Cambridge South, sponsored by PwC, travelled to Wilberforce Road for this local derby and brought home 3 well deserved away points. Bek motivated us by telling us we had to beat this team because she knew the coach...who is nice apparently. Anyway, winning was all that was on our minds, but we knew we faced some talented young whippersnappers and so we could not afford to be complacent. We started strong from the push back with our South special putting Anne through on goal in the first 30 seconds to be thwarted by the Uni sweeper. It was going to be a highly charged game. There was a great midfield battle, but no real attempts on either goal until Anne skipped past a few defenders positioned the ball for a reverse stick sweep and a launched the ball into the roof of the net. A superb individual effort and 1-0 to the South. Everyone worked hard to break down the Uni attacks and when the ball broke the midfield always had Emma and Anne available wide with Tash making great runs from deep to pick up the ball. Another break down the right saw a shot from Anne rebound into the path of Tash who obligingly knocked the ball past the keeper. Another goal from Anne before half time gave South a comfortable lead at the break.

We expected the students come back hard so we made sure we did not sit back on our lead. Indeed they did show more intent this time, threatening Cassie's goal, but she was able to deal competently with any shots the students could muster. In general if it passed our midfield the defence were on hand to clear any threats. A break by South resulted in a penalty corner in their favour. The penalty corner line up was altered this week based on Hayley's dream in which she had envisioned a ball from the top of the D being swept in by Emma at the left post. The corner did not go exactly to plan however, a second attempt saw Gemma slipping the ball to Emma who swept the ball into the goal from an almost impossible angle. De ja vous for Hayley and 4-0 for South. Anne then scored her third and South's 5th. But when told she has scored a hat-trick she disagreed as she had not scored them in the same half. However, according to Wikipedia: "In both field hockey and ice hockey a hat-trick is when a player scores three goals in a game." A hat-trick it was and it looked like a clean sheet too, until a shot from OUTSIDE the D, left by Cassie, was rather fortuitously awarded as a goal for the students. Consolation I suppose. As frustrating as it was South held strong and maintained composure to hang on to their 4 goal lead.

The match teas were good, lots of chips! We learned that Dutch people do not eat their chips (or indeed crisps) in the form of sandwiches (yet smear mayo all over their sausages!) and that Tash is not a fan of this brand of chicken nuggets. Good face.

Overall an enjoyable game and a deserved win. Quoteth Hayley: "In the previous game we did not have the edge as we did not function successfully as a unit, this week was all about the team; great hockey, gritty determination and clinical finishes ...woohoo!"