Ladies 7s Lose Out to Barnes
By Ali Quinn
Surbiton Ladies 7s 0 - 1 Barnes L4s
"Black eyed blanks at Barnes"
Player of the Match: Lisa Honnor
GPS Annie made the brave decision that we would take the A3 to play Barnes. We all know what happened last time, but thankfully it was a stress free journey unlike the match.
Barnes had a very changed side from the previous year, so we didn’t know what to expect. Captain Seddon was not playing so our second in command, player of the week, don’t spend it all at once, Ellie took the reins and stepped up on her box, to make her taller, and brief the team.
The old guard up front started well and moved the ball to push Barnes into defensive mode. A one on one chance with the keeper gave #allaboutme a chance to score but the post got in the way and MOC just ran past it… a chance went begging. Great to have MOC back after her entertaining summer!
Barnes started to warm to the match and as Mr Tweedy said in Chicken Run they were organised (Yorkshire accent required). Their new Colts had some skills and our defence were under pressure.
Defensively we held firm but the cracks were showing. We were frustrated and couldn’t string passes together. GPS Annie was on fire again and Mobility Bray was competing with more than one umpire on the pitch.
Our Colts were given a true induction into Ladies senior hockey. Barnes eventually broke the deadlock to get a breakaway goal… we were 1-0 down again. Starting to become a habit.
We tried to get an equaliser with some breakaway attacks but our forwards were sucked more into defending deeper. With a couple of minutes to half time a stray stick gave Lisa a blow to the eye and the ice pack was wielded...
Half time talk was quite brutal - we needed to switch on and get back in the game. We toiled hard in the second half and it did start to get a bit feisty. Mobility Bray tried to keep control but chances were few and far between and we started to get frustrated.
Gandalf and our defence were under pressure and we had no outlet. The staff was losing its powers and Ellie was dragged to the ground by her watch strap and decided swimming butterfly would be more effective than playing hockey.
The umpire was confused and so were we - a memorable game for the wrong reasons.
1-0 loss - time to improve.
A big thanks to Mobility Bray for bravely umpiring.
Captain Seddon for stepping down and the usual challenges.
Me because I can #allaboutme
And Lisa our player of the match ..... despite the black eye, “what’s wrong with that love?” is the quote of the week.