OC Hockey Club

We had a very strong start, with a great goal from Bernie – assisted by Poppy P – four minutes into the game. We had some great runs up the side of the pitch which eventually led to a great run from Charlotte, who passed the ball to Bernie, who then crossed the ball to Ailsa, leading to a goal thirty one minutes in.
After a team talk at half time, we started the second half with some good defensive play and nice transfers, but Teddington had a very strong press and were able to score a goal. Unfortunately, they scored again a few minutes later from a long corner. But we pushed back hard and got some shots at goal, as well as winning a couple of short corners, where Bernie scored another goal in the forty ninth minute. There were some tough challenges from Teddington but we defended very well as a team and prevented any more goals. We put lots of pressure on Teddington with some great passes into the D by Paula. We finished the game with a goal scored by Zoe in the last minute, making the score 4-2. This match put us third in the league. Well done to Charlotte Stubbs for getting PoM.

Written by Niamh Hepburn

Away at Guildford, and after a strong Jamie warm-up we were ready to go. But first, a minute silence in honour of our Legend goalkeeper Craig Wilson who passed this week. He was playing hockey last year aged 81, an amazing chap, such a gent, what a sad sad day for him and his family. Always smiling, he was a kind and gracious Canadian, he played ice hockey in his early years, you could tell he was tough, had a no fear attitude with a subtle dry sense of humour. He always enjoyed the team time, the chats and post game banter. He was sort of ageless, it’s hard to believe he’s gone.

Overall an amazing match for the end of season. We started with spirits high and sticks ready. With some great teamwork and stick skills from louvisa she scored the first goal of the match with an assist from erin bringing us to 1-0. Unfortunately the other team also got a goal in this half leaving us at 1-1 at half time. We fought hard in the second half with lots of good runs from connie and lots of shots on goal from the attack. The other team shot the final goal of the match in a short corner meaning they won 2-1. Despite the loss we enjoyed the match greatly and it was a good end to the 2023 season. Well played everyone. Our player of the match was Erin that played CM.

From Lily Gavins

 

Saturday 16th December was meant to be a well earned rest at the start of the Christmas break but the mighty Barnies were not content to start their holiday this early and keen to continue the momentum of the solid first half of the season. To add further challenges to the fixture it was a rescheduled match against Old Loughts away in deep and darkest Essex! Attendance was very light for the original fixture but fortunately the troops rallied together and with some generous help from the Stormers we managed to get a side out, all of whom were fully committed to making the long journey part of the experience and a bit of fun. Ritchie was coming from the West. Poon the South. The Wall and CB from London SW. Dazzler, Dougie, Tongy and Packers from the Club and the Hersham boys Paddy and Yongey from, well Hersham.

Cato, who lets be honest could really of done without a hockey match this weekend having spent 24/7 for the last 4 months sorting out hockey related matters at the club, really wanted a chilled out Saturday taking his boys to football in Redhill in the morning and then keen to watch the Mens 1s indoor efforts over in Croyden. However he very kindly responded – with maybe some reluctance – to the skippers desperate pleas for another player during the week and agreed to help out! He was coming from South East way.

Now the case for Dick of the Day starts here! Packers, never one to shy away from a great match report, nonchalantly turned up 15 min late for the start of Dazzler’s car journey while the others were already on the road. Fortunately for them and especially Packers they still made it to the Old Loughts clubhouse on time. Yongey and Paddy left 2 hours before meet time, safely negotiated the M25 but hit traffic 3 miles from the destination and then spent 40min crawling to the club resulting in a 20min late arrival – very annoying! It turns out everyone else took a different route from the M25 and it was Yongey’s car’s Sat Nav to blame – if only cars could write match reports!

With all 11 now at Old Loughts we were joined by a mate of Yongeys called Jim, who as luck would have it was heading to Cambridge and was happy to stop by and help out. This brought us up to 12 which was still daunting when faced with the 15 the home side had. Let’s hope we don’t get any injuries 😊

The match itself can be summarised quite quickly: We played really well with the ball from defence through to their D, spreading it around nicely and making great runs penetrating their defence. Unfortunately, we just couldn’t put the ball in the goal!

In slightly more detail we played exceptionally well in the first half controlling the middle of the pitch which allowed Cato and Ritchie out wide to link well with CB, Poon and Jim up front. The short corners eventually came after strong pressure and from one the tried and tested routine generated our goal when Tongy slid the ball into the corner from a Yongey lay off, 1-0 up. We really pushed and spent most of the time in their half so much so that the Wall admitted he was getting cold not doing very much.

The oppo were good and rotated their subs well so they seemed to have fresh legs at all times especially in the second half when ours starting tiring. Their forward line however was no match for our defence and rarely did they break through our back line with Dougie, Packers, Tongy and Dazzler putting in strong tackles. Dougie especially continued his rich vein of form making some great saves and ball carrying runs. We started to take a dip when we lost Dazzler early in the second half. Not many of us saw what happened but the evidence is there to see a nasty hit on the side of his foot and a rather peed off Dazzler on the side of the pitch. With mistakes starting to set in Old Loughts took advantage and changed to a more direct approach. Before the match Jim pre warned us of the oppo’s tactics with their centre back playing a pivotal part hitting the ball at 100 miles an hour from one end to the other. Well he was spot on as this was exactly what they did and we were bombarded with long hard hits culminating with a lot of pressure. The last 15min did feel like everything was against us, the oppo were pushing hard and the umpires were……Anyway we gave away two late corners, with the hard hitting centre back primed. The first alas was a good hit and went in the far corner making the score 1-1. The second was in the last few minutes and again the hard hit came directed for the same corner but this time a bold brave Packers held his nerve and deflected the ball off the pitch saving an inevitable goal. This ensured Packers shared the MOM honours with Dougie. Handy as the two of them had more in common with a very interesting and amusing last few minutes of the game.

To set the scene we had 4 fine defenders playing this game, 3 of them like chatting to the umpires, 1 doesn’t. Anyway with Dazzler off Tongy and Packers made up for his lost voice and kept chipping away at the officials much to Yongey’s concern. The greater the pressure built to get that win the more the comments came and finally the Umpire snapped and gave the green card, although it wasn’t to Tongy or Packers but to the quiet and focused Dougie! I’ve been reliably told that it wasn’t Dougie who said anything but Packers! Anyway the match ended 1-1 with some frustration but also recognition that we played well again and we like chatting to umpires.

Thanks to Paddy, CB and Cato for helping out. Well done all to a great first half of the season and have a great Xmas break.

It was an inauspicious match. The race to the bottom – the two bottom teams of the league (not just the division) playing for – well, any kind of result really, as long as it meant we weren’t bottom at at the end.

This match had been postponed from two weeks or so ago, and Ashford had initially wanted to defer to January or perhaps later. Some whining from me to Helen had her putting her stern tone on and shaming them into agreeing the rematch for the 16th. To be fair, we had nearly had to replay the following match because of a frozen pitch, so she had been right to do so.

On the other hand, given that at least four of us had office Christmas parties the night before, maybe we should have thought about postponing. One of us never actually made it (you know who you are), and I nobly took the option of coming home sober at 8.30, albeit with my face painted like a tiger.  I would just like to say that adulting is hard, you know….

In retrospect I was probably the one who needn’t have bothered coming home early as I touched the ball the least – an unusual experience so far this season.

You can tell we weren’t playing at Teddington as it was not raining. Cloudy skies were as good as we were going to get, although there were rare glimpses of blue. Crumpet mascotted beautifully in her new blue and orange coat, her barks clearly audible across the whole pitch. Apologies to those who were suffering from hangovers (you know who you were).

I told the team in the team talk that I would win the toss, and we would straightaway storm up the right wing, get the ball into the penalty spot and score (see John, I have been listening at training).

 

And I won the toss!  So we tried our tactic (I had not given tactics for the remainder of the half beyond that one) and to their credit, the whole team got behind that one move, again and again.

Izzy Archbold, guesting for us as it was the only match she could make that day, stormed up the right again and again, ably supported by Darcie Waite (a combo that worked well together), with Carol on the left batting it back and forth to them.

In the first 15 minutes we had plenty of opportunities, including an interesting nutmeg when Fi McPherson managed to get the ball missing not only her legs but her stick in front of goal.

No one seems clear about the order of who scored what (including the umpires – you know who you are). Except we had two in the back of the net in the next ten minutes. Pretty sure the first was scored by Jeanette Sunderland. I was too busy celebrating with Inge Winn at the back. Two has been our limit so far this season.

Then the backs, Inge, Kim Lyle (also guesting due to other commitments) and Annie Lee were under pressure. They responded beautifully. The oppo forced a brilliant save from me off my stick and then helmet, cleared out of the D by one of my glamorous assistants (defenders) and several short corners. We won’t talk about the back of the stick use unseen by the umpires – although Annie may have mentioned a couple of infractions by the other team to the umpire. Once or twice. In fact, several times.

Eventually the oppo managed to snag quite a few short corners on the trot, although we gamely kept quite a few of them out – great defending ladies. Laura Williams ran a fantastic #1 each time with no mask and no shinpads (much braver than me – I won’t get on the pitch without all-over foam).

We then went straight back up the pitch and got that one back. I think that is the proudest I have felt all season, apart from the fight shown when we lost 10-0 to Teddington 6s. It was the desire to get the ball, to get it in that seems to have been missing in some of our matches. Getting that instant reply really showed the character of the team.

Anyway, we opened up the second half exactly the way I had wanted to start the first half – getting the ball off them and then scoring immediately. A stunning play.

We then had about 20 minutes of barraging their goal. They even lost a player and their goalkeeper (presumably off to somewhere more exciting) and replaced their goalie and we didn’t manage to take advantage of the extra woman on the pitch. And then it happened – the breakthrough, followed by another three goals. We were helped by their replacement goalkeeper not kicking a shot away, presumably thinking it had been struck outside the D.

For me, there were several standouts in the match:

1. Seven players scored 8 goals between then. Hildegard, who had a stonking match chasing everything down, scored two goals. Laura Williams, Jeanette Sunderland, Fi MacPherson, Carol Wijewardene, Izzy Archbold and Emma Smith all scored. So it wasn’t a one-woman show. It was the power of teamwork. And Izzy’s, Laura’s and Hildegard’s running.

2. Getting it up the right and across the goal does work.

3. Annie Lee played at the back. There are players on a team and there are team players. Annie is hands down a team player. She plays wherever I ask her to, left, right, centre, back, midfield or forward with no argument, no fuss, and just gets on with it, every week. She has played everywhere except goalkeeper, and I am sure that if I ever had to come off for any reason, she would be first to volunteer to put on the kit and have a go. She umpires as well, and everything she does is for the benefit of the team or club. That is what being a team player is all about. Thanks Annie. You rock.

3. Special mention for Fi MacPherson too, who also came on as a defender when she certainly didn’t want to (and moved forward first chance she got). She still went to the back, even though she is worried about playing there. She hated it, and was worried about it, but again, still did it. Still played where I asked her to with no complaint, as she does week after week.

As we reflect on the first half of the season, I can honestly say that, although I am very competitive and have let in more goals than since my first year at uni (where we had to play Loughborough at Loughborough whenever we didn’t have a match), it has been a good season. Watching the team grow and improve has been great, especially once we became more settled as a team. The attitude has been wonderful and people have stretched themselves to meet the needs of the team.

The colts have been amazing – all of them have played wherever and however I have asked them. Darcie Waite, Lia Lorenz and Belle Sieger are a valuable part of the team and have really pushed themselves to improve and adapt this year. I look forward to seeing them develop even further next half of the season.

We are handicapped by not having many fast players – we do need some legs on the team, but this weeks shows that with a few faster players, the ‘I want the ball’ attitude and players willing to go outside their comfort zone, we can win. This game has built on the ones all season where we so nearly scored quickly but didn’t and then lost confidence. We didn’t stack the team, and in fact two people pulled out on Friday night and Saturday, so we went from 14 to 12 players.

Final word goes to Annie: ‘keeping your stick down really makes a difference’. Who knew, Annie? 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all. And thanks to the 7s for their kind gift. See you all revved up and raring to go in January!