Mongooses in 'Magical' Victory
By Mike Quintana
Mongooses 1 – 0 Old Kingstonians M4
POM Simon Sladden
The clock struck 11 [ding]. Two opposing sides faced each other like an old fashioned western showdown. A gentle breeze filled our nostrils with the smell of fresh Richmond air as the sands of the Tiffin Girls hockey pitch piled up into repeating dunes.
As the whistle blew the crowd erupted and the sticks clashed. On paper the Mongooses had the edge but then when has a hockey match ever taken place on any parchment? The two teams went back and forth with the golden snitch. The Mongooses passed the orb of destiny to each other and penetrated the opposition's defence. But with many well placed passes they still found themselves on the chase as the Old Kingstonians' defence was primed and ready to take the shuttlecock. Back and forth, forth and back, the orb went until as fate would have it, a fantastic pass was completed to Dirk (who needs a surname - there is only one Dirk) who with a mighty strike, sent the basketball straight towards the goal. At that moment Michael "Don't Mess With Texas" Q, was tripped up by the keeper and went to ground. In America there is no such thing as giving up. So he persevered and in slow motion flung his stick over his head and in reverse struck the wiffleball and scored a touchdown. Hurray! - but no. The refs blew their horns and called obstruction… then reversed the call to a short corner which unfortunately led to no success.
Onto the second half, the tumbleweeds danced across the dunes of Tiffin Girls pitch and again the Mongooses were evenly matched in skill. Where did the Old Kingstonians find the fight for the Surbiton Mongoose? Did they trade their souls to the devil or barter with Ghosts of the Ancients themselves? The duel on the sands was gruelling and many chances were narrowly missed on both sides. But when the sun was at its highest, Simon Sladden and his magical racquet struck the baseball with a mighty force never seen before and sent it into the net and into the future. Gooooooalisssimo! Surbiton goes ahead 1 nil.
The match was well played by all but in particular, Simon the goal scorer, Dirk the defender of good, and Stuart the Squadge and wise, who held the Mongooses strong and mighty. Without their efforts, the game could have ended much differently. Now the legend that is the Tale of the Mongooses shall go down in history. We all know the M1s and L1s of this world of field hockey, but let's take a moment to remember a Surbiton team that is taking the hockeysphere by storm. Mongooses and Simon, we salute you.
