Back 2 Hockey 2 - 0 Tulse Hill & Dulwich Men’s 8s

Team B2H: Stuart Swindell (GK), James Assem, Apurva Anand, Mathew Chapman, Hugh Wilkinson, Jez Lamb (Capt), Charlie Mortimer, Peter Bucksey, Roger Hitch, Kevin Styles, Thomas Kay, Daman Chugh, Kit Yunes

Scorers: Kevin, Charlie

Team THD included loaned B2Her’s - Alex Drury (GK), Josh Blair (Mongooses, Vintage), Nick Blogg, Simmie Stone

PREPARATION

This was game #2 of six of our Winter 11s Series, a new introduction this season that was arranged for preparing our members for the leagues.

We had a good number of players interested for this match with an overspill of four which we lent to TH&D as they informed us that they were a bit light on players and were really keen for the match to go ahead. Their organisational management by Tom was very good and he kept in regular contact throughout the preparation. We are grateful to them for pursuing attendance and also, for what must have been an early start to their day being the first match of our day at 9:30am. A big thanks to all those taking part who arrived on time so early in the day, enabling our team to get some short corner practice in, having been our first opportunity this season, as game #1 only had long corners for safety reasons (lack of face masks). We now possess four brand new Mercian face masks.

UMPIRES

We have a club pool of umpires and for this match Umpire Coordinator, Helen Waugh, allocated our regular umpiring hero of Giles Reynolds and also Jane who had agreed to accompany Giles to take control of our hordes on the pitch. They were both very positive and stood their ground even when the players tried to do the umpiring themselves, but the players soon learnt who was actually in control. To them both we say a big ‘thank you’ for enabling our match to go ahead and we look forward to seeing you both for match #3.

MATCH TEAS

Although our game ended early again, the club was able to offer a usual lovely match tea for us and our visitors. Big thanks to Taz and his kitchen staff for the cumberland sausage grub. I understand that meal tickets are now a permeant requirement to obtain a match tea and the envelope containing a team’s tickets (only the number booked on-line by the event’s manager) can be picked up from the bar staff by any team member for distribution.

VIDEO RECORDING

Thanks to Will Shinn for taking on the role again of camera man. KiTV was involved in the game so must have sublet the job this time.

THE GAME PLAY

The weather (always a topic of discussion in England) started out warm but with a slight drizzle which showed signs of developing but actually subsided as the match progressed. The video (link at the end courtesy of Chris C) of course says it all but I have listed some brief highlights here.

In no particular order:

· I was spoken to by the Club President over tea for causing their full back to fall to the ground with a twisted ankle (1.29.55 mins YouTube time-line). “Who, me?” I said with tongue-in-cheek knowing what I used to be like as a youngster at uni! 50 years ago - “I don’t remember that”. Thanks to the modern way now of the ‘spy in the sky’ I could see on playback that he actually fell before I even got to him. ‘Phew,’ I thought.

· Kevin, new to B2H this season, certainly has some speed and a long reach with some impressive ball skills when he scored our first goal with a reverse stick shot, up into the top right corner (43.04 mins YouTube time-line). No one saw that coming. Well done Kevin and may your dynamism persist throughout your time with B2H before you probably go on to league play.

· Second goal was by Charlie (49.56 mins YouTube time-line) from a ‘J’ turn run by Tom on the right and after his pass back to Charlie, right of centre of D, Charlie push flicked it across the face of Alex in their goal to the far corner bouncing off the inside of the post. Impressive for sure.

· Simmie, his first ever 11s competition match only after six hours of hockey ever, showed great promise on the oppo’s right wing by being in the right place at the right time.

· Fortunately for us their short corner routines appeared unpractised (22.56 mins YouTube time-line) reducing the pressure on Stuart in goal who I think only touched the ball once.

· Not one for blowing my own trumpet (well maybe sometimes) Jez (RH) gave a great pass to me far out high on the right wing and after a ‘J’ turn towards the goal I was able to make a hard cross D pass (18.54 mins YouTube time-line) direct to Daman’s stick on the far side of the goal, who just missed with a one-time swipe.

· TH&D had the opportunity of a number of shots on goal and narrowly missed with a reverse shot which was deflected high over the goal by James (32.40 mins YouTube time-line).

· Despite a number of short corners, we failed to score these 60% certainties (36.37 mins YouTube time-line) even though having lots of time and with a well-prepared routine with options.

TH&D played hard and fair and were a well-matched team for us, but we were able to take the two opportunities to score which gave us the win. They had a few skilful players and a larger number of developing players and after all they were a young development side but the experience of our older players gave us the edge overall. This was the first time in B2H’s history, I believe, that we have played a registered league side and are grateful to TH&D for the opportunity to see how we fair in the wider hockey world.

I would think that the overall performances could be summed up as ‘Experience just beats Youth’.

Click here for the YouTube link to the video recording of the match on SHC TV

B2H PICTURE ARCHIVE

Don’t forget that all the pictures for this Winter 11’s Series Match #2 will be on the archive photo site here, where all other match pictures and reports can be found here