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Newsletter 2006/07
Since 2003/04 the club has produced weekly match reports. From the start of the 2005/06 season this became a weekly newsletter, distributed during the season, containing match reports from each of the games played that weekend as well as other key information and a selection of adverts and offers.
Fri 04-Nov-06Issue 06
First of all, recent dispatches from our foreign correspondents. Many many congratulations to Nick and Liz who tied the knot in Perth two weekends ago. The celebrated THD golden couple and living evidence that happy endings can come from encounters at hockey dinners by all accounts enjoyed a cracking day, witnessed by several jetsetting members of the club, identifiable by their sporting of sickeningly healthy tans at training… Also, Kath reports that Charley, former editor in chief of this publication, has settled into African life in Kenya extremely well and in the absence of hockey, has taken to bird watching as top weekend activity, so we imagine her charging, binoculars in hand, across the Masai Mara in her 4x4 to track the latest flamingo sighting. Never saw her as a twitcher but I suppose it takes on a different meaning on safari - a far cry from the south London lesser speckled garden sparrow…
This week, it’s all about the 6s – who by fair means (ladies) or foul (men’s – according to Chris) both celebrated resounding victories. Also, the Ladies’ 1s had a scoring-fest while the Men’s 5s picked up their first point. With the return of the Aussie tourists, the club will be back to full force this weekend.
Reports by: Andy Balchin, Chris Coleman, Bill Dowie, Chris Richman, Gemma Baker, Sarah Longair, Emma Parker, Selina Leleu, Rachael Fallows, Katie Stone, Mark Jones.
Men’s 1s vs. Fareham: Lost 1-5
It was a long trek down to Fareham. The town was extremely welcoming, giving us a rapturous applause as we drove through the streets. The pitch was hard to find, although Banners made short work of making friends with one of the local residents. The warm up was good and there was a good atmosphere amongst the team. We started well restricting the Fareham attack and creating a number of chances for ourselves. Fareham were pleased to go into half time 2-0 up after a lucky break, one piece of individual skill and some fine goalkeeping at both ends.
Second half we started off well. However, with tiredness setting in, Fareham were able to snatch three break away goals to extend their lead further. Duncan made some fine saves in between the sticks and eventually we were able to get a goal back with a coolly taken finish through the keeper’s legs with a few minutes to go. A lot of promise was shown throughout the team with everyone working extremely hard. After the match we went back to the most hospitable hockey club in the country - delicious teas and an opposition that showed us they were certainly extremely good winners by playing a recording of the goals they scored against us on the clubhouse TV. This writer is extremely sad to say that firstly we will not be back there again next season (unless they choke – again) and secondly we did not wake up in Fareham on Sunday………..although I believe our goalie did wake up in the Portsmouth………”Hello Sailor!” (AB)
Team: Duncan Holmes, Richard Banwell, James Ireson, Laurent Ferron, Chris Smith, Andrew Eames, Nick Jacobs, Tom Cross, James Vicary, Andy Balchin, Gary Boo-sher, Graeme Fortherington, Rob Heath, Gareth Weir
MOM: Duncan
TFC: Andy (closely followed by Banners and the opposition)
Goals: Andy
Men’s 2s vs. Bromley and Beckenham: Lost 2-3
The Eagle may soar, but the weasel never gets sucked into jet engine. And so came week of the jet engine. We may have been missing a few key feathers but when you flap with only one wing you must expect to get decapitated. I think it was a case of regular feet being affected by irregular shoes with many players playing out of position.
We must make sure next week that we get the ball moving around the pitch to get our opponents moving which was sadly lacking against B&B. After all any sly rabbit will have three openings to its den. It was the first loss of the season but a fall into a ditch makes you wiser and we have Oxford next week! (CC)
Team: Piggy, Ferg, Old Ed, Chris C, Tom M, Young Ed, Nurse, Brown, Fez, Bino, Potty, Joe G, Aido
Umpire: Mark Jones and James Perrott
Scorers: Fez, Nurse
Next match: Saturday 4th October vs. Oxford Uni
Mens 3s vs. Bromley and Beckenham: Drew 3-3
Tornados - No Game
Next Game: November 04, 2006 Wimbledon Men's 6s away
Diamonds vs. Maidenhead 2As. Drew 2-2
Fourth League game, first point. We dominated proceedings, as evidenced by our nine short corners to their one, but we failed to make that pressure pay. They twice took the lead with impressive strikes from the top of the D, proving the benefit of having a goalscorer in the team. Conor notched up his first of the season, a tap-in after a clever short corner, and Warren provided the second equaliser from open play, shortly after Dan had a deflection disallowed by an umpire who thought it was the defender’s stick that had clipped the ball.
Andrew’s stickwork is dazzling us all, and Charlie’s performance at left back has seen him moved up to the Tornados. It still doesn’t feel like a settled team yet, but we’ve been getting better every game, and the challenge is to carry on in that vein. (BD)
Team: Paul Reid, Seamus Betts, Billy Dowie, Charlie Krasun, Andrew McConchie, Colin Wilkie-Jones, Arthur Mitchell, Warren Holme, Simon Canter, Oliver Walton, Conor Bond, Dan Hopkins
Scorers: Conor Bond, Warren Holme
Next game: Saturday November 4th vs. London Wayfarers 6s. Home 15.30 at DC
Royals vs. Indian Gym 6s: Won 5 – 1
Games against Indian Gym are alway quite dodgy. You can be two nil up with ten minutes to play and then all of a sudden three Pakistan international tracksuits turn up at the side of the pitch, come on and you lose. Also they do have the habit of being quite nasty. My worst game against them was playing their 1’s in a Nat League game about 14 years ago when they had two straight red’s against them in the first ten minutes including me being punched in the face in full goal keeping gear.....madness.
Apart from one abberation last season in our last game of the season when we ended up playing their 4th XI because they wanted the practice for a cup game this sort of behaviour has all but died out. So I feel a bit guilty for doing to them what they have done to us all these years (See Below)
Anyway we were way better than them and way better than the scoreline suggests. They were slow and gave us loads of space to play, I even managed to out pace several of them which is something that I will be living off for a while. It seems that finally we are playing the sort of hockey I have been trying to achieve since I took over as captain back in 2004. However, we may have won two games by good scores but this doesn’t make a season and we must keep playing the way we are and believing in the passing hockey we are playing, also keep the commitment we have been showing. If we do this with everyone in our league beating each other and string a run of victories together up until Xmas then we will be in a good position to challenge for honours at the end of the season.
Finally thanks to Aido for umpiring, Doug for playing with gladular fever, Jonesy for stopping two goal bound shots on the line from our players and Coleman for repeatedly trying to set me up. (CR)
Team: Alex, Keith Howick, Tim Smith, Tom Shaw, Ricos Woods, Doug Heard, Mark Annear, Dom Peyton, Ed Allen, Akash, Mehraab Nazir, Mark Jones, James Perrot, Chris Coleman, Chris Richman
Goals: Chris Coleman 3 (Although one was a massive own goal) Mark Jones, Chris Richman
Next Game: Old Loughtonians Loppers in the middle of white stiletto country
Womens 1s v Basingstoke 1s: Won 6-0
40 - The number of seconds it took us to go 1-0 up. Although it could have been 30, if EJ hadn't spent sooo long picking the exact part of the net she wanted the ball to hit. 7 minutes later it was 2-0 from an Alex C penalty corner special and three minutes later we were 3-0 up after Gem ran round a couple of defenders and slotted the ball under the oncoming keeper. Martha sweetly struck another PC to put us 4-0 after 15 minutes and we all started wondering whether we could keep this score rate up. But it took us 9 minutes to score again, Gemma pouncing on a loose ball created from the short corner routine entitled 'panic at the top of the D'. So....5-0 at half time. We were feeling pretty good. The second half was much closer - probably due to a mixture of Basingstoke playing better and us believing that every attacking move could result in a goal, resulting in a complete lack of structure on our part due to the sheer excitement of running all over the place and trying to score another. We came close to scoring more on a number of occasions, but it was Lou who slotted home the 6th goal after EJ summoned all her height to neatly collect a deflected ball that launched itself about 20ft in the air. Great win. (GB)
Team: Pipes, Alex Crawford, Kath Sowter, Jenni Martin, Nicky Prior, Lisa Cox, Gemma Baker, Faye Billing, EJ Barry, Martha Harvey-Jones, Lou Morgan & Sharon Smith.
Scorers: Ej, Alex, Gemma (2), Martha & Lou
MotM: Gemma
Next match: Sunbury @ DC - 11am start
Womens 2s vs. Old Cranleighans: Lost 2 – 1
‘Hardy’ does not adequately describe Alex’s bravery in the face of battle this weekend. This willingness to guard the sacred backline put the rest of us to shame, well, myself at least, for offering very disingenuously to don the goal keeping kit, with a plethora of excuses as to why it would be an extremely bad idea. And a good job too, as with typical composure whilst sporting kit made for a small-ish giant, she dived and leapt athletically around the D, saving shots from all angles. The rest of us, well, only a couple of us were in normal positions which is the oft-cited excuse for failing to win. And excuses are really all that we can come up with, one of those ones where we just couldn’t convert from open play. Oz scored with an exhibition in how to take a flick, and possibly we should have had another of those at the end, excuse number 2. I blame Liz and her blimin wedding myself, but that’s just yet another rubbish excuse… Winning form should return with our sunned and relaxed captain, left back and goalie. (SL)
Team: Emma Kitley, Oriane Abbonizio, Sarah Buxton, Claire Houslop, Sabrina Tunnicliffe, Shorty Deverill, Zoey Handforth, Alex Hardy, Sarah Longair, Lucy Partington, Wardy
Scorers: Oz
MOTM: Alex, goal keeper supreme
Umpire: Mark Jones, Richard Mead
Next game: Saturday 4 November vs. London University (at godforsaken hour away)
Womens 3s vs. Guildford 2s: Lost 3-1
The game saw the return of our captain, Lou – still limping, but eager to make an appearance on pitch. The team got off to a convincing start managing to keep the ball in our attacking half, however with some equally convincing breaks by a young and (possibly??) fitter opposition! These were met however with some excellent defending from the back by Emma M, Catherine, Stacey and Hannah, but we sometimes struggled to clear the ball and find the forwards. After some hard work by all to push the game within the 25 yard line, a free hit from outside the D managed to find the end of Beth’s stick who deflected for Helen to find the back of the net, in what was a well deserved and encouraging end to the first half giving THD a 1-0 lead. Unfortunately the second half presented more problems and after a run of spurious decisions Guildford were all over us and scored three goals in short succession, despite some courageous dives from guest goalkeeper Jen, leading to a frustrating 1-3 defeat. Redemption would have to wait until our home game against Guildford in the New Year! (EP)
Team: Lou Curry (C), Jen Watson, Emma Matebalavu, Hannah, Catherine, Stacey Sellman, George Hills, Beth Little, Emma Parker, Helen, Mo O’Brien, Kate Vicary
Player of Match: Emma M
Umpires: Guildford supplied
Next match: THD 3rds v. Epsom 3rds (Home)
Womens 4s vs.Purley Walcountians 3s: Lost 2-0
Following the embarrassing defeat away we turned up to JAGS determined to fight back. We were all fired up and raring to go. The opposition sported a few ringers that we knew about but this did not deter our enthusiasm. The game started well and we kept width/depth that we are always lectured about in training, kept possession of the ball and seemed quite comfortable.
There was definitely more umph about us winning most of the 50/50 balls this time, but unfortunately we were never able to capitalize on our opportunities in the D. After a fighting team talk at half time Lynne (aka biker girl) was given the job of marking the dreaded number 13! I think she might still have nightmares from Claire's screams of "who's on number 13?!".
The second half brought on 2 mistakes on our part which the opposition capitalized on and scored. Again we were constantly in the D, and although we were convinced we deserved more short corners Tom Tom's post hit was the closest we got to scoring. (SL)
Team: Olivia Salau, Nikki Smithies, Anna Stuttard, Lindsey Maclaren, Lucy Snell, Selina Leleu, Mary Cook, Lynne Ruddick, Suzy Medcalf, Jena Kitley, Sarah Anderson, Ash MacDonald, Emma Billsdon, Claire Whitehead
Umpires: Steve Powell and James Perrott
Next Game: 4th November, 11.30 at JAGS vs South Godstone
Womens 5s vs London Wayfarers Ladies 4: Lost 1-5
The opportunity to impress was certainly on offer with a home ground advantage, the presence of the club paparazzi and the backing of a vocal band of supporters. Sadly Team 5 was not quite able to rise to the occasion and managed to forget all the important skills and strategies that we had been practising so diligently at training (sorry Peter!). Instead we fell back to the deeply entrenched team 5 bad habit of having the entire team follow the ball no matter where it went on the pitch. We are slowly learning that this is perhaps not the most effective strategy for winning a hockey match.
However on a positive note, in what was mostly a fairly dismal match, we finally scored off a short corner. Yay!! Well done to Faith for sweeping it in, remaining cool under pressure and to Kate who set the shot up. The hockey book recently purchased off Amazon gave us a few good pointers on corners which reassuringly proved to be effective so will be consulting it again for some hot tips on ‘structure’ and ‘positioning’ for next week’s match against Reigate. (RF)
Team: Andrea Beattie, Kate Leckie, Wendy Tang, Clare Furnival, Frances Baker, Faith Geraghty, Rachael Fallows, Eleanor Fletcher, Len Price, Nicole Yost, Helen Fermor, Martina Van Der Leij, Fatima Dofrio, Sally (GK)
Scorers: Faith Geraghty (1)
Umpire: Jo Malkin
Next match: 04.11.06 12.30pm Reigate Priory Ladies 3 (Away)
Womens 6s v Purley Walcountians 4s: Won 5-2
Team: Sally Shepard, Jess Beach, Shona Chambers, Kate Straker, Jo Hillyer, Lucy Gilchrist, Mae-Lyn McDougal, Clare Montagu, Alanna Macintosh, Katie Stone, Vicky Wright, Michelle Morgan, Gigi Ho, Maz Rembowski
Umpires: Seline Leleu/Ann Stuttard (1/2 match each) & Mark A
Scorers: Vicky Wright (3), Alanna Macintosh (2)
Dragons vs Optimists: Won 9-0
Three may be the magic number... but then what is nine? Clearly more fantastic than the Fantastic Four! More famous than the Famous Five! More Wondrous than the Seven Wonders of the World. And even more stunning than 'Freddie Starr [eight] my hamster. Although, that said and done, still a way to go until it is as good as the Worlds Top 100 Albums... but then, collectively, they took a helluva lot longer than 70mins. It was all about the goals and with more braces than a dentist can perform in one morning (3x2) and more singles than you get at the average speed dating night (3x1) two things were certain... The Dragons win with their team-goal approach and the umpires got RSI noting them down! Perhaps three is the magic number... squared! (MJ)
Team: Will Pigden (GK), MJ, Chris Coleman, Nick Jacob, Charlie Krasun, Robby Layton, Ed Marland, Gemma Baker, Lisa Cox, Hannah Cooke, Selina Leleu & Lucy Snell.
Scorer(s): Chris Coleman (2), Lisa Cox (2), Ed Marland (2), Robby Layton, Gemma Baker & Nick Jacob
Umpire: Mark Annear
Next Game: 12 November vs. UCL Academicals Mixed
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