Ladies 1s
L1s cursed ourselves by commenting before the game that we hadn’t had any cards this season. Cue Katherine Abbie green card but she was soon outdone by Mandy with a yellow.
Anyway, apart from that we went 0-1 down and after some firm words from George at half time we stepped up with Kathy bulldozing her way to a cracking smacking goal and then Lydia Hale put us 1-2 ahead with a lovely goal.
A game of firsts for Lydia – first goal for L1s, MoM in the bag, also DoD for falling over on her own.
So we end an up and down season with a win and mid table finish. Thanks to coach George, capitano Lucy Butcher and Financial Director & VC Mog. We’re delaying our team night out but we will have one and then see you at the dinner dance!
Men’s 1s
To follow
Ladies 2s
To follow
Men’s 2s
As Mr Tim Boxall is currently indisposed I have the difficult task of covering for him this weekend.
The men’s 2s went into the final weekend of the league thinking we had let it slip through our fingers. This explains how Tim Slack found himself in the starting line-up and Tom Lowe found himself ‘playing in the pocket’. How wrong we were!
Playing a difficult Redbridge team with a mixture of old heads and young legs Waltham Forest had spells of fluid hockey (the sort they will need next season). However an Ed Bear Stubbing attempt to pick a bouncing ball wrong footed Yogi Patel and left us a goal down. Never fear Davis is here!
Our man of the match was excellent pulling the strings in the middle, with his sidekick Tim Boxall buzzing around everywhere like a bee. Goals from Jonathan Jones and Imran Arshad (I’m guessing a bit) put us ahead, but it was a back and forth game. With 10 minutes to go we were 3-2 down something Tom had no idea of. But some good play saw us draw level and suddenly Matt O’Hara fresh from his week of powered!! Popped up on the back post to give us the lead. 4-3 the final.
Sitting in the clubhouse commenting on Clarke’s boat wear we suddenly became aware that East London 3s had actually beaten their 2s to leave promotion in the 2s hands!
The 2s play Thurrock in a make up game on the 2nd of April at 11am, in a game that if we win we get promoted!!
In the words of team mascot Gary Joy, “Come on Green Army!”
Ladies 3s
Our captains rallying words were ‘Get stuck in it doesn’t matter if you get injured the seasons over’…
Injury tally:
2 sets of badly grazed knees – Roisin…again and Charlotte both tripped by very wayward oppo sticks.
1 bruised arm. Me stopping yet another amazing strike on goal by Sarah Todd…sorry…again!
1 head injury – Fran who smartly head butted a forward and spoilt the poor girls planned night out with the boyfriend by giving her a black eye!
But the 3’s battling rallying cry also gave us one of our best performances of the season. We may have lost to ‘top of the division’ Havering 1-4 but compared to 9-0 at the start of the season it was a brilliant effort. The score also doesn’t reflect our play which dominated the majority of the game.
We played our little green socks off, startled Havering, and didn’t give them the ‘walk over’ I think they were expecting.
The MoM match results reflect the big team effort with equal votes for a forward, mid fielder and defender.
Me – Jane Blackborow I reckon for my …if I may say so myself… cracker of a goal.
Sarah Todd – again for her tireless work driving the ball forward and being everywhere she needed to be and Jenny Murphy for her sterling work keeping a very nifty winger at bay.
However a huge well done to all. An awesome effort. We end the season with heads held high and an optimistic outlook for next season.
Men’s 3s
Highs and lows of our last game of the season. With the season’s aim to stay in the league, we successfully secured it by finishing 5th on joint points with 4th place East London.
Highs:
We won 6-1
Steve played out on pitch
Gavin went in goal
Paul Scored 2 goals from short corners
Ferg scored
Steve is still playing out on pitch unbroken
Dan scored and actually ran with it
Parvin scored
Nate score
We played with no keeper in the second half
Steve lasted the whole game
We finish 5th in the league
The over 30’s beat the under 30’s at bowling on the team night out.
Lows:
Jon Baker didn’t turn up
Nate’s goal was actually an own goal off a defender
Steve played kicking back in the second half and had to try and save a short corner with just a helmet on.
The under 30’s lost at bowling to the over 30’s on the team night out
Ferg went home early with 6 pints of milk
Steve is now broken on Sunday
Men’s 4s
So our finale to season 2015/16 was to entertain already relegated Basildon ODF 1s.
We still had to final league position to play for, 4th was still a possibility with a win for us, and other results going our way. Also a win would guarantee that we finish above Wapping for the 2nd season in a row, which is always a good feeling.
Our Oppo made it extremely difficult for us, especially as they only had 9 players. Eventually when we got our game heads on and started to play the way we have been all season, the chances started to come, as did the goals.
We ran out 5-1 winners, which sounds a comfortable win, which it most certainly wasn’t. Basildon made us earn everything, even with 9 players they kept us honest, and it was to their credit, they did so.
Goal Scorers: Oliver Loessl(2), Frank Dijkstra(2), Jon Sidwell
MOTM went to Frank, who was excellent again Saturday, running the channels, holding the ball up, bringing players into the game, not to mention he’s rediscovered his goal scoring touch.
POP- Well Ian Bennett had it sewn up, for falling Arse over Tit, due to a grain of Sand, until late on. When yours truly intervened, having taken myself off, not watching the game, then hearing a loud blast on the whistle, thinking that’s the end of the game comes bounding onto the playing surface, 3 cheers for Basildon, only to be greeted with games not over yet Skip. To compound this schoolboy error, turns out the loud blast on the whistle was to signify a goal, a fact I never realised until filling in the team sheet post game!!! So a deserved POP for Gary Joy
So proud of the lads pictured below, and obviously those who weren’t available Saturday, Martin Hands-Clarke Horace Keating
They have been brilliant all season, in every aspect, their spirit, commitment, desire, determination, work rate, the fact they want to play for each other, not to mention the fluid, stylish, pass and move hockey we have played all season, nothing to do with me, I just make sure they turn up at the right place at the right time.
So from myself to all of my players, thank you for all of your support this season, it’s been an absolute pleasure to Skipper you.
A special mention for Alex Heath for his support and help as my vice captain.
Finally our aim was to stay in Div 6SE, which we did, finishing a creditable 5th, unfortunately results didn’t go our way, but we finished above Wapping!!!
It’s been a great season, cannot wait for season 2016/17 to start in September………
Men’s 5s
With Promotion already secured the 5’s travel to Chelmsford for the last game of the season.
With both teams equally matched the game was end to end in the first half, Ben Firth-Salam bagging 2 goals but the first half finished 2-2.
The 5’s dominated the second half and took the lead, with Ben Firth-Salam completing his hat-trick. Things when downhill from there and the game ended 4-3 to Chelmsford.
I could go into the second half umpiring but I don’t want that to dampen what has been a great season for the 5’s.
Once a big thank you to all the players for the effort and endeavour show all season, it been a pleasure to be Captain. Already looking forward to next season.
Also a big thank you to coach Claire Shrimpie Boyling.
Otters
The Otters’ final match of the season, at home to Southend 4s, was typical of many this year, with a close first half in which we failed to put away chances and trailed by 2 goals at the break, and a second half in which we were punished as we committed players forward, firstly to get back into the game, and then, unsuccessfully, just to get a goal to finish off the season as it ended 0-7.
Jordan made some great runs down the right and Matt Lovell battled to stem the tide in central midfield.
We finished the season with 3 teams below us in the table, testament more to our ability to put a side out every week than our results on the pitch, though that was an achievement in itself, and was the main goal of the first season for the Mens’ 6th team.
