Ladies 1s

Guest author Fish – Ladies 1s drew 1-1! Katherine Abbie was left hanging and feared for her life, Philippa Leguen De Lacroix had a slight wrong postcode issue, Faith just didn’t have a postcode. Katrina Hurrell ended up in the attacking D and Mog made an excellent save with her head! It was also very cold! We got a point now for copious amounts of cider, rugby and a curry! BOOM!

Men’s 1s

Report to follow

Ladies 2s

Report to follow

Men’s 2s

The Men’s 2s played host to a well-drilled (and presumably very hungry -they ate our teas as well) East London 2s side on a cold and damp Walthamstow morning.

The first 10 minutes were best forgotten by the home side. An uphill battle was in order after we found ourselves 2-0 down, in no short part thanks to Tanswell’s unerring ability to pick out their centre forward at the top of our D. He did, at least, do the gentlemanly thing of holding up his hand apologetically, rather than “doing a Stubbing” and falling on the floor.

Eventually Forest got their act together and played some of the best hockey they’ve played since the Christmas break. Imran pulled one back before half time. I can’t really remember what happened, but I assume it was a great goal.

After the break, Forest dominated large portions of play. Clarkey et al were imperious at the back, apart from when he undercut the ball into Immy from our own backline, much to Davis’ annoyance. A share of the spoils was eventually earned when Nate slotted home following a great flowing move. We’ve told him to stop playing so well when the 1s are watching – it’s simply not the 2s way.

At the all important Fines Committee, Rob was hammered for being the dumbest smart guy we know, Kuipers lost out owing to his snazzy sailing jacket (complete with sleeve window), Nati’s expletive laden outburst almost won him the mantle of POP, but the honour ultimately was handed to one Tim Boxall for the heinous crimes of skiing mid-season, being very selfish, and probably wearing a lot of blue sportswear.

In less important MOM news, the man known as Chap (but he’ll never know why) won a tight vote after he showed up our central midfield.

Ladies 3s

Yeeeees! Proud to report that the ladies 3’s went out with a full squad and played valiantly to bring home a 2-0 win!!

Although much of the game was defensive and yet again our awesome defence had to keep attack after attack after short corner and short corner at bay, we fought hard and took advantage of Brentwood’s weaker spots in midfield and defence to catch them off guard when it mattered. Once on the move our midfield and forwards created space made great passes and put away 2 goals to be proud of.

Goal scorers Minty Bop Hopkins and Jane Blackborow.

MOM jointly awarded to Roisin and Claudia who worked tirelessly and created fantastic play through midfield.

Special mention to Michelle Twitchett who doubled up today and was completely awesome in goal. Not just at keeping the ball out the goal, but with her fantastic support and direction.

Girls we well deserved this win. Looking strong as a team. Happy, happy, happy.

POP to Gary Joy for giving our Captain a green card. Only joking. Thanks Ray Russo and Gary Joy.

Men’s 3s

Mens 3’s match was so shocking, I’ll probably get told off for swearing and being negative so not going to do one!

We lost 3-0

JOE – got a sent off (Green card) for swearing at his own team members

Ladies 4s

Today, the fabulous Ladies 4s drove to the coast to face Southend Ladies 3s. With no subs, we knew it was going to be a tough game that both teams really needed to win.

In the cold and rain, we went out strong and dominated in the first half, with Kwai putting us 1-0 ahead before half time. The second half was more evenly matched, with our defence demonstrating their skill and strength, but we still won short corner after short corner (6 in total, without conceding any? Rosemarie was a little bored…). At the final whistle, we won our final short corner, which I managed to convert into a goal, giving us a 2-0 win.

That’s right, everyone. A WELL-DESERVED 2-0 WIN and I couldn’t be any happier!

Hooray!

MOM: A tie between Francis (for her tenacious play and energy) and me (First time ever!)

Men’s 4s

Basically we hosted 2nd in the league Clacton 2s, in what was for us a game of 2 halves!!! We were superb 1st half taking in a 2-0 lead.

As good as we were 1st, we were as poor 2nd half. Conceding the next 3 goals, so found ourselves 3-2 down. To our credit, we kept battling, and got, what could be an important point, by making it 3-3 late on. Also with a game in hand, a point toward our quest to secure our position in Division 6SE, ended up being a pleasing result.

MOTM Oliver Loessl

Goal scorers:Ian Bennett, Sami Akram, Oliver Loessl

Otters

The Otters took on Phoenix Knights at the Academy and the highlight of a tight first half in which we fell a goal behind from a short corner was a promising start from Samuel on debut, a day after his 13th birthday.

After falling two behind from a defensive error early in the second half we finally started playing with some urgency and committing more numbers into the attacking D. While we were vulnerable to the counter-attack and grateful to Shaun for keeping us in it with a couple of fine saves, Man of the Match Jordan’s fine work on the right wing created a succession of chances, and first Emran and then Mick found the net as we equalised with just a few minutes to go and settled for a deserved and hard-fought 2-2 draw.