Reports 6th March 2010
Men's 1sts lose the local derby against Cambridge Nomads 2
Men's 2nds lose to 10 man Long Sutton
Men's 4ths provide the Men with their only win, beating St Neots by 5 goals
Ladies' 1sts just scrape past Newmarket - winning 14:0!
Ladies' 2nds v Ely 3 : Match cancelled as Ely fail to raise a team
Cambridge Nomads II 2 - 0 Cambridge South Men's I
H/T: 2 - 0
Scorers: None
MoM: Leo Tomita
Awaiting full report
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Skipper Hewitt eases the pain of premature ageing, a 2-0 defeat to Nomads and Australia losing to England in the World Cup with some dedicated nicotine abuse |
Team played: Steve Parker, Leo Tomita, Ian Glover, Jim Thorpe, Tim Clapp, Chris Heron, Al Sinclair, Matt Readman, James Cobbe, Mark Pears, Lukas Snetler, Keith Hewitt
Cambridge South Men's II 0 - 1 Long Sutton II
H/T: 0 - 1
Scorers: None
MoM: John Hawkes (Always dangerous, kept running right until the end.)
LoM: Nick Bristowe (Got himself and 9 teammates hammered on the night before a match.)
The morning after the night before. South turned up in body if not in spirit to a mercifully late pushback against Long Sutton with more than half the squad nursing a Bristowe-induced hangover. John (“Did I get with a bloke last night? It had short hair and was called Mitch”) Hawkes, Kev (chunder in the bath) Rowland, George (hockey on Selwyn lawn) Wych, Dave (“I've had him up the arse”) Monck, Robbie (pissed on a mate and got punched) Leigh, Dave (didn't chunder - how?) Aston, Ben (“I play hockey to improve my stamina”) Buckley, Manu (how low can you go) Bhardwaj, Jack (“the kids find my goatee cool”) Chalk and Nick (no mates at Selwyn) Bristowe all looked a bit green round the gills and, if this were not enough, Bhav Virdi tried to take out one of the only sober team members before the pushback when he undercut a vicious shot into what cricket commentators sometimes call the “inner thigh” of Rob Barton during the warm-up.
The match started in glorious sunshine and South straight away found plenty of space to run into but for the first 10 minutes the slow Abbey pitch induced a number of mistakes, occasionally allowing Sutton to break from midfield. The defence, marshalled by Chris Graveling and Nick Bristowe, held firm but during one such attack Bhav Virdi (another of the few sober members) took a very painful blow to the knee and was sidelined for the rest of the game. At this point however, South realised that Sutton were playing with only 10 men which explained the amount of space being conceded and now the home team began to press forward with superb runs being made from deep by Manu Bhardwaj and George Wych to support the front players.
And then ... disaster ... South conceded an extraordinarily soft goal on about 20 minutes by allowing a Sutton attacker to shoot from just inside the D. The shot was a mishit and the ball rolled gently towards keeper Ben Buckley who we suspect was seeing double and kicked the wrong ball! In any event the ball finally made it over the goalline and the 10 men of Sutton were 1-0 up.
With the lead, the away side shut up shop and pulled all their players bar one into defensive roles. South were dominant in midfield; Dave Aston and Kev Rowland spread the play wide down the flanks and the centre pairing of John Hawkes and Jack Chalk bossed the middle of the pitch. South were continually on the attack but the Sutton defence was holding firm and only rarely did Rob Barton or Robbie Leigh get a clear chance on goal.
After half time the game continued in the same fashion, with South sending wave after wave of attacks forward, only to see them break on a resolute Sutton defence. On the occasions when South did test the young keeper he responded admirably and the game took an air of inevitability as the clock ran down. To their credit South never stopped running but, despite playing against 10 men for the whole game, could not force the ball into the goal and at the final whistle, the Away team had hung onto their lead and took away a hard-earned 3 points.
Team played: Ben Buckley, Manu Bhardwaj, George Wych, Nick Bristowe, Chris Graveling, Kev Rowland, Bhavdeep Virdi, Dave Aston, Rob Leigh, Jack Chalk, John Hawkes, Rob Barton
St Neots III 1 - 0 Cambridge South Men's III
H/T: 0 - 0
Scorers: None
MoM: Shahbaz Ali (Not much to do but one outstanding save low to his right that he tipped just past the post.)
Awaiting Report
Team played: Shahbaz Ali, Tim Dean, Dave Monck, Neil Sneade, David Doupe, Tristen Knight, Paul South, Stu Creed, Andy Lewis, Wilco Dijkstra, Rupert Espley
St Neots IV 0 - 5 Cambridge South Men's IV
H/T: 0 - 3
Scorers: Ian Evans (2), David Doupe (2), Rupert Espley
MoM: John Clark (Played against a very good opposing number and got the better of him), David Doupe (Made 2 a scored 2, could easily have scored more.)
LoM: Ky Ho (Did his best to score (an own goal) )
Traffic jams delayed the team's arrival, but a sunny afternoon more than made up for it. South started the brighter of the 2 sides and before Evans and Clark bossed the midfield for South. After a couple of missed chances, South was rewarded with a short corner which Evans deflected in from a Doupe strike. Although South continue to dominate, St Neots did their utmost to get back and had a series of short corners after a mix up that South thought an own goal has been scored, but a short-corner was given against South.
As the half wore on, another Doupe-Evan combination saw South went 2 up. St Neots brought on a rather energetic centre forward, but that only saw Doupe adding a third with a fine shot.
The second half saw St Neots pressed forward more with South hitting on the break and enabled more opportunities to go further ahead. This eventually happened with another Doupe shot. Espley got a fifth after some good team work.
It was a good team display played in a convivial atmosphere - more of the same please.
Team played: Shahbaz Ali, John Clark, Tim Dean, Ky Ho, Ian Evans, David Bridge, David Doupe, John Sharp, Boris Lossy, Shahzad Ali, Rupert Espley
Cambridge South Ladies' I 14 - 0 Newmarket II
H/T: 4 - 0
Scorers: Georgie Hurford, Tash Cox (4), Alice Hug (3), Kendra Butlin (6)
MoM: Kendra Butlin (6 goals)
LoM: John Benedikz (As umpire he LOST COUNT of the score - diddling us out of a 15th goal!)
The South ladies 1s turned out on a sunny morning at the Leys to play old enemies Newmarket 2s. Animosity clouded the warm-up with Alice and Tash locked in a bitter battle for the title of Goal Queen. Ellie lost the toss meaning South started on the back foot as Newmarket went out strong and forced a scrabbling defence to wake up quickly as the home goal was threatened. This set the stage for what was, frankly, a lazy and complacent performance from the South defenders, with keeper Loopy barely moving a muscle to help the team all match.
Continuing the theme for this season, South started slowly, keeping the ball away from the opposition but goals were slow to follow. Lazy midfield play meant the forwards had to do all the work on goal and meant a mere 4 were scored in the first half. Despite her teammates helping out by getting in some pre-emptive blows, Georgie wimped out of finishing her 'debate' over the rules of obstruction with the substantial Newmarket central defender. We forgave her a when she scored at last off a short corner, but hope for more moral fortitude in future.
In the second half, the dominant feature of the game was astoundingly selfish play from Kendra who stole ball after ball and landed them in the back of net in a determined effort to thwart Alice's quest for the goal crown. Convenient (suspiciously so: should we be examining for corruption?) for Tash, who was able to appear laid back about her own title hunt and landed a mere 4 goals. Alice seemed somewhat upset about the success of Kendra's haunting of the goal line, but senior voices in the team were heard to comment that if she'd followed instructions to stay high, she'd have had more than a modest 3 extra on her tally.
So, work to be done all around and South will need to pull their socks up to win more convincingly than 14-0 next week. The Man of the Match award was grudgingly awarded to Kendra and the Lemon of the Match award goes to John Benedikz who 'kindly' came along to referee then lost count, almost certainly diddling us out of a potentially crucial 15th goal.
Team played: Louise Tonkin, Ellie Raffan, Rhiannan Williams, Caroline Dent, Julie Sadler, Breeshey Harkin, Liles Dee, Anne-Isabelle Richard-Picchi, Georgie Hurford, Hayley Sharpe, Tash Cox, Alice Hug, Kendra Butlin
Ely III OFF - OFF Cambridge South Ladies' II
Match cancelled as Ely fail to raise a team