South 2s faced the daunting task of an away trip to a high flying Peterborough side unbeaten this season, having not conceded a goal since November. Confidence in the South side was low having had their pre-Christmas winning streak spectacularly demolished in their previous two games.

With the temperatures this week almost all thought the game would be off, and the -7°C overnight temperature would surely seal the deal, but no, temperatures in Peterborough were a summery 1°C upon arrival. A combination of people being late for the early morning meet and the Highways Agency deciding that crucial A14 bridge repairs were required meant the journey up was at least eventful, with detours, traffic jams and slow moving police cars on the A14 all playing their part. One car arrived pitch side to be met with a frozen pitch, no home team and the thought the game would surely be called off, the 2nd car arrived with pretty much the same thought. The home team then casually emerged from their warm changing room ready to start the game with South still 1 car and 4 players down - why didn't we think of that! As the game was about to start Vice Captain Anns pulls into the car park with the remainder of the team and casually start making their way towards the pitch, a shouting at from the captain later and we nearly had a team ready to start the game.

Early into the game it looked like it could be a long afternoon for South again, but after a quick reorganisation with everyone changed and in their actual positions everything was going to plan, we were almost out of our own half. After some solid tackling, some scrappy tackling, and a bit more tackling the ball fell to some Peterborough player at the top of the D who sent a flick towards the top corner and with Shabaz nowhere to be seen, he turned away thinking he scored, a flashing stick of Ian sent the ball flying down to 3rd Man for 4 runs, maybe England could take some pointers, Peterborough were in disbelief.

After this, the game became a more even contest, with everyone on the pitch playing at a much higher level than the previous two games. Just before half time a press of the Peterborough back line went disastrously wrong, the two midfielders were left completely unmarked, got the ball, waltzed into the D and South were in the familiar 1-0 down score line. Half time came and went quickly due to the late starting of the game, and early in the 2nd half the South D had to fend off wave after wave of attacks, most of which resulted in penalty corners which the home side failed to convert any of. Further pressure ensued from one of what seemed like 20 penalty corners with another strike on goal this time not being stopped by a stick or the keeper but by the player themselves. Could Shabaz pull off a similar save to the earlier strike against his helmet? He got a pad to the flick but couldn't keep it out.

At 2-0 down again it would be a test of character, even the home crowd were laughing, mainly at a huge air-shot from Colin, but a good flowing move from right to left gave South their best chance of the game. Watson started it playing it inside to Colin who fed Nick the ball went out wide with Nelson providing a first time ball to Pearson at the far post, but a combination of the cold weather and "too much time doing weights over Christmas" meant he couldn't get to the pass. End to end hockey followed with another good move that ended with Tom Howell sliding across the D before firing a reverse stick strike into the top corner (well, maybe not quite the top corner but it went in nonetheless even though the home keeper might feel he could have done better). With 5 minutes to go could South pull off what would be one of their results of the season, and in turn do the 1s a massive favour against one of their rivals? Despite the effort of all involved we would come up short.

The teas in the bar that followed showed just how cold, or how cheap we are, with everyone opting for the free cup of tea rather than a drink for the bar, the hotdogs were good. Anns put in a valiant effort at trying to divert his lemon votes for his poor driving to Jimmy for uneven ketchup distribution, he promptly then spat it out all over the table. He sealed the votes by telling anyone who would listen that he had lost his crown jewels to the cold, the club biscuit wrappers were put to good use.

Despite the loss for South we can be encouraged by what was described after the game as our best performance of the season, and losing to a team gunning for the title doesn't do our chances of avoiding relegation any damage, with the game next week against Ely carrying far greater importance.