Cambridge is clearly running the whole climatic gamut this festive season for, in addition to the ice rink on Parker's Piece, it turns out they've also gone and installed a beach at Coldham's Common! At least one assumes that's what the ten tons of sand disguising the hockey pitch are doing there ...

Lukas Snetler, clearly a budding South African beach hockey international, generously opined that it would probably get faster once the sand had compacted a bit but, for most, the slow surface put something of a brake on proceedings and there were several incidents in the first quarter of an hour to re­mind players of the need for care. Hitting round the defence required some allowance for the inertia factor, as both South and Nomads found out almost to their cost, and the ball needed const­ant encouragement to keep it in motion.

Nevertheless, there was plenty of action from the off, with Mark Pears shooting just wide after a nice free hit move involving Rob Garrett and Matt Readman, and Nomads taking the coefficient of friction out of the equation with a subtly-placed aerial which gave their left-winger free room in the D. Steve Parker raced across to block any further progress with a crunching tackle, though, and Pears nearly turned the tables immediately by intercepting a decelerating cross-pass and char­ging the keeper, only to see his shot from a rebound cleared off the line.

Nomads surged back, carving out a close-range chance from a left-wing cross but Parker was again equal to the shot, deflecting it with his stick for a long. After flying right to cover a weighty drag-flick that went just wide from Nomads' first short, he then relieved pressure with a kick to the wings as the visitors once more entered home territory and, when what would normally have been a routi­ne back-pass was sabotaged by the heavy going and seized on by the opposition, he sprinted out hard and challenged the striker to lift it, which he duly did, about six feet over the bar.

Coinciding with the arrival of Richard Morgan from school duties to make up a full complement, things started to take a less frenetic turn. Snetler and Chris Baker combined neatly to broach the Nomads' circle, Pears pinched the ball off the left-half and Ron Oren and Eliot Read played sensible and constructive passes, though it was still difficult to retain possession as interceptions were made easier by the slow conditions. Jim Thorpe covered back smartly on a dangerous through ball, engi­neering the attacker out of harm's way and clearing consummately, before putting in a superb tackle on the by-line as a tricksy run from the wing threatened to go all the way. Nomads forechecked as­tringently, making it hard for South to find safety, and deservedly won a second penalty corner, from which Parker made an agile pad stop to his right from close range. Shortly ahead of the break, Baker, Garrett and Snetler again penetrated Nomads' D before being halted by a well-packed defen­ce, while the dynamic Snetler cleverly released Pears, whose attempted reverse at goal was slightly off-centre. The half closed with the resourceful Thorpe putting up a daring and even elegant aerial ball to set up a fluent crossfield move which was unlucky not to reap further reward.

Having put away the buckets and spades, South knuckled down and enjoyed a composed spell of play in which James Cobbe excelled with skilful and tenacious work up the left touchline and Oren cleared his zone with authority. A feisty run from Snetler led to a Garrett cross from which Baker hit the keeper, and the latter had to kick out again shortly afterwards as Cobbe hovered close. No­mads had their moments, once breaking through to the edge of the D before Readman put a stop to the malarkey and then bursting through on a turnover only to see Parker shepherding the ball to safety, but the better moves were mostly South's. Garrett's cross after a 30-yard run was blocked, while Thorpe, whose howitzers from defence peeled a few layers of sand from the ball, shelled a 16 to Pears but the resulting pass across the D narrowly eluded Garrett.

After a bout of earnest hacking in the Nomads' circle, South finally won their first short and a smooth injection from Pears coupled with a pin-sharp stop from Read gave Snetler the opportunity to rifle home off the keeper's left pad on 55 minutes. The setback appeared to galvanise Nomads, however, and though South's pace on the left side was always menacing, the visitors upped a gear as their first-team captain, recovering from injury though unfortunately afflicted by a chronic bout of the verbals, bolstered the front line. Readman, Thorpe and Baker all made common-sense clearan­ces, Read and Oren got rid well under pressure and Morgan - virtually in­visible from the far side of the pitch un­der the ghostly penumbra cast by the floodlights (sic) - gave the indistinct impression of moving the ball swiftly and efficiently. A firm crack away by Thorpe followed by a fine intercep­tion and run from Snetler kept the play away from South's end for a while but Nomads, reversing the flow, won a free hit outside the circle and play continued seam­lessly as they exploited the self-pass rule. The South defence, momentarily caught napping, were out of position and, with options available, the ball was squared for an easy tap-in with five minutes to go.

South did their best to grab a late winner as Garrett took responsibility, repeatedly driving forward at pace to find Pears, who, moments after unluckily failing to win a short, placed himself in the ideal position for a great pass from the skipper but was unable to convert as the ball, now resem­bling a scotch egg, malignly mis­took foot for stick.

The sands of time quickly ran out as South, again without several key players, contemplated the loss of two points which would have seen them move into third place and overtake their next opponents, March II, who suffered an 8-0 drubbing at the hands of Spalding. A drawn game between Wisbech II and City of Peterborough IV worked in South's favour but clearly South cannot afford to give up many more points against lower-placed teams if they are to maintain their challenge in the chasing pack.