A point for the
Men’s 1st XI 2-2 Brighton
On Saturday the 3rd of October the Men’s 1st XI travelled to Brighton in their first away fixture of the season in what was certain to be a tough fixture.
The new look 1st XI got off to a tough start with Brighton dominating every proceedings. After a disallowed goal and a few chances for the home team the OCs grew into the game with a fit again Will Phillips and post quarantine Jack Smart looking assured on the ball. The OCs finally broke through in 23rd minute through a superb Dan Ladd goal and proceeded to look like the more dominant side until half time.
Brighton started the second half well and scored off a PC early into the second half. The OCs fought back valiantly and went 2-1 up through a well worked Tom Lawson goal. All was looking smooth until the last 10 minutes when a ten men OCs conceded a controversial penalty stroke. Once again the 1s fought back and had a couple of chances to win it although it wasn’t to be.
Two solid performances in two weeks has given the lads belief that they are ready to take on higher flights Teddington in what should be a great game at OCs at 5pm Saturday night.
Men’s 2nd XI 3-6 Reigate
Freddie Russell-Jones likes it wet and as OC’s 2XI took to the pitch everyone was adequately moist for some fast action.
The first half ended with Reigate 1-0 to the better. A strong start to the second half, saw the umpire blow too hard and early for Tom Cooper as his goal was disallowed. This did not deter our man of the match as he continued to torment the opposition defence and was rewarded with a well placed goal.
The right sub at the right time from Wright allowed our right winger to write the perfect pass to Cook who was in the right place as the opposition keeper did not guess right as the ball went to the right of him.
As the game came to a close, the forwards continued to show their potential with Coops and Cooks linking up well to give Roberts a back post finish. Final result, 6-3 victory to the visitors.
Men’s 4th XI 2-1 Croydon & Mid Whitgiftians 2s
On a very wet Saturday at Fortress TD, the day started with the squeegees and brooms brushing off excess rain water from the pitch. As wet as it was in the weather, it was matched with our start on the pitch!
We fought back and played some good hockey at times but didn’t get much reward from our endeavours and rightly went in at halftime 1-0 down.
We started the second period in much better style and honed in on the oppo’s goal, forcing their keeper to make some good saves. Our relentless push for an equaliser was rewarded when we came out of an attack with something. We need to learn that we do not need to score every time but convert pressure into short corners. A slick shorty move resulted in Graham scoring. Quickly our belief turned to us taking all the spoils.
Moments later Eds found himself at the top of the ‘D’ with their keeper running him down. He was bumbled over and laid flat out on the floor asking: “did I score?” It’s Eds, he always scores. He demonstrated how to win a 30:70 challenge. When we are guilty of losing so many 50:50s this was a clear example of gain from pain!!
With our defence well marshalled by our MoM, Sam Carne, and a top save from our skipper, our experience showed in the end. It is important that we recognise in the squad that we must show character, that we have a back bone, that we will fight for the ball back if we lose it. Once we have it, we must cherish it. If we convert our possession in the final 3rd into short corners or a shot on goal, we will have a good season. We must be more ruthless all over the pitch but more commercial in our outcomes.
Some true fight and grit needed over the next few weeks and months to keep the juggernaut moving in the right direction. Our old adversaries up next, Merton away – the joys, but we’ll be ready for the challenge!!!
Men’s 5th XI Epsom 4s
Another familiar score line for the O50s in the 5ths squad as we revisited the Surrey Procession moth centre for the second time in 3 weekends. A somewhat different team faced us on this occasion with points at stake. Our team was also different lacking Quints and Sam, the latter having taken himself off to Hurst Castle with 73 other fellow students. We missed them and later rued their not being present. The utopian result of two weeks ago was replaced by a dystopian one this week as we should have wended our way north and south on the A3 with 3 points in the bag.
After 4 minutes and Epson queuing up in front of our goal, only for them all to miss the ball and allow it to drift out of play, we touched the ball for the first time and dispelled the thought that we going to be humbled big time. As the game progressed we dominated more and more but just could not score. We even had the quite bizarre spectacle of our own Zed Crumbers approaching the umpire in his languid and calm manner to tell the umpire to calm down. A volley of loud swear words shattered the hitherto peaceful late morning accentuated by a strong South African accent. Concerned that there were children standing 3 metres away Crumbers suggested that it would be prudent for the umpire to stop swearing in front of impressionable children to which he received the response along the lines of ” they are my children”. The logical conclusion was that they were very used to such an outburst and that the words were common parlance in the household. That was alright then, wasn’t it ? Malcolm had the unenviable task of considering whether or not to card his officiating colleague. In the spirit of entente cordial the cards stayed in Malcolm’s pocket where they remained all match.
As for the game we pressed for most of the first half but did not convert any of our 3 short corners. Nor did we make the most of a very well worked move from the back that gave us the best opportunity of the game to take the lead. Whilst we were territorially dominant Epsom were dangerous on the break but never really caused us any problems.
Sometimes having a whole host of subs makes it tricky and difficult to keep momentum and shape with constant changes as it proved to be. We conceded two goals midway through the half , the first from a corner that was a sucker, being a carbon copy of a goal conceded in the friendly match, and the second a good finish from a break.
There was time for us to convert our 4th corner but pressing though we did until the final whistle we could not find an equalizer.
Looking at the league results of the last two weeks this is going to be a tight and close fought league with there being little between most of the sides. Far better this was than to have one sided games.
We introduced another colt to league hockey in Joe and as the game went on he became more and more effective with Matt J also growing in confidence.
All in all our job is to play good hockey, compete whilst blooding and bringing the younger players like Tissy along.
Croydon, always a feisty game, at home next week followed by a chance to watch our 1s v Teddington.
London Edwardians 0-0 Ladies 1st XI
Ladies 2nd XI 4-3 Richmond 3s
Off the back of some strong friendlies, we were all more than ready to get the league underway with our first game of the season against Richmond 3s. The rain finally stopped and after a somewhat slow start, we saw some strong, attacking periods of play and eventually were rewarded with the first of many penalty corners. A mis-trapped stop saw some great decision-making by Liz who found Flo with a quick pass back into the D. Flo played a perfect cross which Jo managed not to mess up – 1-0 OCs.
Frustratingly, just before half-time, Richmond broke and made a great pass through to their high player who scored to make it 1-1 going into the break. After a pep talk from Captain Cook and Rachel at half-time, we came out fighting but found ourselves 1-3 down after 2 goals in quick succession from Richmond within the first 10mins. Again, one was a quick break seeing us getting caught out by one of their players hanging high.
We didn’t let our heads go down and within 2mins of their 3rd goal, we pulled one back. A great cross followed by some fighting (aka scrappy) play in the D ending in Bella scoring – 2-3.
The next 15mins saw the OCs press cause real frustration amongst the Richmond defence who struggled to get the ball out from their 16s. Sustained pressure from OCs forced numerous saves, and too many penalty corners to mention but we still couldn’t find the back of the net. Just as we were starting to think it wasn’t going to be our day, Josie skilled several players before nailing an amazing reverse shot into the top corner to take us to 3-3, with 7mins left to play.
(Another) 2 PCs in the last minute and we finally found the back of the net…with just 25 seconds left on the clock. A 2nd thoroughly well-deserved goal for Josie and a very relieved L2s team walking away with a 4-3 win. Some would say we made it hard for ourselves, but a great testament to our fight that we still got the right result. Some great support on the side lines too, thank you!
Joint PoM – Josie & Flo
Ladies 4th XI 3-3 Oxted
Before talking about the game, I feel the week leading up to it needs some coverage.
Monday
Panic sets in during training when we learn we will be subject to some sort of selection process. Some of us haven’t been put through this sort of stress since school/university/club hockey when we were actually regarded as decent players.
Tuesday
38,000 Whatsapp messages about imminent selection exchanged within the ladies 4’s group, thus breaking the UK record for the number of messages shared by one group in a 12 hour period.
Wednesday
A strange calm descends on me. In anticipation of non selection, I have very sensibly written an essential to do list to keep myself occupied. These are, and in no particular order:
Reorganise my sock drawer
Re do my puzzle of the London Underground
Split my hundreds and thousands into specific colours
Thursday
There now seems to be close to 30 players available. Whatsapp crashes due to overload of traffic.
Later: Georgie manages to get a friendly so everyone gets a game. Hooray!
Saturday
After all the build up, the over riding worry seems to be “will I play well?!?” However, once the game started, it all settled down and we actually had a jolly good time. The juniors are getting used to passing balls to the more mature ladies, rather than expecting any sprint onto the ball. The final score was 3-3, which was probably a fair result, but I can’t resist pointing out that five minutes from the end an OC goal was incorrectly disallowed. Disappointment was short lived following a sugar high delivered in Sara’s tasty rocky road biscuits.
Ladies 5th XI 0-5 Old Georgians
Ladies 5s played their debut first league game of the season away against OGs; while the weather forecast was for heavy rain, it remained dry and mild, perfect weather for hockey!