GU14 Eagles Take on GU16 Voyagers in Internal Game
By Mark Rogers
GU16 Voyagers 0 – 3 GU14 Eagles
GU16 Voyagers and GU14 Eagles Thrill Crowds in Exhibition Match
It felt like the whole of South West London had descended on Ditton Field for the annual exhibition match between the Voyagers and the Eagles, both teams such performance icons of the modern game that NASA named spacecraft after them.
The future internationals had stepped aside from the demands of the Supra League to lay on a stellar exposition of hockey excellence. Giving up their time, they had accepted a mission to excite future generations through stick and ball, to boldly go where no player had gone before.
White and frost-ridden, the pitch resembled an alien landscape but the winter sun soon evaporated the thin mist that had drifted off the Thames. The players fed off the solar energy and clearly enjoyed the atmosphere, stroking the ball around the park with a series of long and accurate passes like shooting stars.
As the demonstration went on, it was time to ease off the rocketing runs and stratospheric aerials, and instead show off some technical 3D skills. The spectators gasped as the players went through a series of flips, feigns, reverses and loop-the-loops. Both goalies joined in, drawing oohs and aahs with some meteoric manoeuvres.
The occasion would not have been complete without goals and there were three of them: astronomic finishes from Leyli, Natalia and Maeve all coming from fine teamwork. However, the result was not important. Whilst the players’ attention moved to next week’s cup games, the satiated crowd dispersed with the ultimate question answered: hockey really is the best sport in the universe.
