Reports 29th April 2007

Mixed XI play in the Roysyon Mixed Tournament

Royston Mixed 7-a-side Tournament 2007

An April day with a cloudy morning and a gloriously sunny afternoon saw South mimicking the weather in a highly successful first ever appearance at Royston's Mixed 7-a-side tournament.

Matches were all played on grass pitches, approximately half-sized, with a considerable slope from end-to-end and some interesting lumps as bumps; i.e. as hockey pitches used to be before astro made us all soft! Rupert and Gemma had assembled a strong squad of eleven for the day, which gave us supporters for group games that lasted barely ten minutes.

The opening match saw South face Letchworth's A team. A cagey affair, with South coming closest to scoring when James' driven long corner flashed across the face of goal. Rob couldn't get a touch on the front post, neither could the defender in the centre, all of which left Rupert on the back post slightly on his heels "half-expecting it not to get through", so his stretching effort went six inches wide. At the other end, some tentative and disorganised defending allowed a Letchworth player to fire in a shot that drew a strong kick-save from Lou.

After the game and watching some of the other teams, a chat about tactics ended with Rupert proposing a radical 1-2-3 formation. A sweeper would hold deep all game, with two players holding in front, and a three pronged attack to give us something to hit. This formation was trailed in the next game against GSK Fryth (a team with a number of players from Hertford HC in their line-up).

Things looked more solid in defence, as Lou went through the match without having to make a save. Going forward, less was happening than hoped, though the tendency to whack the ball five yards wide of Jodee wasn’t helping. Jan at centre-back and his GSK opposite number embodied this long ball attitude, enjoying a couple of minutes of hockey tennis whilst the other twelve on field looked on, bored. South again came the closest to breaking the deadlock, due to some fine skill from Jo; Rupert fired in a long corner to the near post, where Jo spun on the ball as it passed her and reserve stick flicked at goal. Unfortunately, the ball hit the outside of the post and away. So another 0-0 draw.

The third game rolled around against Letchworth's B team, and going in to it we were wondering where the first goal would come from. We had stuck with the 1-2-3 formations from the previous game, this time with Jodee, Gemma and Hayley as the forward line. Two minutes into the game, the Ladies combined to answer the question; Gemma went on a dribble near the edge of the circle, slipped a square pass into the path of Hayley, whose first touch beat two defenders and second saw her cross to the back post, where Jodee was waiting to sweep high into the top corner. Cue celebrations.

Soon after this, and it was time for Rob's annual tournament tradition; heading something hard. Last year at Peterborough it was a stick and a trip to A&E. This year, he went for a ball instead, which didn't draw quite as much blood so Ellie was able to patch it up with the aid of bandages and steri-strips. It had swelled up into an impressive black eye by the end of the day… After a brief hiatus for Rob's injury, the time was seen out comfortably for our first victory.

Around this time, the sun, which had been hiding for the morning, had burned through the clouds, and an unexpectedly cold day became the warm, sunny one the weather forecasters had promised. All the better for sampling the barbeque and beers that the host club had laid on.

In the midst of the imbibing, came our fourth game against Wild Oats B team (a team with strong links with the St Neots club). This was to be Rupert's and Jodee's last appearance of the day, as another barbeque was calling. With Jodee having scored, Rupert needed to make a contribution, and he did so with the set-up for South’s opening goal. Simon had made a run diagonally behind the Wild Oats defence, which Rupert found with a length of the field pass. It was perfectly weighted into Simon's run, allowing him to strike it first time into the roof of the net.

With the Oats, who had come into the match as group leaders, pushing on for an equaliser, South took advantage to wrap up the game. James fed the ball out of defence to Simon. He dribbled around the keeper, dragged the ball back towards himself to beat the defender flying back and swept into the unguarded net. 2-0, game over and our place in the Trophy part of the knock-out games was secured.

The final group game opposition was host team Royston A. South were in a three-way battle for top places in the group, needing a top two spot to keep on the other side of the draw from a strong looking Cambridge City side. The tightness of the group meant a win would mean 1st place, a draw 2nd and defeat would leave us 3rd. As it was, a win was secured with a goal near the start. Jo took a long corner from the left, Simon by the near post flicked at it without making full contact, allowing the ball through to Ellie, running in late at the far, to sweep home. Once again, after our initial score, the deep lying sweeper system saw us through the rest of the game without a serious scare. We had finished the group, unbeaten, top and without conceding a single goal.

The tournament format was the top four from each group progressed to the Trophy quarter-finals. There then followed a forty-five minutes break whilst the organiser worked out who played who. More burgers, more beer, some rather nice, very large cookies and lounging in the hot sun were the order of the day. Games played in horizontal sleet, in some god-forsaken hellhole in the middle of the fens, seemed a long way away. Why isn't all the season like this?

Once the group tables were totted up, we found ourselves facing a quarter-final with yet another Letchworth side, this time their C team. Games were now 50% longer, so a couple of substitutions were set-up for halfway through the match. It's due to this that I know the winning goal came in the opening period, as Simon scored it! Rob, having returned to the side none the worse for his header (well, only superficially the worse!) went on a run through the centre. His pace took him clear of the midfield, and he drew the final defender before slipping a pass to Simon. Simon made use of his drag-back move again, going up to the keeper, committing him, skipping past and slotting into a open goal. The defence held Letchworth at arm's length for the remainder, helped by their male players seemingly having little faith in the female half of their team. It's quite easy for six to stop three…

Next up was a semi-final against opponents familiar from the first game of the day, Letchworth A. Watching other games had given us notice of the Letchworth danger man, a centre-forward with a fearsome reverse stick strike on him. This might not have helped. Fear of the unexpected when he went on his first dribble saw some weedy tackles put in, and he was through to six yards out, unchallenged, shooting at Lou. No chance, and a first goal conceded of the day, annoyingly softly.

Now we were chasing the game and Letchworth were sitting in. Pushing on saw us leave some holes at the back, and when Letchworth fired a ball in to one of their girls, unmarked in the circle, it needed a great save by Lou, blocking the rising deflection with her chest, to keep us in touch. When then had our chance to equalise when James got down the left flank and crossed; Rob got ahead of his marker to turn goalwards at the near post. On to the near post, and across the face of goal, with Simon wrong footed for the rebound. This was as close as we got, so a great effort, but no final appearance.

The squad stuck around, enjoying the event for the rest of the day. In the plate final Royston A beat Cheshunt on penalty-flicks after a 0-0 draw, and in the main event Cambridge City beat Letchworth, also on flicks, this time after a 2-2 draw. It was City's third consecutive win in the event, apparently.

At the award ceremony, South picked up the fair play shield, in no small part because no-one complained about an umpiring decision in any of our matches. If there had been an award for this, Lou would have been in the running for best keeper, with only 1 goal conceded all day. The next best keeper saw three go past them. Most of the other keepers were six-foot plus blokes, as well…