Reports 8 October 2011
Men's 2nds lose a good game against Spalding 1
Ladies' 1sts lose to Newmarket Ladies 1
Cambridge South Men's I 9 - 1 St Ives II
H/T: 5 - 1
Scorers: Richard Claes, Jack Chalk, Mark Williams, John Hawkes (2), Russell Johnson (2), Graham McCulloch (2)
MoM: John Hawkes (Blew away the opposition on the pitch)
LoM: Finn Johnson (Blew away his teammates in the changing rooms)
South rocked up to their 2nd favourite pitch in Cambridge away from the fortress Leys. Everyone arrived on time as no one could bear another minute watching the England rugby lads crash out of the world cup.
In the time prior to the game the captain chose to put his team members' heads into a spin forcing the dizzy drill that is the pepper pot on them while Shahbaz sat bored stiff in the back of his goal, a position he would spend the rest of his morning.
St Ives appeared to turn up with 12 men and an umpire. For the first 15 minutes of the game South were dominant. Russell Johnson started off the scoring for the second week in a row. Maybe that was because he is (Wheels) the quickest runner in the team. South were in fine form and there was a smile on everyone’s face as we proceeded to stick goal after goal passed the oppo. Crisp passing, quick feet, strength, girlfriends and good looks were all things South were demonstrating in abundance.
The conversion of possession into goals was satisfying for all to watch. In this first period of the game the defence had to maintina their concentration as the game was mostly played ahead of them, It clearly wasn’t the game St Ives had been planning as they set out their team in the morning. It is not often a team concedes this many goals in quick succession but if you have ever been there to witness it you will know the stages the team goes through:
- After the first goal there is shock and cries of disbelief and the captain will shout some encouragement.
- Then when the second goal goes in the wind is knocked from their sails.
- After the 3rd goal the team resigns to the fact they are going to lose and they put up camp in their own half.
- When picking the ball out of the back of the net for the fourth time, it might seem easiest to give the ball straight back to the opponents from push back.
- After five goals in 25 minutes the team begins to shout at everyone and anyone who will listen to them such as umpires and team mates.
However, to their immense credit St Ives did step their game up with a few minutes to spare in the first half and were awarded a number of short corners in a row. South allowed their alertness to drop before one such short and in that moment St Ives took their opportunity to pull one back.
Half time team talk was a strange affair. clearly the captain was not satisfied with a 4 goal lead. After our ticking off we headed back to the goal fest.
The goals didn’t come easily in the second period but just like buses when one comes there is sure to be another straight after. That’s exactly what happened when about 15 minutes in John H found the ball on his reverse and to everyone’s disbelief he pulled off what is currently the strike of the season thumping the backboard.
The rest of the goals are a blur in my mind; I know one thing though, we held a clean sheet in the second half and Shahbaz didn’t feature. The last two goals I do remember as quite impressive a lot of passing followed by a Captain's tap in.
So all in all a convincing 9-1 win was dispatched. What has been said to be one of the 1st team's largest ever deficit in this league according to Jack's records. Well if you trust him with his facts you’ll already have him in your fantasy team because there’s no disputing he’ll have goal king rapped up by Christmas at his going rate.
The win somehow left the team wanting more so there’s clearly a strong side here on the verge of great things!
Team played: Shahbaz Ali, George Wych, Dave Aston, Eliot Read, Richard Claes, Jack Chalk, Mark Williams, Bhavdeep Virdi, Finn Johnson, John Hawkes, Russell Johnson, Graham McCulloch
Cambridge South Men's II 3 - 4 Spalding I
H/T: 2 - 0
Scorers: Dave Monck, Rob Barton (2)
Following Oren's sudden extraction, VC Anns was given the reigns for what looked like a grim prospect. Spalding is a fair old distance to travel, particularly to a team that won 7-0 to a team the 2s could only muster a 0-0 draw against. The first 15 minutes, south's hockey was bright and sharp, and they were unlucky not to take the lead when Troll's shot was cleared from the line. Gradually Spalding seemed to warm up, playing good pass and move hockey, leading to 2 goals, both from shorts. the first was a neatly played mutliple pass for an easy finish, with the second a straightforward strike to the bottom left corner, where Monck failed to keep it out.
Perhaps because the 2s expected to be totally dominated, 2-0 felt very much like we were still in it, and several good opportunities in the first half gave confidence for the second. And South struck first after the break, with a move planned in the car on the way up. Monck creamed the ball into the D, for Barton to deflect home, 2-1. Spalding were often quick on the break, and although the defensive unit made life hard for them, eventually they were overwhelmed by sheer numbers of attackers, and Spalding restored their 2 goal advantage. But the cushioned was soon halved, as South won a short, which Monck duly dispatched to the bottom right corner. 3-2 and game on.
Spalding's 4th goal was not one of the defensive unit's finest moments. Ali played a short pass to Passmore, who's mind seemed to be elsewhere. With a centre forward pressuring, he could only push the ball towards the back line. Monck, carefully watching the ball go out, allowed another attacker to take the ball off the line, bring it front of goal and finish adeptly. Spalding and their significant crowd, delighted by the debacle giving them back a two goal lead.
But despite this, South seemed the more dangerous, both in trying to score goals and in hacking down the opposition. Espley was duly yellow carded for an axe like hack, following on from several poor quality tackles that could easily have ended up with the same consequence. With a man down, South conceded another short, which headed towards the bottom left corner, similar to their second goal. But this time, Monck, bravely, didn't have anough time to move his leg out the way, and did a poor job of hiding the limp from the shot. Penalty flick for 5-2 and curtains on the game. Up stepped the mighty Ali, and redeemed himself for his earlier mistake, and saved a pretty poor qaulity flick. But a saved flick is a saved flick - credit to the keeper.
With Espley back on, south then created the move of the match, driving down the left, creating space for Barton to go one on one with the keeper. Rounding him to the left, Barton finished off with his first reverse stick goal of the season, and gave South hope of securing a point. Press as they might, a fourth goal didn't come. But despite losing, there was a deep sense of satisfaction throughout the team. It had been a team performance reminicent of the quality that had one them promotion and 11 straight wins against a quality opposition.
Tired, satisfied from a good allbeit losing hockey match, and smelly from the Spalding failure to provide showers, teas were held in a luxury pub with generous sofas, where Monck was awarded Man of the match as part of an excellent defensive unit, and Anns picked up the coveted Lemon for being captain for the day.
Team played: Shahbaz Ali, Dave Monck, Rich Morgan, Andy Passmore, Tom Anns, Paresh Parsot, Colin Troll, Phil Crowhurst, Nick Venner, Tom South, Rupert Espley, Rob Barton
Cambridge South Men's III 2 - 0 St Ives V
H/T: 1 - 0
Scorers: Matt Kern, John Greaves
MoM: Shahzad Ali (After literally nothing to do for the first 15 minutes he made a quite brilliant stop from a short corner strike, low down to his right with his stick. Lino "The Cat" Di Lorenzo will have to hand over his nickname.)
LoM: Wilco Dijkstra (Hotly contested this week, a special mention goes out to Paul for being an early bird, but Wilco takes the lemon for being last to the meet, 15 mins late, only to cheerfully announce he would be going to the game via the tip.)
Scorers:
Matt Kern: An early break scything through the opposition defence resulted in Matt putting away the ball before the starting whistleleft the umpires’ lips
- John Greaves: Showing that persistence pays off scoring the last of a series of strikes
A great game against St Ives… An early push with a goal followed by another dangerous attack (narrowly missing) set the tone for the game.
Passes into space and good movement allowed us to control the field and keep the possession. Strong play at the back disarmed the occasional counter that did make it through, leaving just a couple of opportunities for Shahzad to make some great saves (including a strong contender for save of the season).
As the first half wore on St Ives began to come back into the match, playing deep and breaking with good interchanging of positions among their forwards to keep the South defence on its toes.
South were still dominating possession but the increasing closeness of the contest was shown in an umpire's warning to South in general, and Matt in particular, about stick tackling. At least Matt's new astro boots were keeping him on his feet this week on a surface becoming slippery in the falling drizzle. Unlike Tim Clapp, who seemed to spend most of the half on his backside! New boots have now been ordered, we understand.
The second half followed a similar pattern, South seeking the clinching second goal and St Ives doggedly hunting for the equaliser, calling Shahzad into action on another couple of occasions. South thought their pressure had finally paid off when captain Simon Jelley knocked home a loose ball that had bounced up in a goalmouth mêlée, only to have it ruled out due to a defender's flying knee hitting the handle of his stick.
Injury was then heaped on insult for the South skipper when a raised strike cannoned straight into his hand, sending him off the field with nasty bruising and a possible hairline fracture to his finger - the hockey player's metatarsal. Tim was summoned back on to spend the remaining minutes pancaking around on his arse while using up as much time as possible, an aptitude he demonstrated with alacrity.
A shame the score line didn’t reflect the game played on the pitch, but we kept troubling St Ives’ defence regardless, resulting eventually in John’s goal to seal the result in the closing minutes, which he battered home whether it wanted to go or not. Another lock-out for the South defence and a satisfying performance that has put us top of the league.
The 3s will return… at home against City of Peterborough 8s.
Team played: Shahzad Ali, Ian Evans, Neil Sneade, Jan Brynjolfsson, Ian Glover, Matt Kern, Paul South, Wilco Dijkstra, Simon Jelley, Tim Clapp, Stu Creed, Jake Davis, John Greaves
Cambridge South Ladies' I 1 - 8 Newmarket Ladies I
H/T: 0 - 5
Scorers: Georgie Hurford
MoM: Lou Cantwell (Lou Cantwell for solid defending with great passes out of trouble)
The L1s travelled away this week with memories of the beating doled out the previous time we met Newmarket 1s at the beginning of the season.
Despite some great defensive work from Lou (which earned her the man of the match award), and others in the back line, and a great work rate from the midfielders, Newmarket scored early and followed up with more.
Despite that, South spent a respectable time on the favourable side of the half way line with some good possession play meaning we were competative in midfield but failed to put pressure on goal. One of those passages led to Georgie scoring right at the start of the second half finding her in a strong position to deliver a great strike under the keeper's pads. The masterclass in goal scoring came from Newmarket, though, who put in some awesome strikes and worked the angles in the D impressively, following up from great linking work and confidene and skill to pass around the whole of their team. South need to enjoy next Saturday off then come back powered up and ready to put the team somewhere more respectable in the league table.
Team played: Louise Tonkin, Becca Graveling, Ellie Raffan, Lindsey Berends, Julie Sadler, Lou Cantwell, Laura Jarvis, Vicky Lavis, Georgie Hurford, Serin Dabb, Ash Price, Alice Hug
