Match day began with a tumultuous downpour of rain… It rained and it rained…and on the drive to Newmarket, the ladies were forced to accept and mentally prepare themselves for the inevitable soaking at the Newmarket field. Before the match began, two team players faced somewhat unexpected challenges - Lucy had shrunken-hockey-sock syndrome and Maria, in a rush to get to the warm-up session on time, proceded to spread her belongings between the car park, the pitch and the dugout.

With Cambridge South starting with the ball, the game began and soon the forwards were pressing the Newmarket D for goal opportunities. The game saw the team try out every short corner tactic under the sun, but it paid off (with left slip and straight strike working particularly well) and soon South were in the lead by quite some margin. Though the short corner conversion rate of the team was the highest it has ever been, we must not forget the goals that were achieved by timely passes between the mids (Hayley, Olivia, Rebecca, Lauren and Jess) and the forwards. In particular, Kath received some timely balls and made some solid runs down the sideline. At half time, the team felt elated at having managed to sneak seven goals past Newmarket.

The second half saw Newmarket put up a valiant fight, trying to deny Cambridge South the further seven goals Laurie had set everyone as a target. Aoife was dramatically tripped and fell flat on her face, but she recovered in an elegant fashion without a scratch. Lauren, on the other hand, decided to add to her collection of bumps on her knee - no one knows quite how she does it!

As the match drew to a close, the defence stayed strong, with Maria, Ani and Sarah coming to the rescue of the team when Newmarket managed to smash a ball past CSHC’s tight formation. In beautiful fashion, almost equal to the England Ladies’ Hockey Team themselves, Laurie instigated a transfer of the ball between the defenders and Louise made a crucial sliding save to keep the goals against Cam South at zero.

We must commend the Newmarket players, who, in their bright yellow T-shirts, put the team through their paces and brought a bit of sunshine to the dreary day in Newmarket. Their defence team really tested the forwards, but we kept our width and maintained a high pressure on the Newmarket defenders. However, Newmarket’s fate was sealed in the remaining minutes by a miracle of a goal from Lucy. Striking the ball from the top of the D, the ball was deflected into the air by a Newmarket player and flew in beautiful, slow motion over the heads of every forward and defender in the D, including the goalie(!), to land plop in the back of the goal.

All in all, the game saw Kath and Jess score a hat-trick each, with Lucy, being the solid trooper she is (despite a hangover), scoring five goals, two goals for Dani and one for Lauren. Voted as MoM, Jess had a brilliant game, scoring two of her goals from the top of the Newmarket D.