Women’s 6s 0 – 6 Cheam 3s
An intense, hard fought match in the blistering sun in front of our home crowd against Ashford 2’s resulted in a 3-3 draw.
In the first half, Ashford scored a speedy first goal putting the team under pressure. We pressed hard and Bernie slotted one home to even it up. Ashford stepped it up a gear and scored two quick goals to put us 1-3 down at half time.
After an inspirational captains chat and fuelled by the magic of percy pigs, we went back out hungry to score. With everyone giving 100% on the pitch and juggling a number of injuries, the team surged on and were rewarded five minutes into the second half with a short corner. Stopped by Nicola who saw the opportunity to slip to Freya who took the shot and scored, 2-3!
POM was Freya, for keeping the team in the game with two fantastic goals and who never stopped running!
Report by Sophie Chalkley
Within two minutes of the game kicking off, the Warriors had the ball in the back of the net courtesy of some straightforward but devastating pass and move play from James and the wingers, followed up by an exquisite line-breaking pass from Harry before Danny slotted it past the keeper. Six minutes later, after a sustained attack, the OC debutant wheeled away in celebration for his second of the match, which seemed to rattle his ex-teammates somehow…
After a lightning start, the match seemed more balanced, with both defences soaking up attacks. A well-taken short corner routine brought OKs back into the game at 2-1 just before the halftime whistle was blown.
After a much quicker team talk of ‘just do the same thing but better’, we were back out on the pitch, and OKs had their second pushback within two minutes after a well-taken goal by Jack extended our lead to 3-1. This led to OKs throwing everything into attack, which caused gaps in their defence; on a quick counterattack, we had the ball in the back of the net for the 4th time, and the goalscorer Danny had completed his hat-trick. It was clear that OKs had been broken, but that didn’t stop us from digging their graves deeper. We were relentless in attack, and only some good defending (and missed sitters) kept the score until Riley netted two minutes before the end of the match to make it 5-1.
Massive congratulations to the team, and a special shout out to Josh, who made an incredible rugby tackle from behind. If you ever get bored of hockey, I am sure OCs Rugby would take you after that perfect form.
Goalscorers – Danny Cross x 3, Jack Walker, Riley Dormer
MoM – Danny Cross
A slight improvement from Oc’s at the start of the second quarter, but the lead was about to be doubled, with a second goal conceded just at the end of the half, leaving an almighty uphill battle for the boys.
Second half, 2 goals needed to salvage a point, and the boys started much better, with some magical hands from Miguel being a constant threat. A returning James Cutter, the Wiley old fox he is, finding a rebound off of the keeper, and burying it without a doubt left the lead to just 1.
Dominance is the only way to describe how the rest of the game unfolded. A second touch being a novelty for Hampstead and Westminster, we pressed on, creating umpteen chances, notably an upright reverse heading toward the bottom corner just missing. However, it seemed this would be too little too late, with the game ending 2-1. A valiant effort, but with no reward, we will reconvene stronger and as a team next week.
The match started with an unfortunate blow as Chiswick scored in the very first minute. However, OCs kept their heads high and quickly regained composure, refusing to let the early goal dictate the game.
A scary moment followed when Moz took a ball straight to the nose, causing a brief pause in play. Fortunately, there was a doctor on the sideline for Moz to get checked by. Despite this injury, OCs determination never wavered.
Our fighting spirit was soon rewarded as Mia, Alex, and Maddie linked up brilliantly, creating a chance that Maddie seized upon after a rebound, leveling the score at 1-1.
OCs didn’t stop there. A few minutes later, a great sequence of passing on the right led to a moment of brilliance from Dani. With Sylvie delivering the pass, Dani found a tiny pocket of space, turned, and slotted the ball past the keeper with an open-stick finish, putting OCs 2-1 ahead.
In a show of true grit, Moz returned to the field despite being taped up with a split nose—her fighting spirit clearly contagious.
Unfortunately, a defensive lapse off a 16-yard hit allowed the opposition to equalize at 2-2. But OCs quickly regained the lead thanks to a short corner. Hattie, in perfect position on the right post, deflected the ball off the keeper to make it 3-2.
The game remained intense until the final moments. A late short corner for the opposition resulted in another equalizer, with some debate over whether the shot was too high. Regardless, the score was now 3-3 heading into the final few minutes.
OCs fought hard to take the win, earning three short corners in quick succession, but unfortunately couldn’t convert.
Despite the opposition capitalizing on their limited opportunities, OCs dominated possession and play throughout the match. There is plenty to be proud of heading into next week’s fixture against Barnes.
A special shoutout goes to Hattie for her relentless energy and determination, winning several key 50:50 battles, and to Sylvie, who earned a well-deserved Man of the Match honor for her outstanding contributions across the pitch.
On a lighter note, Maddie and Sylvie shared DOD —Maddie for a fake tan incident and Sylvie for her amusing shirt mix-up.
OCs can take a lot of positives from this performance as they prepare for the next challenge. Keep up the fight, and next time, let’s turn these chances into a win.
What a glorious day for a game of field hockey! The sun was shining, and the atmosphere was great as Old Cranleighans Ladies 4 faced off against Epsom in what turned out to be a rousing encounter.
From the first whistle, OC’s showed their dominance in the first half, with our midfield magician, Poppy, orchestrating play like a maestro. She was everywhere, (as the oppo liked to tell me!) linking up with our forwards taking chance in the D. Eilidh scoring a classic “falling over” goal—apparently a tradition around here! I’m still trying to get the hang of everyone’s names, but I can tell you Eilidh knows how to finish off a goal!
Despite our strong start, Epsom mounted a challenge in the second half. They managed to break through our defence and sneaked one past our keeper, Hannah. It was a bit of a kick, but Hannah stood tall throughout, making some fantastic saves.
Not to be deterred, OC’s regrouped and demonstrated brilliant teamwork, moving the ball around with precision and taking full advantage of the openings. The goals kept coming, with Ella (x2), Manny, Hannah and, of course, Eilidh adding to the tally—each of them playing a vital role in our attack.
As the final whistle blew, final score 5-1 to OC’s. The match was a highlight not just for the goals but also for the spirited debate over who should take home the “Player of the Match” award. It was neck and neck, with Eilidh, Ella, Bella and Poppy all in the running, but Eilidh just edged it!
In the end, it was a fantastic win for the ladies, showcasing our teamwork and determination. I may still be learning names, but one thing’s for sure: this team has heart! Looking forward to more sunny afternoons and more memorable matches ahead! 🌞🏑💪
Women’s 3s 2 – 1 Richmond Ravens
We went into our second league match this season with high spirits from our win last
week! Our warmup in the car park had an extra little twist of dodge the car!
This week’s game was against Richmond Ravens, with a good result, a close 2-1
win.
We started our game in the lovely sunshine with an early goal scored by Ailsa at
back post from a great deflection by Sam. This early goal gave us the confidence to
push through and keep fighting.
The game was even, with two strong teams, both with lots of possession of the ball.
About halfway into the first half Richmond scored off a short corner making it1 all.
The game progressed with lots of great play by both teams. We used our transfers at
the back to give us more space and eventually we managed to get into the D with a
shot on goal past the keeper but stopped on the line by a Richmond player. This led
to us getting a p flick with not long left of the first half. Alice bravely put herself
forward to take the flick, and just like that the ball was in the goal. This put us 2-1 up
at the end of the first half.
With a good team talk and of course the iconic orange slices at half time, we were all
ready to go again and keep fighting for a win. Both teams had a clean sheet this half
with no goals conceded. But there was still some great game play made by our
players keeping the pressure up, to secure the win.
MOM: Jacq’s
Goal scores: Ailsa and Alice
Puritans 2 – 2 Bromley & Beckenham
Following BB’s total domination to win last year’s league this was always going to be our biggest test of the first half of the season and so it ptoved to be.
This was comfortably our best match and probably best performance since we entered an O60s team into the league.
Arguably we were more pleased with a point than the oppo but with 12, that became 11 after 2 minutes, against 14 we snuck a late equaliser and on another day could have won the game in the final minute.
The first half was very tight and both teams had a series of chances each scoring one goal. Having gone 1 down Andy Sanders was on had to pop the ball home from a well worked short corner to enable us to have parity after 35 minutes. The 2 Davids who starred last week did so again snuffing out a number of chances ably supported by Simon Duncan, the rock at left back.
As the second half progressed BB regained the lead and began to press with the aim to kill the game off. However Andy Macleod, a constant thorn in the side of BB scored from our 5th corner flicking the ball over the prostrate keeper having had his first effort well saved.
Neither side could find the winner and as we break for a couple of weeks we sit proudly on top of the table. Happy days.
Scorers Andy Sanders & Andy Macleod.
M o M David Garford Bes
Hamstrings 1 – 2 Richmond Rogues
John “Eastie” Eastie sighed, the former international playboy was used to commanding entire rooms with just one flash of the baby blues and now his carefully crafted, motivational team talk, focussed on the 53rd anniversary of his birth was fighting for air space with conversations about dogs, weddings and kidney stones. His team ambled on to the pitch, the autumn sun lighting up the more tonsorially challenged like OC branded candles on an Oaken Lane green cake. The whistle blew and Eastie realised he still had it. For 35 minutes the Hamstrings dominated, Justin charitably ran the full length of the pitch to fall over and claim DotD, which on any other day was heading the birthday boys way. Even conceding against the run of play couldn’t slow the OC onslaught as Baz powered the equaliser home just moments later. Unfortunately the ove motivated OC’s had burnt their candle at both ends and Richmond reversed the flow of play in the second half and walked away with the 3 point party bag, 2-1.
Barnstormers 4 – 0 Woking O50s
After a mediocre performance last week at Spencer the Barnies were determined to right some wrongs in the next match away at Woking. Motivational chat from Gerry in the build up advising that we get the train there, to avoid the horrendous traffic we were about the face with the M25/A3 junction closed, did help in some ways as all the squad arrived early having not experienced any hold up on the roads at all.
With the skipper away playing golf (again) and a few others unavailable the depleted squad was strengthened with help from Guy, Roger and Manmeet. As if they had been regulars in the squad for many years the newcomers fitted seamlessly into the side as we started the match strongly. Previous early season basic errors had disappeared as good passing and link up play helped put Woking under pressure from the start. Poen and Searsey ran around with real intent up front allowing the midfield to find the gaps seeking that first goal. The breakthrough came after 10 minutes with another strong display of ball passing around the oppo defense before Gerry put the ball away with great style and panache!
While Paddy and Gerry were bossing the midfield with Ritchie and Powelly controlling the flanks, our back four (Guy, Roger, Dougie and Ed) were proving a stubborn force in not letting the oppo through our defensive barriers. Dougie was so defiant he appeared to very much adopt the Gandalf role from Lord of the Rings shouting ‘I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flam of Anor. You cannot pass! The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udun. Go back to the Shadow! At least that what I remembered..
The steady play continued with a number of short corners coming our way, giving Ritchie a few attempts to warm up before finally finding his range and hitting his straight strike into the left corner of the oppo goal. 2-0 lead going into half time.
Second half started in much the same way with Woking now looking visibly tired. To take full advantage of this the strategy at half time was to press even higher. Our two debutants Roger and Guy possibly took this to the extreme with their version of high press completely changing the formation to 5 up front and 2 at the back – much to Dougie’s amusement. Fortunately, it didn’t impact our play and we increased our lead with a further goal from Gerry just inside the D, although others would call it half a goal. Was it a shot? Was it a pass? What was it? Following some form of contact the ball travelled towards the goal at barely any pace but still avoided any resistance from the oppo defenders and goalkeeper before amazingly crossing the line!
Siezing the opportunity to get some target practice our forward line (yes including Roger and Guy) kept shooting at goal, all getting very close – including Searsey who after initial shock and surprise at being presented with this opportunity very nearly scored – next match it will happen Searsey!
Scoring a simple goal was not on Poen’s agenda however – whether he was finding scoring too easy this season or he wanted to show his watching daughter how to do it – what happened next was not standard practice! Poen took the ball inside the D and transferred it across from his open stick to reverse side all of us were holding our breath, having seen Poen’s previous reverse stick attempts over the last ? number of years. This time the stars were aligned and the stick to ball sound was met very quickly by another bang as the ball hit the bottom right corner of the goal back board – well done Poen.
One last comment on our GK, Tim the Wall, who also had an excellent game managing two great saves whilst keeping the troops outfield in the right position for the majority of the match.
We finished the game as comfortable 4-0 winners with Gerry getting man of the match for constant running and great link up play as well as 1.5 goals. Quints, our Captain gets DOD for playing golf….