Back 2 Hockey 7-Aside Tournament 4 of the 2023/24 Season
By Josh Blair
Back To Hockey’s post-Xmas Sevens Tournament 4 was held on Saturday morning and it wasn’t as cold as some had feared, which led to some fantastic hockey and a little “who’s got my kit?” Panto sketch that must have been left over from someone’s Christmas cracker…
The first game saw our friends from Epsom play the second of our two Surbiton teams, ‘the Dragons’ but it was delayed a little… The issue was there was no GK kit as the man with the kit hadn’t arrived yet. Once he had arrived the donning of goalie kit turned into a ‘Three Little Bears’ panto sketch as no one could fit in the special goalie trousers! After the third attempt Epsom borrowed kit and a goalie from the Royals… So the tournament could begin.
Game 1 saw the Dragons beat Epsom 5-1 with goals going to Roger, Kit, Chris, Michael and myself.
Game 2 was held between our first Surbiton team ‘the Wolves’ and Epsom once again. Surbiton came out on top again but Epsom had closed the gap this time, keeping the scorecard to 3-0. Goals were from Gerhart and a brace for Sam.
Game 3 was between our Dragons and a first game for the day for the Royals. It was a tight fought affair. Our strikers were finding it hard to score. What we needed was a wise couple of heads to sort out the problem. Sarah our captain put our Wiley old fox Roger up top and that made the difference. One goal for Roger and a Shuffle to Michael saw the Dragons through 2-0.
Game 4 was billed by some as the “big bout” between tournament leaders Dragons and second placed Wolves. Some good natured ‘fighting talk’ was had in the weeks leading up to this tournament so we all knew what to expect. All previous games had ended in a draw between these two teams. Would this week see a change? And so it began. The game was tight as both teams know the other very well. No one wanted to back down. Some great scrambling defence on both sides by Apurva, Matt and Pete stopped short a lot of attacking runs from both teams but in the end the Dragons came out on top with a brace of shuffles to Michael and finally I got one past Will, the Wolves GK for the third. It ended 3-0 to the Dragons.
Game 5 saw The Royals take on Epsom who seemed to enjoy their two games off and their regroup/confab in the warm clubhouse had done wonders as they put the Royals to the sword in a very dominant 3-0 performance, which could have been more.
Game 6 was between Wolves and Royals. After the previous game the Royals had their own version of a regroup in front of their goal and the game was on. Matt scored a shuffle in the first half for the Wolves but Royals came back with a well executed field goal getting one past a by now exhausted Will who had been in goal all morning for all the games. The game was on a knife edge. It could go either way. The Royals pushed the Wolves all the way but Matt managed to bobble one past the equally exhausted Royals keeper to finish the game 2-1.
A massive thank you goes out to our now 7s tournament veteran Umpire Giles who has kept us in check for all four of them so far, and also to Jo who made us feel very special having two umpires. Thanks also to Emma who was injured but still came down to run the timing desk, and as always to Roger for making B2H what it is today.
The next 7s tournament will be held on the 10th of February.
If you wish to join in the fun of B2H please come down on Monday nights at 8:30pm - all levels are welcome.