Men's 6s Come Out On Top in SHC Derby

Men’s 6s 7 - 1 Men's 5s

The 6s hosted the 5s in an eagerly anticipated early season local derby on Saturday. The game was played on the water-based, although this luxury was slightly wasted as any pitch would have been classified as water-based due to the monsoon conditions that engulfed Sugden Road in the run-up to pushback.

The 5s started brightly and deservedly opened the scoring after 10 minutes with a well worked move. Was this match-up of youth versus grey/no hair (Toby excluded) set to be a long day for the 6s? Luckily not as Stoner dragged us back to level not long after and then the floodgates opened up as the 6s began to dominate most areas of the pitch. The goals came thick and fast thereafter with Jonny M claiming a hat-trick and Jabba scoring a single to build up a 5-1 half-time lead.   

At this point everyone was absolutely drenched and stick grip became a real issue; Jabba in particular having to take himself off for a chamois grip replacement following a beautiful airshot at the top of the D. Ben also had similar airshot issues but seemingly not bad enough to land scribe duties this week (?!). The second half was dominated by the 6s but despite a huge number of second half chances they were unable to really press home their advantage. A slipped short corner resulted in an awesome Jim Hey airshot and some good keeping throughout kept the score respectable. Two more goals were scored, one each by Trev and Stoner again, but at the final whistle the 6s felt it could and should have been more than the final 7-1 scoreline.   

It was great to have the calm influence of Fishpool at the back again and hopefully this experience will have whetted his appetite for further battles as we work through the season. No-one knows what the league table looks like but after two games and having scored fourteen and let just the one in, the 6s should be sitting pretty. Next up is Old Epsom 3s and another adventure into the unknown. Bring it on!