Reports 4th April 2009
Men's 1st XI are unable to hold on to an early lead, succumbing 3-2 to March Town I
Men's 2nd XI come back from two goals down to run out 4-3 winners against St Ives IV
Men's 4th XI squeeze out a 1-0 win over Rutland V
Ladies' 1st XI show early promise but ultimately succumb 3-1 to Wisbech Town II
March Town Men's I 3 - 2 Cambridge South Men's I
H/T: 0 - 1
Scorers: Chris Baker, Eliot Read
MoM: Steve Parker and Matt Readman
In their final league game of the season, a depleted South side fielding only six regulars narrowly went down to an under-strength March XI but gave a good account of themselves and were slightly unlucky not to win a point.
A largely youthful March attacked from the off, almost immediately drawing a fine edge-of-the-D tackle from keeper Steve Parker, and South struggled to gain control for more than a couple of passes, although Rob Garrett's electric pace and skipper Chris Baker's grit and determination in close combat won some valuable breathing space. The bronchially challenged and antibiotically reinforced Matt Readman cut out two big March runs on the edge of the circle, once with an inch-perfect backhand and once with immaculate timing in the middle of the striker's backswing, allowing Sanjay Agarwala, enjoying another hard-working outing in left defence, and Baker to finesse the ball away to James Cobbe.
Parker, diving, then clawed down a lifted attempt to his right before regaining position and stunning a fierce strike which was scrambled away by Readman, who then neatly controlled an aerial ball and egg-and-spooned it out of the left-hand corner. There was little respite for Parker, however, as he single-handedly blocked a concerted March assault with three close-range pad and glove saves and then, from March's first short corner, athletically palmed away a top-class drag-flick via the post, buying precious time for Dom Nelson to clear. A second short was stopped by Garrett, who half-volleyed it to safety, leaving South to breathe a sigh of relief that they had survived the first ten minutes unscathed.
Though South still had some difficulty clearing the ball from their twenty-five, more channels opened up, with Russell Johnson swift and active up the left and Agarwala and Readman combining well to feed Baker, who was held up at the left post in the best move thus far. Nelson and Readman still had plenty to do in central defence as March ran hard up the middle, however, and both were clinical and sure-footed in the tackle, even when under the cosh in their own circle. Withstanding this onslaught brought South their reward when Baker seized an opportunity in midfield, switching the ball right to Eliot Read, who found Cobbe moving forward. A fudged clearance from the March back line saw the ball run free to Johnson and his well-weighted pass to Baker was expertly slid home by the skipper as the keeper was drawn across.
A 1-0 lead after twenty-three minutes did not entirely reflect the balance of play but South stuck to their guns. Parker once more denied an open March forward with a well-timed sliding save to his left and Garrett engaged top gear up route one. Baker triggered a natty right-wing move in which Alex Pooles passed the ball to himself behind his own legs, fooling a March defender completely, and a Johnson cross which was deflected wide, together with pressure from Agarwala, Garrett and Baker, signalled a spell of domination from South. Read's direct strike from South's first short was saved, as was a further attempt resulting from the Baker-Garrett slip routine, South's most productive penalty corner option this season. March were quick on the counter-attack, however, and there were narrow squeaks from two dangerously angled crosses as the home wingers scattered their markers. But after Parker had covered a shot that just whizzed past his left post, South took command in the final five minutes of the first half, with Pooles making a hefty central run before being stopped and Agarwala, Nelson and Readman all winning challenges at close quarters, the last-named doing a very effective paso doble to sidestep three oncoming attackers all at once. Garrett made a superb interception play before gliding along an inside channel to find Baker, who ended up in a heap with the keeper to win the first of two shorts. Neither yielded anything concrete, however, leaving the visitors perhaps feeling that their half-time lead was a little too slender for comfort.
And so it proved as South soon found themselves on the back foot after the resumption. All hands were on deck as Nelson (not that one) rescued a tricky situation in the corner and Readman and Agarwala held their lines at the edge of the D with several timely tackles. Parker kicked the ball out of danger to the right, Dave Stock soothed nerves with a clearance to safety and Garrett and Read worked hard to pick up the scraps. March fired the ball in the net from a hit outside the circle after four minutes of the second half but had more luck from a similar situation a minute later when a forward ghosted in near the far post for a beautifully-taken deflection that levelled the scores. Despite the best of efforts of Readman, Agarwala and Garrett, South conceded another short corner which March took from the other side of the goal. Cleverly using the angle, they worked a neat flicked one-two which Parker seemed to have saved authoritatively with his pad but the bees swarmed to the honey-pot and the ball somehow found its way fractionally over the line just before Agarwala's despairing hook out.
South hit back well from this reverse, with a positive move through Garrett, Cobbe and Baker followed by a charge up the middle from Garrett and a last-minute block in the D which deprived Pooles, who always looked threatening near goal, of the equaliser. Stock coolly fought off three men in right midfield before making a deft interception, while Agarwala and Johnson rescued an exposed position in midfield and Nelson continued his assured form with two fine tackles. Baker fought grimly to retain possession in a tight spiral before Johnson and Garrett relieved the pressure, sweeping the play upfield where Cobbe did well to win South's fifth penalty corner. The ball found the net, inconveniently for South via one of their own feet, and though Baker and Read continued to seek openings, the home defence closed ranks and their attackers applied the screw at the other end, scything through the midfield and testing Readman, Nelson and Stock with their urgent running. Nelson cleared sensibly after Parker had stood up to a good strike from a March short and Garrett, running hard enough for two, set Cobbe up and then Baker. The latter found Pooles, who nearly battered his way through the keeper, before South, bizarrely, were awarded a short corner in the same play as Baker was awarded a green card for pointing out that a short corner should be awarded. Er, well, yes. Clearly befuddled by all this, the skipper directed the resulting strike straight at the keeper, who gratefully kicked it away.
As Agarwala moved to a more attacking role with ten minutes to go, South easily defended a penalty corner through the speed of Readman and Garrett before Cobbe slotted it neatly up the right wing to Read, who put in a peach of a cross that hit centre D as Pooles arrived bang on time. The resulting cleanly-hit first-timer was heading just inside the left-hand post but the keeper reached it with an outstretched foot to preserve March's lead. Nelson, who had had an excellent game at the heart of the South defence, was then badly winded in a shuddering collision with a March forward and had to be gingerly led off after an extended hold-up, leaving South temporarily down to ten men before Wilco Dijkstra kindly (and effectively) slotted in near the end to become the first team's thirty-first player this season.
March, despite a strong effort from Baker and Read which guided the ball through Garrett for Agarwala to show his dribbling skills up front, took advantage of the hiatus at the back and, after a telescopic interception from Garrett had failed to check their progress, they moved inexorably into the D past several despairing sticks and, with everything firmly under control, bided their time until Parker had chased them round the circle as far as he could and then calmly put the ball away to double the lead.
Worse nearly followed as the March left-winger broke free into space in the D but Parker's radar was on full alert and he closed him down with geometric precision, buffering the shot and then shadowing the ball until Garrett and Read could spirit it away. Cobbe then hung on to possession up front, Readman (not coughing too fitfully) made a classic interception on the left and Baker just failed to get on the end of a reverse pass from Garrett. Sensing it was time for a last big push, South made the most of a good take and pass from Dijkstra to get Pooles in at the sharp end again. He was thwarted by the keeper as the goal beckoned but won a short which Read, possibly under-used at the set-play, hit very nicely but a bit too straight. A follow-up short, South's eighth, was misinjected but paradoxically managed to catch March off guard as Johnson et al., spotting their chance, raced in to claim the line and pull it back to Read, who whammed it unhesitatingly into the bottom corner like a twenty-goal striker. This gave South the merest glimmer of a re-run of last week's comeback scenario but, sadly, history could not repeat itself as play switched to the far end, resulting in a flicked March penalty corner which Parker swatted confidently away with his blocker just before the final whistle denied Agarwala the chance of what would obviously been a glorious roofed equaliser following a lung-bursting solo run past eight (if not nine or ten) hapless defenders.
Thus ended South's third consecutive season in Division 3NW under the helm of experienced (and now long-standing) skipper Chris Baker, who has done a clear-sighted and committed job in getting South out of the lower division and making them a force to be reckoned with in present company. South's record in 2008/9 (34 points, 69 goals for, 51 against) compares broadly with last season's 41 points (77 goals for, 50 against) and 2006-7's 31 points (56 goals for, 56 goals against), although their finishing position of seventh or eighth will actually be lower than the previous two seasons' fourth and sixth. However, it must be remembered that the team would have been sixth last year but for a last-minute goal in the last game of the season and there are other factors to bear in mind as well. Internal structural changes in the respective clubs meant that Rutland, always strong contenders anyway, were a more difficult proposition than last year and that Alford punched well above their weight for a promoted side. No team was significantly weaker than last year, Ely were certainly stronger and it was always to be expected that March I would make their experience of the higher division tell.
South's availability among key players tended to be rather patchy, especially in the New Year, and this partly explains why their post-Xmas return of 13 points was eight shy of their pre-Xmas tally. Though there were five players who played 18 games or more and seven who played 15 or more (with a particularly honourable mention to "Iron Man" Steve Parker, who was between the pipes for all 21 completed league fixtures), the fact that there were 16 players who played six games or fewer shows the difficulty South had in maintaining a really settled side, which is normally a prerequisite for sustained success.
However, South were still a match for almost every other team, losing badly only to Rutland and Ely (and having to do without key striker Keith Hewitt in all four of those games) and scoring some top-notch victories, notably over Wisbech, Nomads and Alford prior to the break and a tenacious City of Peterborough after it. Of South's 21 fixtures played, three were draws and eight others were settled by a single goal, so there was no shortage of edge-of-the-seat excitement for either players or spectators.
Taking the pattern of the season chronologically, South did tremendously well to get off to a winning start with a last-ditch victory over Wisbech, erasing the memory of last season's first-day defeat against Bourne (which nagged at the collective subconscious throughout), but stalled a little with draws against Peterborough and March II before reviving confidently with three good victories going into the break. The two one-goal defeats directly after Christmas rather took the wind out of any promotion push, with South failing to get the run of the ball against Wisbech and having to contend with multiple unavailabilities against Spalding. Merited defeats against Ely and Rutland were balanced by a splendid win over Peterborough and there were excellent efforts in all the last four games with undeservedly few points to show for it. Even March I, traditionally doughty adversaries, were a bit lucky to get away with four points this season. Indeed, but for the odd goal here and the rub of the green there, South could easily have easily have been pushing Rutland for third place.
As usual, South's defence was generally strong and experienced, even inspired, from keeper Steve Parker forwards. His style and technical accomplishment, the unerring tackling abilities of Chris Graveling and Matt Readman and the no-nonsense chest-out approach of Jim Thorpe were all to be relied upon. Chris Massey in particular, but others also, were able co-adjutors in the back division and South certainly had enviable depth in this respect. Chris Baker was a model of compact, straightforward distribution, Rob Garrett was tirelessly dynamic and had an especially good second half, while both Russell Johnson and Eliot Read made pleasing progress, both attackingly and defensively, on their respective sides of the pitch. Leading scorer in league games was Tassie Tiger Keith Hewitt, who notched 18 goals from 13 games, including a run of 13 in his last five games. Chris Baker netted 13 times from 19 games but no-one else got more than six and Mark Taylor's two appearances gave a glimpse of what the side might have achieved if he had been able to lend his weight to the side more often.
South's defensive record in short-corner situations was very pleasing. They conceded just 12 times from 120 attempts and were never beaten by a direct strike; the benefit of a stable core at the set-piece was evident. On the attacking side, the record was perhaps not quite so convincing, with nine goals scored from 96 attempts and, when the two Bourne games are taken out of the equation, six from 78 attempts. The side managed six short-corner goals in the first six games but only three in the subsequent 15 and it is clear that some freshening-up of tactics is required here. More variations, greater deployment of resources and relentless practice will surely pay dividends and may just make the difference in crucial matches next season.
Next season will see old adversaries Cambridge City IV and Cambridge University III return from Division 2N and two of Market Deeping II, St. Ives II and City of Peterborough V come up from Division 4NW. Predictions of trends, given four new teams out of twelve, are never easy – particularly in view of the cyclical nature of University hockey – but as seven of the eight teams in the middle of this year's Division 3NW were so closely bunched, next year promises, mutatis mutandis, to be a similarly close-run affair.
Team played: Steve Parker, Sanjay Argawala, Matt Readman, Dom Nelson, Dave Stock, Rob Garrett, Chris Baker (c), Eliot Read, Russell Johnson, Alex Pooles, James Cobbe
Cambridge South Men's II 4 - 3 St Ives Men's IV
H/T: 1 - 3
Scorers: Rob Barton (3), Mike Coffin
MoM: Rob Barton - a game-saving hat trick
LoM: Lino Di Lorenzo - makes it a three-way race for Lemon of the Season with one game remaining
Dum-dum. Da-DAH-da dum-dum. Dum-dum, da-DAH-da-da-da dum-dum. Dah-dah-dah dum-dum, da-DAH-da dum-dum. Dum-dum, da-dum-dum, DA-DUM!
Phew! So much for an afternoon stroll in the sun for the last home game of the season. Instead, Cambridge South 2nds found themselves engaged in an epic production, a classic in glorious technicolor featuring an all-star cast. Looking down and out at half time, South had to dig deep to fashion their own Great Escape.
Captain Kev "the Cooler King" Rowland's Plan A - let's call it "Tom" - had been to overwhelm a St Ives team sitting near the foot of the table with quick, passing hockey. The early signs were encouraging. The St Ives side featured a handful of experienced older heads and a number of good, skilful youngsters, but South's team play gave them the upper hand. The home side duly took the lead from a typical effort from Flight Lieutenant Rob "the Scrounger" Barton. Receiving the ball in the D with his back to goal, he threw a quick look over his shoulder before sweeping the ball with his reverse stick to flummox the covering defender and score past the unsighted keeper.
So, a textbook start but it wasn't long before the first portent of future problems appeared. Through on goal, Flt Lt Mark "the Forger" Pears drew and then rounded the keeper before inexplicably slotting the ball wide of the gaping goal. Worse was soon to follow. Capitalising on their let-off, St Ives rallied and gained a short corner. The strike from the top of the D was charged down by Group Captain George "the SBO" Wych only for the ball to deflect up off his stick. As it arced past the stranded Lieutenant Commander Lino "Dispersal" Di Lorenzo towards the top corner of the goal, Squadron Leader Dave "Big X" Monck on the line elected not to repeat the shoulder-height blocking swing that had got him penalised in the away fixture.
Pegged back to level terms, the Cooler King turned to Plan B - we'll call it "Dick": a rally, a surge and South would re-establish control of the game before the break. Unfortunately, that plan too swiftly went for a Burton. With their tails up, St Ives were buzzing in and around South's twenty-five. An attack down the right from St Ives saw the ball squared across goal to the left winger. His initial shot was blocked by Flt Lt Neil "the Surveyor" Sneade before "Dispersal" hurled himself at speed into the melee. In the confusion, the ball was slipped beneath the prone keeper to give the away side the lead.
Rocking on their heels, South's cohesion was fading faster than the Cooler King's fake tan. With too many slack passes and aimless clearances, South were ceding territory and inviting their opponents on to them. In the final ten minutes of the half, yet more confusion at the back by South amid repeated failures to clear the ball presented another gift-wrapped opportunity to St Ives. The ball was knocked into the unguarded net to complete the reversal of fortunes.
"Tom" and "Dick" were both history, leaving South at half time down to their last option: "Harry". It was time to role up the sleeves and graft to dig out a victory through grit, effort and sheer bloody-mindedness. Determined to show their true quality, South started the second period in the best possible fashion. From their first attack, heroic play from Flying Officer Mike "the Manufacturer" Coffin in midfield finished with him putting a well-placed shot past the St Ives keeper to bring the gap back to one.
Now it was game on and a revived South took the match to their opponents. With passing, movement and tackling all much improved, South set about seeking the equaliser. In midfield, Flt Lt Nick "the Tunneler" Bristowe was doing the spade work to win possession and distribute early, accurate ball. Down the left, Fg Off John "the Mole" Benedikz was stifling St Ives's right wing while Flt Lt Dave "Intelligence" Aston ahead of him was interlinking beautifully with the Forger and the Manufacturer. Triangular passing and balls played into space were opening up the opposing defence with increasing regularity.
The warm weather and close nature of the contest were forcing everyone to work hard. With relegation still a possibility, St Ives were keen to hang on to their lead. South, meanwhile, wanted to avoid frustration against their opponents for the second time this season. St Ives were increasingly relying on long balls out of defence into the corners to try and gain territory, but when they broke they showed they still had the pace and the skills to be dangerous. Their attacks ran aground though on the immovable stick of Flt Lt Chris "Tunnel King" Graveling, now moved into the centre from right midfield, whose calm and intelligent play was proving increasingly influential.
There was a quarter of the match left before South's pressure finally brought about the equaliser, courtesy of who else but the Scrounger. When the ball came to him in the D, the umpire opted to play advantage from what looked like an infringement. Rob made no mistake to bury the opportunity and level the scores.
Neither team looked content to settle for the draw but, having wiped out St Ives's half time lead, the momentum favoured South. With legs beginning to tire, the play was stretched as attacks from both teams broke down to leave space in behind for counterattack. Just six minutes remained on the clock when, coming in from the left wing, "Intelligence" struck a hard ball towards the goal. Unmarked in the D, the Scrounger nipped in front of the keeper and his jabbed stick deflected the ball up into the roof of the net to complete South's comeback and his hat trick.
At the final whistle, South could congratulate themselves on digging themselves out of a hole (sic) with their best comeback of the season. As against Rutland a few weeks previously, South had started brightly before finding themselves seemingly out of the contest by half time. Only this time, the second half fight back had produced more than just a moral victory. What a way to finish the last home game of the year!
Team played: Lt Cmdr Lino Di Lorenzo "Dispersal", Fg Off John Benedikz "The Mole", Gp Capt George Wych "The SBO", Flt Lt Neil Sneade "The Surveyor", Sqn Ldr Dave Monck "Big X", Flt Lt Dave Aston "Intelligence", Flt Lt Nick Bristowe "The Tunneler", Fg Off Mike Coffin "The Manufacturer", Capt Kev Rowland, "The Cooler King", Flt Lt Chris Graveling "Tunnel King", Flt Lt Rob Barton "The Scrounger", Flt Lt Mark Pears "The Forger"
March Town Men's III 6 - 1 Cambridge South Men's III
H/T: 4 - 0
Scorers: Andy Lewis
MoM: Andy Lewis - epitomised the great spirit shown by 3rd team all season. Never gave up. Always looking for the ball and getting it into danger areas. Great goal too
A beautiful day, a battling team performance and a terrific goal from Man of the Match Andy Lewis were the positive factors for the final game of Cambridge South 3rds first ever campaign in Eastern League Div 5NW.
Unfortunately, March scored six, which put a damper on proceedings.
The home side got four first half goals without reply, mainly due to their rapid counter attacks leaving the hard worked South defence of Glover, Agarwala and Jelly undermanned as the midfield struggled to get back. Nevertheless, the defenders stuck to their task and made many good tackles. Distribution upfield was also good, with intelligent passes across to team mates or up the pitch, demonstrated well by promising newcomer Matt Readman in particular.
The second half was much more even with Andy Lewis, a constant threat throughout, scoring a deserved goal from long range after a solo run from half way to give a glimmer of hope. Sadly March scored a further two goals but South kept pressing and displayed some good passing moves, neat triangles opening up the home defence, usually involving the Espley, Greaves and Lewis combination. All too often the final pass didn't come and the shots they did have narrowly missed the target or were saved.
So the 2008/09 season ends with South 3rds safely placed in 5NW, having established the core of a team well able to mix it at this new level.
The latter half of the season has been a struggle, mainly to get eleven players on to the pitch. We must thank vice-captain and frequent Man of the Match, Shahbaz Ali, for always getting a team out. Thanks too to the regulars, as well as others drafted in usually at short notice into unfamiliar positions, for making this an enjoyable six months of positive, competitive, hockey.
Team played: Shahbaz Ali, Wilco Dijkstra, Shahzad Ali, Sanjay Agarwala, Matt Readman, John Somerville, Ian Glover, John Greaves (c), Andy Lewis, Rupert Espley, Simon Jelly
Cambridge South Men's IV 1 - 0 Rutland Men's V
H/T: 0 - 0
Scorers: James Hodge
MoM: Martin Grove - nothing got past him in defence
It was a lovely sunny day again. A very young looking Rutland side turned up, except for one defender who was somewhat larger. For the last game of the season, the 4ths boasted fielding three players who have only been playing hockey for the last few weeks.
Rutland were skilful and quick, but they were counteracted by Stuart and James H in the middle of the field. It was a tight first half and CSHC marginally shaded it on chances, but Rutland had more than enough skills to worry CSHC's defence.
The second half saw CSHC starting to put some nice passes together. There was some lovely hockey leading to a number of chances that went either narrowly wide or were saved by the Rutland keeper. About twenty minutes into the second half, a free hit taken outside the D by Stuart was turned in by James Hodge. For the remainder of the half, Rutland started to push their defence further forward and CSHC played on the counter attack by leaving their forwards deep. In the end CSHC held out to a satisfying last game of the season win.
Team played: Ben Wilson, James Raikes, James Hodge (c), Stuart Creed, John Sharp, Manish Verma, Ky Ho, David Bridge, Tejas Belagod, Tim Dean, Timmy Tsui, Martin Grove
Cambridge South Ladies' I 1- 3 Wisbech Town Ladies' II
H/T: 1 - 2
Scorers: Caoimhe Houlihan
MoM: Claire Sherwood and Julie Sadler
Awaiting report
Team played: Louise Tonkin, Ellie Raffan, Becca Graveling, Julie Sadler, Claire Sherwood, Holly Sheahan, Liles Dee, Kelly Mawby, Caoimhe Houlihan, Hayley Sharpe (c), Alice Hug
Reports 5th April 2009
Men's 2nd XI finish the season with a third win on the spin, 3-0 away to Boston II
Boston Men's II 0 - 3 Cambridge South Men's II
H/T: 0 - 1
Scorers: Mark Pears (3)
MoM: Mark Pears - provided the finishing that turned a performance into a result
LoM: Neil Sneade - the bandana-and-stubble look only works if you're on the set of Pirates of the Caribbean
This was the big one, the decider, the crunch match. After seven months of hockey during which fortunes had fluctuated back and forth, it had all come down to the final game of the season. Not our league finishing position of course; that had been settled for a couple of weeks. No, what was at stake was something infinitely bigger and more important: this year's Lemon of the Season award.
Going into the re-arranged fixture at Boston, Kev Rowland and Neil Sneade were tied for the lead on 4.5 Lemon votes each with keeper Lino Di Lorenzo close behind on 4 votes after receiving a tactical Lemon for the previous match against St Ives. On arrival at Boston though, it looked as if the whole contest could be derailed by the intervention of Dave Aston. His pre-match meal of sushi combined with his comic inability to open a packet of wasabi threatened to swing the votes away from the three contenders.
However, on the eve of push-back the contest took a decisive turn. Neil's selfless decision to emerge from the dressing room sporting a rather natty navy blue bandana for a look that crossed a smidgen of Johnny Depp with a rather large dose of Mrs Mop settled the decision to the relief of Kev and Lino.
Despite the fixture being a dead rubber in league terms, South had travelled with a full complement of twelve, ten of whom had played in the previous day's epic contest with St Ives. On a warm spring afternoon, South stretched out their tired legs on the patch of beaten up old carpet that passes as astroturf in Boston. After clearing off the itinerant footballers, lobbing back some stray basketballs from the court next door and fixing up the goal nets (a prime target for thieves in Boston, apparently), the game was ready to get underway.
The opening period turned out to be closely contested. South were playing the more coherent hockey but Boston were disciplined at the back and sufficiently capable to break into South's twenty-five and pose their own threat. With the Monckosaurus absent by divine command (despite the Cardinal's attempt to claim Episcopal authority to the contrary) South's defence was marshalled by Leo Tomita. His timely tackles and wickedly disguised sweeps were setting up the play from the back. Boston were dropping deep to defend, allowing full backs John Benedikz and Neil to get up the pitch to support Wasabi and Sanjay Agarwala on the wings.
Half time was approaching and the score remained goalless. With their last attack of the period, South worked the ball forward before playing it into the D. In a melee of players, the ball fell loose a few yards out from goal to find both of South's forwards, Mark Pears and Rob Barton, occupying the same space. After what seemed like an eternity while the two strikers engaged in a few steps of the Ladies' Excuse Me, Arsenal elbowed gallantry (and Rob) aside to twat the ball hard past the Boston keeper. South had their breakthrough almost literally on the stroke of half time, the quintessential "good time to score" (when's a bad time?).
Rejuvenated by the goal, South emerged after the change of ends eager to kill the game off. Boston, though, were equally keen to recoup their deficit. As the half progressed, it became apparent that it was South who posed the greater threat. Nick Bristowe and Mike Coffin were commanding in the centre of the pitch while George Wych at centre back was well capable of marshalling Boston's none-too-sprightly centre forward.
Despite plenty of ball, South were finding it hard to create clear chances to extend their lead. On the break, Boston were still threatening and South had to defend a number of penalty corners, including one harshly given for an attempted sweep off the side by Neil that found the back line instead, although admittedly someway short of the corner! Mike's slightly-too-audible protest when shortly afterwards a ball diverted over Boston's back line by a defender was awarded as a long rather than a short corner saw it promptly turned into a sixteen yard hit.
The general flow of the game was somewhat staccato, not assisted by the periodic stoppages to retrieve balls that went under or through the mangled pitch-side fencing. It was midway through the half before South managed to put clear water between themselves and their opponents. A move down the right from Neil and Kev, back on the pitch in place of Sanjay, finished in a cross into the D. The ball was beautifully struck first time by Arsenal to leave the keeper with no chance.
Their nerves settled, South were able to relax and play less urgent but more adventurous hockey. Arsenal completed his hat trick to seal the win with a quarter of the match to go. As Boston resolutely pressed on in search of a consolation, an attacker being shadowed out of the South D with his back to goal decided to try his luck with a strike on the turn. However, he succeeded only in connecting with Neil's hand, typically on the one game where he'd forgotten to bring his glove. With knuckles skinned, bruised and swollen, he departed the pitch to be replaced at right back for the remaining ten minutes by Sanjay.
The disruption to their defensive formation or possibly the exertion of two games in two days seemed to catch up with South. The final minutes were mostly played out defending their lead but, at the whistle, South had preserved Lino's much-prized clean sheet and wrapped up their season with a third win on the bounce.
Before the match, Kev had announced his intention to stand down as captain for the following season to give himself the chance to focus on his own game for a while. After two seasons during which the 2nds have achieved successive record league finishes, he passes on a golden legacy to whoever takes on the mantle of the mighty 2nds come the autumn. We'll miss his ceaseless encouragement, inspiring team talks and the pre-dawn match meets!
Team played: Lino Di Lorenzo, John Benedikz, George Wych, Neil Sneade, Leo Tomita, Dave Aston, Nick Bristowe, Mike Coffin, Kevin Rowland (c), Sanjay Agarwala, Rob Barton, Mark Pears