Honours Even for Ladies 6s

SHC Ladies 6s 1 - 1 Wanderers Ladies 5s

Player of the Match: Freya S 

The Ladies 6s have returned from the summer recess determined to deliver on the will of the people and of the club to exit Div 4, and thereby secure better terms of hockey by trading more goals with the rest of Div 3. (If you're wondering whether I'm going to carry on with the contrived Brexit theme - I'm afraid I am and it isn't going to get any better.) 

We suffered an early potential setback in the negotiation when Olivia messaged to say that she was proroguing herself from the match in order to take forward her important domestic agenda of recovering from being sick on Friday night. Her action was subsequently challenged in the Supreme Court of the Ladies 6s and unanimously judged to be unlawful on the basis that it was entirely self inflicted. As there was no practical way to recall Olivia to the team benches for the game, the only course open to the court was to vote Olivia DoD. There has been no formal response from Olivia as yet so there is still some speculation that she may seek to prorogue herself again. 

Despite this and the adversity of playing at Kennington Park it is clear that Nina is up for the challenge. She gave a rousing pre-match team talk at the pitch-side hustings inspiring us to take back control of our hockey and reminding us of the things that are great about the ladies 6s - our teamwork, our one-two passes, our great communication. Warm-Up Secretary Sinead then showed early evidence of how seriously she is taking her role to ensure that all parts of the team are well prepared for every match (although there have been some rumours in the media that not all departments were as ready as they should have been - Evie and Ellie)

We made excellent progress in the first half with lead-negotiator Ruthie dispatched into the D to secure an early goal. However the Wanderers opposition remained determined to frustrate all our efforts to progress towards securing a win, leading to some dubbing then 'remoaners' because of their apparent desire to keep us in Div 4. By the end of the first half an embattled Ladies 6s were starting to feel the pressure.  

There had been further controversy when Lindsey was heard to say 'it hit my foot', leading to recriminations that this was language designed to promote honourable behaviour in a friendly, it was was completely inappropriate for a league game. There were calls for the defender to apologise and to have to write the match report.  

At half time Nina made clear that we would be leaving Kennington Park at 12.30 come what may.  She definitively ruled out asking the umpires for an extension of the game even if we were in a no win scenario (and commentators were quick to point out that there would be no guarantee that the umpires would agree such an extension in any case). 

However the team's policy remained to secure a win. We put forward alternative arrangements which should have removed the need for a backstop in our D,  however these were rejected by Wanderers who insisted on scoring an equaliser. 

After the game team sources remained very upbeat - excellent progress has been made with a point towards our ultimate objective, and here was some brilliant play in the second half especially by Freya our MoM that mean were very well placed to secure further concessions in the next game. 

Although the gossip mill in the pub afterwards was buzzing with rumours that some team members were plotting a vote for the captain for DoD, high profile members of the team were quick to defend their leader saying that while it may have appeared that Nina was late to the game because of traffic, despite having messaged everyone earlier in the morning to make sure they guarded against just such an eventuality, this was just fake news.