Sloths 6 - 1 Teddington O35s (H)
EH Over 35s Tier 2 Championships, Round 1

It was the second attempt at national glory for Surbiton Sloths on Sunday.

I am going to start with Fee Fitch even though she wasn’t playing today. A number of years ago… I can’t remember when… Fee set up the Surbiton O35s team. We weren’t much good, losing to Sevenoaks in our first game about 5-0. We lacked confidence and most of us didn’t play together regularly – but we had fun and it was the start of something. Over the next few years we carried on losing, even travelling to Jersey to be thrashed 10-0, but we continued to enjoy ourselves and our confidence grew. At some point Fee gratefully handed the baton over to Charlotte and England Hockey decided to carve up the regions so London Hockey came into being. Suddenly players from a wide range of Surbiton teams were going to trials and getting selected for London. It didn’t matter if you were in the 4s down to the Sirens, there was belief that you were good at hockey and there was trust. So, onto today’s game…

There were two reasons we won 6 – 1:

1) We played like a team and they didn’t. They kept passing it to their star player and hoping she could take on the mighty Sloths alone.

2) We had a squad of 14, a manager and some supporters. They had 11 players and a man on the side.

The scoring went like this: 1-0, 1-1, 2-1, 3-1 and then half time. 4-1, 5-1, 6-1.

I am reliably informed the following people scored the goals in this order: Sophie, Sian, Taryn, Sian, Sian, Helen. Here are some highlights:

• From the back Marlijn marshalled the troops making some top class saves.
• Sunny dominated the middle despite her hangover.
• Emma Dempsey (always the full name) stayed tight on her player and made some cracking tackles on their star player (you all know who I mean).
• Val found herself in defence and made some superb interceptions, however, did get carried away at right back causing Marlijin to shout, “where is Val playing?!”. Ceci was excellent, directing the backs and making key interceptions.
• Across the middle Sian (clear POM) controlled the play, running rings around their playmakers.
• Jo kept the width, hassled and won the ball repeatedly.
• Rowan displayed a superb work rate, posting up and distributing the ball with composure.
• Courtney, who can take her drink far better than Sunny, played with intent and purpose and more often than not was marking “you know who”.
• The substitute captain Helen took her role seriously and played with her usual flair.
• Up front we had Pia, Taryn and Sophie running the Teddington defence ragged and winning short corners left, right and centre. Every time one of them got the ball in the D there was some kind of outcome.

It wouldn’t be right if this match report didn’t mention Sian’s match-winning performance, her goals were amazing, especially the reverse hit into the top corner. WOW.

This was a fantastic team performance. It featured players from the 4s down to the 7s but this didn’t matter, we passed the ball to each other and we had fun.

Thanks to Ruth Fraser for managing the game and to our supporters who stood in the rain and cheered us on. Round 2 on 21st January here we come!