Fri 12-Mar-10
Issue 20
Match Reports | End Of Season Dinner | Notices
There were better results this week for the club as a whole.
There were some big wins for THD this weekend. The Men's 2s beat East Grinstead 8-1 and the Diamonds handed a 5-0 defeat to Teddington. The Women's 1s are ever improving finally winning 3-1 and being unbeaten in their last three games. The Women's 4s and 6s have also maintained their impressive winning streaks, being 5 games and 3 games respectively.
In a big change from previous results, the Tornados had a shock loss to Richmond Lions 1-7.
Don't forget the End of Season dinner next week!
Ramana Thirumoorthy - Editor
[Special Notice] - Ceelect Sports have a stick sale on where all THD members are able to get an additional 10% off for being part of the club! Check out the prices here.
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20-Mar-10
End Of Season Annual Club Dinner 2010
The preparations are complete and THE event of the season is now taking bookings. Celebration or commisseration... all are welcome to the EoS Dinner.
Three course meal, including wine - followed by dancing until the small hours. Friends and partners very welcome so get your tickets early! |
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Congrats to Will & Gemma
The club would like to add a note of congratulation to Will and Gemma Nurse, on the recent addition to their family - Harrison, born 22nd Feb, weight 6lb 14oz. The family are all doing very well!
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This weeks match reports from the THD Teams in action.
Reports by: Andy Jarratt, Charles Krasun, Lee Snowden, Billy Dowie, Mark Annear, Elizabeth-Jane Barry, Lucy Muldoon, Katherine Anderson, Audrey Blackburn & Alison Miller.
Mens Section
Mens 1s vs. Staines: Lost 1-6
THD arrived in the land of Ali G off the back of a 4-4 home draw against Brighton, in which the side played some of their best attacking hockey of the season. Add the win against today's opposition in the reverse fixture to the mix, the THD squad would of been quietly confident of returning home victorious and gaining a vital 3 points in their Southern Premier league survival bid.
This optimism was reflected in the opening ten minutes of the game, where the visitors pressured a high-flying Staines side and forced a couple of important saves from their keeper.
However, it wasn't long until Staines showed why they are one of the divisions leading sides. For the remainder of the first half, the Staines team's effective half court press, clinical finishing and well rehearsed short corner routines, left the men from south London with an uphill struggle and a four goal deficit.
The second half began, and unfortunately it was more of the same from the latter stages of the first half.
The visitors did find a consolation goal through Bino, who slotted into the bottom left hand corner following a quality short passing move through the centre of the opposition 25.
Before the final whistle, Staines re-asserted their dominance, taking advantage of some comical THD defending and extending the lead.
THD will not have long to recover from this performance, with a season defining double-header coming up next weekend with games against Purley and Teddington.
Squad: M Pigden, C Smith, M Hopkins, A Brown, T Alford, A Jarratt, G Bewick, J Lyes, J Wilson (celebrity), M Whyte, M Hann, R Heath, J Huntley
Scorers: Bino
MOTM: Browny
TFC: Andy
Next match: Home vs. Teddington, 1430hrs, Dulwich College
Also from this weeks media...
It’s good to know that first team midfielder Joe Wilson loves his hockey as much as (or more than) his lovely girlfriend; equally lovely to see Joe so tight to Tess in the couples photo; but next Saturday I wonder if he wouldn't mind being as tight on his opposing attacker?
Mens 2s vs. East Grinstead 3s: Won 8-2
"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, sex, violence or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me." - H.S.T.
So all the pre-game chat was still about the high jinks on the Oxford Away trip. Unfortunately this seems to be where we left our hockey brains. We played the first half as if we were still out on the town and the opposition goal was a chav on heat that must be avoided at all times. In fact the only good thing to happen before the half-time whistle, other than a complete fluke of a deflected goal from top scorer Tim (he always liked chavs), was the pre-match warm up. I'm sure Guy is trying to change us into a netball team.
2-1 down first half and a man down as Mike K was taken off injured.
A stirring half time talk from Guy
Guy-"Do we want it?"
Team-"Yes we do"
Guy-"Do we really want it?"
Team-"YES WE DO!"
Guy-"Right, so we all know what to do?"
Team-"Not a clue"
Thus the second half started with the umpire pointing out we only had 10 men on the pitch even though we had subs (thanks for that Coleman!) and Butty trying to play left half on the right side of the pitch. After the first five minutes of disorganization Nick remembered he was a forward managed to trap the ball in the D with his back to goal (shock horror, I know), tap the ball through his legs, completely fooling the defender, turn and then slot the ball sweetly past the goal keeper. 2-2. This is when their heads went down and our tails went up. The goals flowed freely and cheered on by a capacity crowd we were rampant. Even Matt got a goal running 60 yards up the pitch to produce a fine finish. Tim got his first hat trick. I think all the forwards scored and it was all happy days!! (LS)
Squad: Sheldon, Snowy, Felix, Robby, Matt, Guy, Butty, Mike,
Paul, Fez, Nick, Timmy, Andy G, Darren
MOTM: (Mine was Tim)
TFC: Snowy, for having style that is from this century!
Next match: Away vs. Old Loughtonians 2s
Mens 3s: No match
Next match: Home vs. Old Loughtonians 3s (Foresters), 1100hrs, JAGS
Tornados vs. Richmond Lions: Lost 1-7
Least said, soonest mended.
Thanks to everyone who turned up, and those who merely turned out. (CK)
Squad: Bailey, Pully, Charlie, Tom, Coleman, Foggy, Sam, Zesh, Rob, Ben, JC, Dickie, Will
Next match: Away vs. Old Loughtonians 4s
Diamonds vs. Richmond Stags: Won 5-0
This was our must-win relegation avoidance dogfight - and we came through 5-0 to the good. How we did that, we'll never know.
We were 4-0 up at the end of a first half that the Stags pretty much dominated for the first 35 minutes. Twice they hit the post, and twice more they cleared the crossbar when it would have been easier to score, besides the half dozen or so chances they put just wide. Oh, and when they did get something on target, James saved it. At the other end, in stark contrast to Richmond's profligacy, we finally unveiled our own finishing skills; Marc opened the scoring after 15 minutes when he buried our first chance, and three more opportunities in the eight minutes before the interval all ended up in the back of the net.
The second half was a much more restrained affair - Richmond were sensibly cautious about letting us in behind them on the break, and we played the discipline card, holding onto the ball and denying them the possession they needed to have any chance of pegging back the deficit. As their heads sank, a strong run down the right flank by Nick saw him reach the goal-line just inside the D and ping a perfect ball to the far post, where Joe stopped it dead and tapped it in. Now that's progress - three months ago, he'd have put it wide. No, thinking about it, he'd never have stopped it in the first place.
This performance only serves as a painful reminder of all the season's narrow defeats, where this class of finishing would have seen us comfortable winners, particularly Blackheath away, where we'd have won 14-2 rather than losing 1-2. But anyway, the victory makes us all but mathematically safe. With two games remaining, Wimbledon can't catch us, and Surbiton have to win both their remaining games, which happen to be against the top two sides in the division.
No matter what they do, however, if we earn a solitary point against either the Gunners or the Tornados, we're staying up; and we took a point off each of them in the first half of the season. (BD)
Squad: James Fuller, Tom Illingworth, Rob Patrick, Graeme Evans, Simon Canter, Olly Walton, Sam Younger, Adam Smith, Stephen Ireton, Nick Allen, Marc Antoine, Irfan Begg, Joe del Greco
Scorers: Marc, Nick (2), Joe (2)
Umpires: Billy Dowie
Next match: Home vs. Old Loughtonians Gunners, 1230hrs, JAGS
Royals vs. Hampstead & Westminster Thirsts: Lost 1-2
On Saturday morning, heading to the game, a chap came up to me on the tube, bearing a hockey kit and asked if I was an umpire:
"You sent me off two weeks ago for being funny."
"Just off for a job interview, good luck in your match."
And with that, he was gone. I guess perhaps if a chap is young, from an Academy side and doesn't have a lot to do during the week, he might have little else to dwell on.
For other chaps, the good old match report is the chance to air those grievances, harbour them, and put them to more constructive use in the future. After all, some other Burke once wrote that those who don't read History are destined to repeat it. Sad it was that, despite recalling and retelling with degrees of indignation the legend of What Happened When We Went to Paddington Last Time, the four Final Warnings, the long overdue yellow card, the over the top shouting at the match official, the whole business, your correspondent and his teammates simply repeated the foolishness of last time - and allowed two Hampstead & Westminster umpires to take charge of the match.
It wasn't necessarily downhill thereafter. We played some particularly incisive hockey - both wings and forwards found acres of space in attack, so too Adrian all the way from right back, before Ashley committed the keeper from the top of the D, showed him one side and then feinted before slotting expertly into the corner - we smothered much that our opposition threw at us, and our play began to touch the heights it has long promised to do.
But then we began to tire. And in tiring, we lowered ourselves to play at another pace. And in lowering our pace, we lowered our temperament to the carping and glowering that are the hallmarks of our opponents' game. And in so lowering our temperament, we fell foul of the officials. And in falling foul of the officials, we gave them more reason to ignore our plaintive cries. And in ignoring our plaintive cries, we allowed them to ignore the facts that played out on the pitch before us.
At least one of them had the decency to apologise afterwards:
"You don't look like a man who would appeal for a foot unless there was one. I'm sorry, I didn't see it, but I can only apologise."
"Ok, well thanks. It's a bit gutting in a 2-1 loss when that foot leads to a goal against us, but really we should have been good enough to score more and make that error not count."
I can only hope that we learn from that, next time. (MA)
Squad: M.O. Annear (c), A.P. Bond, O.J. Carruthers, C. Davenport, J.E.J. de Saint Quirin, M. Ellis, T.E. Harris, N.K. Howick, B. Langford, A.R. Leung, B.J. Slater, T.G.E. Smith, E.J.W. Taylor Jones, A.M. Woods (14)
Scorers: Ashley Woods
MOTM: Mentions here for Keith (a solid game in defence), Sparky (incisive game up front), Westlife (a battling game at left back) and Adrian (impressive forays up the right). But the winner was Ashley, for an excellent first half performance from right half.
Special Moment of the Day: The following dishonourable games were had: by your correspondent (for not umpiring), Sparky (for misusing terms about the umpire), Angry Ken, Smiffy (smashing game at centre back), Westlife (getting our first green card, albeit for spurious reasons), their appallingly bad right wing, Oli Carruthers (rounding two defenders in the D and then promptly allowing the ball to roll off the back), Tim Harris (not realising his votes would be marked on spelling, punctuation and grammar, and trying to get himself a card while not on the pitch), Ben Langford (unfortunately sharing a name with the winner), Charlie (tackling Adrian which lead to their first (non-) goal. Second place though went to their appalling umpiring, but the winner was Ben Slater (arguing with the third appalling umpire, deciding half way through the match that he wasn't really fit enough, and getting a green card).
Next match: Home vs. Richmond Redoubtables, 1330hrs, Crystal Palace
Saracens: No match
Next match: Away vs. PHC Chiswick 5s
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Womens Section
Womens 1s vs. Wimbledon: Won 3-1
I have always loved the build up to the Oscars. Nothing beats the excitement of trying to guess who has got the awards and who will be wearing the best outfit, and then loads of surprises on the night in question. It was very fitting then that our very own actress Faye Billing returned from the dizzy heights of Broadway for an exciting mid table clash against Wimbledon on "Tiger Turf", with just 24 hours until the Oscars.
Such was the anticipation that this could be the most dramatic hockey match in living memory; Bettina decided to come all the way back from Australia (where she now lives) and join us for "Tiger Turf".
It didn't disappoint despite a rather slow start that could have caused audiences to walk out, and the best thing that happened in the first half was that Kath arrived. Her arrival meant we had 11 on the pitch as Annabel could not walk, after insisting on doing her own stunts.
After a brief interlude, and a change of direction the team suddenly gave the performance we have been threatening for weeks. We levelled the score through Alex dispatching a penalty corner with much conviction and we took control. The work rate and intensity was superb and led to the forwards Hulia, Faye and EJ causing havoc and scoring after pulling the goalkeeper out of the goal and then moving it round for a clear shot from the top of the D - Timmy and Piggy you would be proud.
Unfortunately we played the last 20 mins with 10 after Faye got acting and hockey mixed up, which was totally exhausting. Nevertheless the work rate didn't drop and a flash of foreign inspiration (scoring from a very tight angle) from Hulia at the end made it a convincing 3-1 score line.
Not only did we triumph on "Tiger Turf" we also did very well at the Oscars and the awards are as follows:
Best Actress: Jenny Thomas
Jenny's performance in "Tiger Turf" was the show piece and her ability to seize the moment and own the stage as soon as she stepped on to it, was an absolute delight.
Best Visual Effects: Faye Billing
Her portrayal of a wild, tortured soul made for an incredibly emotional "Tiger Turf" and the unleashing of the untamed fury which is inherent in all tigers set the story line alight. The fear and confusion of the moment was communicated superbly by the actress.
Best Costume Design: Sophie Carter
Sophie gave us a glimpse of her talents in "Tiger Turf" however it was her contribution to "Gangster Tracksuits - What Lies Beneath" that led her to out shine all other nominations in this category.
Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Annabel Owen
Unfortunately her role in "Tiger Turf" was cut short due to a stunt going wrong but her efforts in "The Hurt Foot" and "The Hobbler" were not forgotten by The Academy.
Best Foreign Film: Hulia Butler
The notion of the single performance that creates a star overnight is surely one of Hollywood's biggest clichés but Hulia does just that in "El Secreto de Sus Ojos".
Best Sound Volume: Alex Crawford
In fact.
Honorary Award for Excessive Travelling : Clare Byrne
(EJB)
Squad: Dulcie, Alex, Clare, Kath, Jen, Annabel, Sophie, Alice, EJ, Julia, Faye
Scorers: Alex, EJ and Hulia
Next match: Home vs. Teddington, 1300hrs, Dulwich College
Womens 2s vs. Guildford 2s: Lost 1-3
So the 2's are hovering very precariously over the bottom of the table, and we are hanging on! When we came up against one of the top of table we knew we had to pull out all the stops and have a good game.
This said, we conceded a goal in the first 10 mins. Oh dear. Bad marking was to blame there. Then about 5 minutes after that, I spectacularly gave the ball to their CF and she smashed it into the goal. Sorry girls, did I lose the game for us? 0-2 down.
We then got ourselves together and played as a team and very well. I was unusually calm with the umpire (as he has sin binned me in the past).
The girls down the right were making some lovely 2 on 1's, Guildford could not get it through their middle, although they wanted to all the time - Biba was always in the right place to pick it up and distribute the ball well.
Ellie down the left was keeping everything together and making some great passes from the side line.
2nd half we won easily, most of the play was in our D, Cathy making some great efforts, we just could not get it in the back of the net! Until a great cross came from Jo to Helen and Helen swept it in. 1-2 it was and that is how it remained. I still feel bad, about my stupid pass to their CF. we continue to battle on and avoid relegation! (LM)
Squad Olivia, Lucy, Kato, Kath (thanks for playing), Ellie, Cathy, Sunny, Helen, Sarah C, Biba, Jo, Sarah B.
Scorers: Helen
MOTM: tbc
Umpires: Lou Campbell
Next match: Away vs. Merton 1s
Womens 3s vs. Surbiton 3s: Lost 1-2
It was a beautiful sunny day and there were far fewer hangovers than the previous week (a team evening out the night before playing top of the league, makes perfect sense!) - Despite the chilling winds we were feeling positive!
The game got off to quite a slow start, Surbiton were quite fast onto the ball and we were making some silly passes. However, we did up our game towards the end of the second half and started to give Surbiton more of a challenge. Being 1-0 down at the end of the first half was not going to put us off.
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All of the scoring practice at training had helped. We had far more opportunities and Alanna managed to get onto a cross into the D and leveled out the score - as the saying goes, "practice makes perfect!" It's just a shame the rest of the game wasn't quite so perfect and again we couldn't quite hold out and lost 2-1. We felt a bit battered a bruised by the end of it, with Kat getting a ball straight in the chest and a few other tumbles here and there.
A few funny moments, including Michelle leaving her stick behind - not an important part of the game or anything?! Highlight however was probably the teas! Thanks Tim for umpiring (KA).
Squad: Ellie, Lucy Snellers, Lucy Hiley, Anna, Kat, Georgie, Michelle, Helen McG, Jenna, Alanna Mac, Emma, Suzi, Kate
Scorers: Alanna
MOTM: Helen and Ellie
Next match: Home vs. Cheam 2s, 1030hrs, Crystal Palace
Womens 4s vs. Camberley & Farnborough 2s: Won 1-0 (Walkover)
Next match: Away vs. Barnes Hounslow Ealing 4s
Womens 5s vs. Croydon 2s: Lost 0-1
A full squad of 14 turned out early on a bitterly cold but beautiful and sunny Saturday morning in SW London to take on the Croydon Ladies 2s once again. Losing to them in the torrential rain just before Christmas, we were determined to do better on our home ground.
With a strong start and some great passing, we took it to them and kept the ball within their 25 at the start of the game. Croydon came out fighting though and it wasn't long before we started to lose possession. All in all it was a balanced game with the ball being played out for equal amounts of time in both halves.
However, dodgy calls from the opponents' umpire meant we lost our focus and conceded a goal, putting us 1-0 down.
All in all THD put on a strong performance and the result could have easily gone our way! (AB)
Squad: Emily, Clare, Len, Lucy, Flo, Sarah N, Izzy, Katie, Sarah W, Laura, Erica, Rachael, Zoe, Audrey, Khal
MOTM: Emily
Umpires: Richard Lucy Snell
Next match: Away vs. Oxted 2s
Womens 6s vs. Reigate Priory 4s: Won 2-1
It was a blustery but sunny outlook when the 6s arrived at Reigate's pitch; we were feeling fairly confident after our recent bout of wins and Mags informing us we had to win to prevent the risk of being relegated. Reigate was probably thinking their chances were also good as our last encounter ended with 4 of their goals in our net!
The match started well with midfield working well to get the ball up to the attack, lots of careful passes ensuring we kept the width and kept onto the ball resulted in a brilliant shot from Bridget, gently pushed in by Claire - amazing team work. We continued to dominate the match with several more attempts on goal. There was definitely an air of determination with many members of the team vocalizing their desire to win.
Our persistence getting the ball up the pitch rewarded us we another goal this time scored by Sinead, by this juncture we were really starting to apply the pressure. Unfortunately Reigate managed to get a short corner and after two attempts their most identifiable player sent a high ball into the net.
At half time the score was 2:1 and after a motivational but structured team talk we entered the game full of vigor. Their was some confusion before as we left the goal, with Mags trying to sort who was subbed of and which positions had been filled, her final decision being just play where we are missing a position!
The game started again and our defiant back line stopped any of their crosses, one attempt seeing the ball getting caught under the goalie. We had several more attempts on goal and jumped for joy when we thought another had gone in only to be told by Andrea that in fact it had not gone over the line.
The match ended 2:1, another strong performance from the ever improving 6s; let's hope the wins continue for our last two games!!! (AM)
Squad: Claire M, Lucy, Sinead, Bridget, Ellie, Claire, Alison, Lizzie, Olivia, Charlotte, Kate S, Hayley
Scorers: Claire, Sinead
Umpires: Andrea
Next match: Home vs. Bank of England 2s, 1200hrs, Crystal Palace
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Mixed Section
Dragons vs. Spencer Mixed: Drew 3-3
No match report. Which, quite frankly, is what happens when the skipper is away!
Next match: 21st March, Home vs. London Edwardians Mixed, 1230hrs, BP
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