Women’s 6s 2 - 3 Teddington 4s (A)
By Tish Fuller
It wasn’t a great start when, at the meet time, the only people at Teddington were myself (Tish), Sinead (of course) and Martha. It seemed that the entirety of south west London had decided to descend on Teddington HC, inconveniently taking our car parking spaces.
Meanwhile Martha, Tish and Sinead debate whether we like the Teddington hockey kit or not. I think yes but Martha and Sinead were strong no’s. Last to arrive was Hutch who claimed she’d already done her warm up by walking miles from her car to the pitch. She also kindly delivered me some socks after I lost mine that morning (strike 1).
Quick warm up on the tarmac where Sinead and Val made us dizzy running in circles and then onto the pitch for some zig zag warm ups and a pep talk by Tarek. We didn’t quite start off with the haka but after the SHC equivalent with a sprinkle of Taylor Swift and Bon Jovi in there, we were ready and raring to go.
The first couple of minutes everyone seemed to be warming up into it. Particularly the Teddington player who took a free hit and aimed at my head, luckily my ninja reflexes allowed me to dodgy that one.
Some excellent defending my Sinead and Sophia kept the Teddington ladies out of our 25, with a lovely ball up the wing to Silvie who pranced around multiple Teddington players and released the ball to Anna who, despite it being her first ladies game looked as though she belonged here, dominating up front. A quick ball across to Aashny who elegantly placed it deep into the back of the net. (1-0 to SHC).
However Teddington were quick on our tails and came back at us quickly slotting one in for themselves (1-1). Half time whistle blew and we all came in for another pep talk by Tarek. Fuelled by Tangfastics and candy kittens we were ready to take on the second half. An excellent pick from Sammy and quick pass on to Niamh who showed prowess and grace sprinting up the left. She fed the ball onto Ellie who was putting some serious strain on their defence. Quick shot on goal by Val but alas no cigar.
With a quick sprint by one of their youngsters I thought I could take her. Pumping my little legs alongside her considerably longer ones, much like a scene from a David Attenborough documentary, with a warthog chasing a panther. I went in for the lunge and I’m not too sure what happened after that, she was rolling across the floor and I was following her, further grazing my already very bashed up knees (strike 2, and apparently DOD worthy). Nonetheless: Warthog one, Panther nil.
With a few minutes of ping-pong between the teams, Lila took control of the chaos and calmly banged one straight past their goalie onto the backboard. Whoop whoop! (2-1 to SHC). However a moment of deja vu and Teddington had come straight back at us again and took (it has to be said) an excellent shot from the top of the D and buried it into our goal. (2-2)
A momentary lapse in concentration from us and Teddington were quickly back into our half. With a sneaky couple of passes in our D they managed to slide one past us (3-2 to Teddington)
Crescendo build up to the final minute of the game, Fi’s pirouet into a reverse sweep dive, it was like a scene from Swan Lake. Final whistle. Unfortunate loss but lots of positives to take from the game.
Over and out,
Surb’s favourite Warthog