South have excelled and out-performed their best efforts in finals night so far. After a match off to rest, the third place playoff was due to commence with an improving South playing against a young Perse Under 18s. Last season's Perse side had been to the national schools finals and had beaten South convincingly, nine-nil. Their 2017-18 version were not as dominant in their five-three victory in the regular season. Could the most rapidly improving team finally overcome the youngsters? South lined up with a swagger in their step. It wasn’t overconfidence, but a realisation that they could live with the better teams and were not out of place at the top. They knew their defensive duties and how important each other were. They lined up as below:

South set about stifling with their defence and breaking quickly to good effect. The team allowed Perse to have the ball and knock it around. The front three worked their socks off and were interchanging every three minutes to allow tired legs some respite. Perse made some decent breaks down their right flanks but were unable to squeeze the ball past Ollie Lamming and James Mathews.

Alex Baekelandt had already decided that Nev Warren had not done enough running during the tournament and set about addressing this problem. Whenever the indoor captain was nicely edging forward in anticipation of an attack, Alex decided to make him sprint backwards to collect his pass. A time delaying tactic for game management? Did Alex think that a solitary goal would be enough to defend? Who knows? The half finished on a high note as Harry Lewis stepped up and scored his first of the night. Perse were noticeably stunned and winded.

Perse started the second half with a goalie but had plans to swap for the sixth outfield player early on so that they might catch the South team unawares and change up the plan. They swapped carefully after a minute and tried to use the extra man to force the equaliser. South were not fazed by the extra player's introduction. They instead quickened their counters, pushed their extra man back and made them scared to push forward. More resolute defending and a series of fine gloved saves meant that there would be no bad end to the fairytale. Seven torturous minutes of attritional hockey later, South were the recipients of the bronze medal.

Keeping a clean sheet in any indoor game is a remarkable feat. Although the outfield players were splendid in restricting the number of short corners and chances that were created, a special mention needs to go to goalie, George Toynton. Despite amusing us all by allowing the inner workings of his mind to be shared on a frequent basis, George played at a very high level during the last two games. He effectively kept a clean sheet for twenty-four minutes (Three halves of play). This was the only clean sheet of the night and one of only two during the whole 2017-18 regular season. Well done, George and co.!

Lastly, thanks go out to other players throughout the season who have contributed, like Tijs, Jim Hockley, Chris Pearson, Owen Harrison and Shin Kim. We plan to try and book some sessions at the Perse/Long Road next season on a pay and play basis. If anyone has experience and would like to join in then please let your captain or Nev Warren know! Well done this year folks… Silverware next year?

FINAL PLACINGS

1st Cambridge City HC
2nd Perse Staff
3rd CAMBRIDGE SOUTH HC
4th Perse Under 18s
5th Saffron Walden HC
6th Cambridge Nomads HC