Reports 13th November 2010
Men's 2nds claim a super win against St Neots
Ladies' 2nds lose to Peterborough
Cambridge South Men's I 6 - 3 Wisbech Town III
Scorers: Russell Johnson, Jack Chalk, Rob Garrett, John Hawkes (3)
MoM: John Hawkes
Awaiting Report
Team played: Steve Parker, Dave Aston, Nick Bristowe, Sanjay Agarwala, Russell Johnson, Jack Chalk, Mark Williams, Eliot Read, Rob Garrett, John Hawkes, Graham McCulloch, James Cobbe
Cambridge South Men's II 4 - 1 St Neots II
H/T: 2 - 0
Scorers: Tom Watson, Mariano Rosenzvaig, Kev Rowland (2)
MoM: Tom Watson (Good mid field play, great passing and scored a goal.)
LoM: Manu Bhardwaj (For injuring the flamboyant mid fielder Rich Claes.)
M2 had all sorts of problems before the match. Shahbaz “The Goalie” got an ankle injury on Thursday’s training and was unfit for the game, Ron “The Captain” didn’t have internet to organise the team, Sanjay “The VC” went to play for M1 and Ian went to play for the M3s. The issues didn’t finish because when the team reached the Cambridge University pitch, they found out that the match would start 25-30 minutes late because the previous match was running late. It was getting dark and cold when South stepped on the pitch.
We all know that these things do not matter when the “men in green” stepped on the turf.
Harry was our new keeper for the match and Kev Rowland was playing his first match for M2s after a long absence. Kev wanted to make a big impact and Ron obliged when Kev was sent up front to play as a striker with Rob Barton.
The first 2-3 minutes of the match was all St Neots as they got 2 penalty corners, one of the penalty corner strikes just went past the goal post. South was lucky to survive this onslaught and built their game from there.
The midfield was working well with Rich Claes, Manu, Tom & Bav Virdi pressing forward and making good opportunities for Kevin & Rob upfront.
In one such move Rich ran with the ball for 30 meters and passed it to Rob who put the ball in Kev’s shooting range and Kev sounded the board with ease. 10 minutes gone and South was 1-0 up.
Manu & Tom were very good in the midfield and were passing wide to Rich (left mid) and Bav (right mid). One of the moves from central midfield gave the ball to Bav (right mid field) and he combined with Andy Passmore (right back). Andy hit the ball into the D to Rob, who again did not strike but “actually passed” to his fellow forward and Kev scored his second goal in 15 minutes after 4 months rest. What a comeback!
15 minutes gone and South was 2-0 up.
St Neots looked like they found some magic potion and pressed really hard at the South defence. They were entering the D but the South defence of Ron-Dave-Mariano-Andy held tight. South was not able to penetrate the St Neots D in the last 15 minutes of the first half.
In the 32nd minute of the first half, Bav had a tussle with the St Neots player and with umpire Steve standing just 5 meters away Bav thought of swinging his stick at the opponent. Steve obliged Bav by giving him a yellow card and sending him to the sin bin. Typical Bav!
Ron gathered his troops together in the break and wanted his team to press harder and gave a good earfull to Bav which he deserved.
The second half started with South playing 10 men for first 10 minutes.
St Neots got one back when it was 3 on 1 and although Harry in the goals tried his best, he was a silent spectator. 2-1.
With South having 11 men finally after 10 long minutes, they pressed forward again. South got a penalty corner and the hard work put in on Thursday finally showed when a pin point perfect insertion from Tristen and a perfect rocket hit from Mariano resulted in a goal. South was 3-1 up.
South were not finished yet and the combination of Manu & Tristen were working wonders in the central mid field. Manu in particular was having a great game and looked like he could run away with the Man of the Match. But he had different plans. South got a free hit outside the 25 meter line and Manu took a self pass and with all his power slapped the ball into the D. The ball never reached the D because it hit Rich on the way and hit him “where-it-hurts-a-man-the-most”. Manu later got the Lemon of the Match for that and Rich didn’t play any part in the match after that incident.
Mariano in defence was having a very good game and started a move which resulted in the fourth goal. He gave a long ball from the 23 yard line to Rob in the attacking half, who passed it to Tom in the D. It was 1 on 1 with the keeper and “The Tom Watson” never misses those. South was 4-1 up, with 6 minutes to go. It was a different experience today for Rob, as he had 3 assists for South’s goals but ended up not scoring any. Rest of the game was played in the mid field.
Final whistle!
Kev Rowland had a great comeback game. Mariano at the end of the match was correct to say that “We could have won by 5 or 6 goals.” A good victory for South and 3 points in the bag. Ron “The Captain” was a happy man with the result.
Tom Watson was voted the “Man of the Match” for his good all round display in the mid field and an excellent goal.
Team played: Harry Clayton, Dave Monck, Andy Passmore, Ron Oren, Manu Bhardwaj, Tom Watson, Tristen Knight, Mariano Rosenzvaig, Richard Claes, Kev Rowland, Bhavdeep Virdi, Rob Barton
Cambridge South Men's III 3 - 7 Alford & District I
H/T: 1 - 4
Scorers: Chris Rigge (2), Stu Creed
MoM: Chris Rigge
A Strong South team came across an equally strong Alford team, who’s only advantage was a striker clearly had played some higher level hockey than Div 5NW. Alford were further helped by the fact that South were reduced to 9 men for the second week running through injury. First half injuries to Tom Annes (Hamstring) and rather more seriously Neil Sneade (badly broken finger), reduced South to 10 fully functioning players as Captain greaves escorted Neil to A+E. This was followed up by Dom Nelson tweaking his hamstring mid way through the second half.
Sporting a new 3232 formation South took some a while to adjust to the new formation, with Alford taking full advantage, with their star striker stretching the South defense and slotting in a first half hat-trick. Momment of the first half for South was a slick counter attacking move involving Paul South slotting the ball through to Stuart Creed, who dribbled into the Alford D and slotted a long distance shot into corner past the despairing Alford keeper.
Half time: 4v1
After a stirring half-time team talk from Vicky Lavis South came out looking to get back into the game and for a while looked like they may get an unlikely point. Alford moved 5v1 up before man of the match Chris Rigge slotted in 2 quick goals to pull the score back to 5v3. South then had an excellent chance to reduce the deficit further, but the ball snuck just the wrong side of the post. As the game progressed and injuries mounted, South legs tired and Alford claimed a couple of quick goals at the death.
Fulltime: South 3v7 Alford.
Despite the score-line South played some excellent hockey throughout the game and heads never dropped. Alford are a high flying team this season having come down last year and South acquitted themselves well. Despite this South need to start picking up some points to avoid a relegation dogfight
Team played: John Benedikz, Tom Anns, Ian Glover, Dom Nelson, James Lee, Neil Sneade, Chris Rigge, Wilco Dijkstra, Paul South, Stu Creed, Matt Kern, Rupert Espley, John Greaves
Cambridge South Men's IV 1 - 6 St Ives V
H/T: 0 - 1
Scorers: Boris Lossy
MoM: Boris Lossy (For the goal of the game and a sublime move in the first half.)
A cold and sunny morning and the muscles a lot longer to warm up than expected. St Ives started more brightly as a result of having most of the midfield. They eventually scored a goal from a short corner and made it 1:0 after 15 minutes. South then started playing and actually was the better side for the remaining 20 minutes with Tom Watson running the midfield, but there weren't any clear chances. HT 1:0 to St Ives
The half time talk was about 'this is a winnable game', but the break actually suited St Ives and they scored from the off. 2:0. It was soon 3:0, but South broke back and Boris scored the goal of the game from a cute angle shot from the right to make it 3:1. Unfortunately, we simply made too many elementary errors and the score line was a bit harsh.
There were notable performances from Simon Jelly, Richard Yardley and Tom Watson, but St Ives were a bit too strong for us on the day.
Team played: Chris Collinson, Tom Watson, Owen Vaughan, David Bridge, Ky Ho, Richard Yardley, Simon Jelley, James Bridge, John Sharp, Shahzad Ali, Boris Lossy, Jake Davis
Cambridge South Ladies' I 2 - 0 Sawtry Ladies
H/T: 1 - 0
Scorers: Sian Tomlin, Kendra Seed
MoM: Lindsey Berends
South Ladies 1s played an early morning match against Sawtry this week. Injured captain Geogie’s ‘work hard, be nice to each other and don’t swear’ pep talk set the tone for a business-like performance from the whole team. Ranging end-to-end play provided lots of opportunities for the South forwards and midfield to show off their slick passing and diagonal runs (thanks, Colin), while some lovely distribution from the back (along with great defensive play) earned Lindsey a well-earned Man of the Match award. Sawtry’s well established, strong team gave the defence plenty of work but good marking, a high work rate from the midfield and some great tackling kept the threat on the D to a minimum (except for a short period in both halves when they boxed us in the corner for a scary minute or two). Oh! And there were goals! One early in the first half, and another just as we were starting to feel twitchy about hanging onto the lead in the second half. Sian’s was the culmination of a smart sequence of passing down the right of the pitch, and Kendra’s was a testament to good reflexes during a sustained attack on goal which may or may not have come from a short corner. I've no idea which was in which half. So there you have it: a hard working, coherent team, with some great individual performances resulting in South heading the Prem table for the first time in the season. Whoop! (You didn’t really want details, did you? Tough. I lost the bit of paper and feel I did jolly well to remember this much.)
Team played: Louise Tonkin, Ellie Raffan, Rhiannan Williams, Lindsey Berends, Julie Sadler, Sian Tomlin, Caroline Molony, Liles Dee, Hayley Sharpe, Kendra Seed, Alice Hug, Tash Cox
Cambridge South Ladies' II 1 - 4 City of Peterborough Ladies III
H/T: 0 - 3
Scorers: Sam Cooper
MoM: Carla Fitzachary
Awaiting Report
Team played: Tracey Hunter, Ash Price, Sam Cooper, Kathryn Mallett, Catherine Anthony, Liz Harte, Carla Fitzachary, Siren Dabb, Lyn Phillips, Bex Baker, Leonie Dickman
