides, with goals and nicely play interspersed with people trying things, not always successfully, that Saturday league hockey wouldn't allow. We look forward to February's return match, where hopefully we will be the ones with the odd goal in our favour.
Team played: Lou Tonkin; Margot Overbeek, Ellie Raffan, Jodee Webb, Gemma Thomas, Liles Dee, Rupert Webb (c), Rich Morgan, Jan Brynjolffssen, Kevin Rowland, Rob Garrett, Finn Johnson, Chris Baker
Players guesting for Ely: James Raikes (Gk), Julie Sadler, Phil Harvey