Men's 2s Held at Lee Valley
By Dave Bartram
Men’s 2s 2 - 2 East London 1s
On Saturday the unbeaten Surbiton Men’s 2nd XI travelled on that perilous journey to Lee Valley to play East London’s 1st XI.
Despite a meet time of 10:20 for an 11:30 push back time, Glyn, our manager (and the most organised bloke I have ever met) was the only one to keep to the arrival time. Fair play to Foxy for joining us from his Indoor hockey session in Charterhouse but no excuses from the rest. Winter was under the impression that the game was starting at 11am and so turned up at 11:10. The cavalry of Bartram and Beaumont rocked up 10 minutes before push back but they were excused due to school commitments. During this time, Schnu made good friends with umpires, assuring them that he had not received a single card this season. He has also been known to tell a white lie, that Harry!
Anyway, the game started and it was slow... very slow. I struggle to believe that our national team play their fixtures on this surface. Everything that was pushed or slapped basically stopped before it reached a Surbiton stick and so East London were able to capitalise on our failure to pass it harder. There were a few chances early on but it was East London that struck first with an incredibly lucky mistrap on a short corner, which was deflected in on the back post.
The half finished and Surbiton ran into the changing rooms where we knew ‘the Gaffer’ was going to lay into us, and rightly so. Some wise words from Jamma saw a different approach in the second half.
Unfortunately, early on in the second half, Cakey did his best impression of Surbiton veteran Max Anderson and wore one on the nose. First aid specialists Beaumont and Evans were there to save the day and clean up the poor boy (hope you are ok Cakey).
We also conceded another goal...the first time all season the 2s have trailed by two goals. And this was when we decided to turn it on.
A well-worked passage of play saw the boys win a short corner which Beaumont flinged in at 100mph (in all seriousness it was about 10mph, how the keeper didn’t save it, I don’t know). Another short corner was won and this time Dylan stepped up to the mark and calmly slotted it into the back of the net. He celebrated like England had won the World Cup, but fair play to him, it was a decent finish!
Unfortunately, the final whistle was blown and we only managed a draw. A disappointed side went into the changing room, clearly upset, and Jamma tried to rally the troops with an inspirational quote that took a couple of attempts.
The showers occurred, the sausage rolls and chips were cold, but some positives we could take from the day were that Jakey has an amazing fashion sense and looks really good in hats. Jamie couldn’t stick around for teas because he had to deal with domestic life (hope you’ve managed to sort that out JET).
The return journey consisted of the following:
- Rooney banging his head on the tube because he is too tall
- A massive dog came second in Crufts
- Waterloo were giving out Ice Breaker pale ales
A disappointing day and we are really looking forward to going back to Lee Valley another two times this season. Saturday we play Epsom at home.
POM: Foxy - because he is class.
There was no DOTD, but obvious contenders were Schnu (just because), Jakey (for his fashion sense) and JET (for his romantic prowess).