Match reports – 17th April

Men’s 1st XI 2-3 London Wayfarers
The 1st XI dusted off the cobwebs in the first outing since December and in the event their last until the pre-seasons start in late August. On a hot day the match was preceded by an immaculately observed minute’s silence to mark the life of Prince Philip. Despite this being a friendly between two rusty sides, the quality was good but we paid for a lack of firepower up front and although we led fitness and missed chances cost us.

Ladies 1s 0-1 Richmond

The Ladies 1โ€™s were raring to get back into the season with a win away at Richmond. After paying our respect to Prince Philip, our 3.01pm push back saw us start strongly dominating the first 10 minutes and winning ourselves a penalty corner unfortunately failing to capitalise on this. As the first half progressed we lost our momentum slightly and against the run of play conceded with a momentary lapse of concentration to go 1-0 down. After a stern talking to by coach Moors at half time we fired ourselves up determined to do better for the second half.

Unfortunately it didnโ€™t go to plan. Richmond pressed us hard winning a series of penalty corners which we defended strongly, and also forcing us to defend hard throughout the pitch and Molly having to make some outstanding saves in goal. We had a few breaks but again failed to score. The warmer weather took its toll and at least we managedย  to hold Richmond to a draw in the second half. Final score 1-0 to the home team. Although disappointed with our performance and the result, we were still all buzzing from being back on the pitch, as a team and playing competitive hockey. Onwards and upwards to next week.