Cambridge South’s mixed team, the Southerners, opened their preparations for the summer festival season with a good performance against a talented Wild Geese side.

Things started badly with some of the team arriving late, due to playing on another pitch from the one usually used and bad directions given, leaving us with a fairly rushed start. This being in marked contrast with the Geese, who were at the astro a good hour beforehand as the captain, who had obviously heard about Cambridge's traffic and one-way systems, gave himself suitable time to correct for any wrong turnings. And then proceeded to make none…

After marvelling at the sharpness of the Geese's short routines and their club minibus parked in the car park (luxury!), we then had the opportunity to watch some stick skills up close, as some of the Geese seemed to flap past us almost at will. Such a run led to the opening goal of the game, a player beating ~5 tackles on his way through, before rounding Tim Poole for an easy finish.

However, the Southerners response to this was more than encouraging. Straight from the centre pass the ball was switched from centre back Jim Thorpe to left back Rob Garrett. Rob drew his man and fed left winger, Gemma Thomas, who carried the ball into the Geese’s 25, used a neat piece of skill to outmanoeuvre her opponent and give herself time to look up. Gemma’s measured cross found Stuart Creed, arriving late from midfield, and he took his time before finishing coolly. Good goal.

For most of the remainder of the first-half the Southerners' rearguard of Jim Thorpe, Elena de Angelis, Caroline Bucknall and Rob Garrett were called on to make some last ditch tackles as the Geese pressed on. Such pressure inevitably resulted in another goal, with the forward allowed three attempts at lifting the ball past Tim Poole, the third one being high enough for Tim to have no chance of reaching…

Once again, the Southerners' response was instant. From the centre pass, Dan Adlington dribbled to the edge of the D, from where he struck the ball in. From this, the ball broke free to Jan Brynjolffsen, whose reverse stick sweep goalwards was deflected by the keeper and heading inches wide. However, with the Geese defenders standing watching, Sharon McKay stole in on the post to tap the loose ball home.

The second half began with more Geese pressure and the Southerners trying to launch quick breakaway attacks. One of these soon paid dividends, when another fine run and cross from Gemma found Dan in the circle. His neat control and early and powerful reverse-stick sweep surprised the Pelicans' keeper on his near post, and the Southerners led for the first time.

Further rear-guard action was needed throughout the match, with Liz Tattersall and Pippa Noon harrying a number of attacks down the Southerners' right. However, once again such incessant pressure paid off when the Geese scored twice in quick succession to turn the match around. First a penalty corner was half-stopped and the loose ball neatly driven home. Then a hit just outside the South D was switched to a late arriving midfielder, who showed excellent skill in dragging the ball into the D before letting fly with a low, hard sweep into the corner.

South came close to equalising with about ten minutes left, when good interplay between Gemma and Dan down the right saw the ball fired across the D. Dan got a stick to it to draw a good save from the Geese keeper, who then repeated the dose as first Andy Lewis struck in a rebound and then Sharon followed up to try and flick home.

The Geese then closed out the game when a counterattack of their own saw the Southerners' midfield caught upfield. The Geese right winger played a beautiful cross field pass to her opposite winger, standing in acres of space, and he rounded Tim Poole and slipped the ball home. This trick was nearly repeated two minutes latter, only for the crossfield ball to be deflected away by an excellent stretch by Caroline, diverting past its intended target. South did come close to reducing arrears on one final occasion, when Andy followed up a driving run to the right edge of the circle with a good clean cross that Dan was only inches from getting a decisive touch to.

Overall the result was a fair reflection of the superior skills of some of the Wild Geese players, but also the closeness of the final score reflected well on South’s willingness to work and express themselves, and so make a game of it. It would have been all too easy, when faced with quality players, to have gone into our shells. We didn’t, and the result was an excellent game which everyone enjoyed.

So, a good team performance, of which we can all be proud, but player of the match by general consensus was Gemma Thomas, who gave the left-side of the Geese defence problems all match (except for the part she played at right-back!). Centre forward Dan Adlington and sweeper Jim Thorpe also put in very strong performances.