They say the sign of a really good team is when they demonstrate the strength in depth of their squad. This week, for the first league game of the season, the 1sts had 7 players unavailable. So a slightly make-shift but nevertheless strong team was assembled, with Watson stepping into the sweeper position for the first time, the day before setting off for university. Things were looking good pre-match though, with even Johnson showing that he was starting to appreciate the subtle nuances of the famous 'Pepper-Pot' warm-up (or 'Ring of Chaos' as someone bluntly put it).

Conditions were perfect - a warm sun, a gentle breeze, no thick clouds of hazardous chaff blowing across the pitch (see last week). The only possible down side was having to run around chasing a ball for 70 minutes. Fortunately South got off to a flying start, with two nearly identical short corners calmly deflected home by McCulloch from Johnson hits. South then settled down and started enjoying some position and flowing moves. Chalk once again was the unlucky one, being asked to fill in at right-back in a game that saw South attacking most of the time. But the back four were working well together, recycling and distributing the play like old-timers (one of them definitely looking more like an old-timer than the others...). This was despite the somewhat counter-productive and increasingly hysterical shouts from Aston, urging on his fellow defender with the helpful advice 'Don't panic!'.

With cunning that will stand him in good stead as a uni fresher hockey player, Watson carefully crafted an own goal from his well struck hit into the opposition's D, with the keeper helpless against his own defence. Not to be outdone (no-one likes to be shown how to score goals by defenders!), the South midfield and attack duly combined to score a fantastic team goal which started from the break-down of a Wisbech short-corner, and ended with Haslop showing excellent hand-eye coordination to slot home a lifted pass from McCulloch after some neat exchanges involving Halse, Johnson, Virdi - and probably plenty others. South went in at half-time 5-0 in front and cruising.

After waking Parker up for the half-time team talk (which involved the captain confessing to struggling with remembering his left and right...) South started strongly again, with another carbon-copy Johnson-McCulloch-back-of-the-net short-corner routine. With new recruit Broyd settling in to left mid and Virdi and Pearson also working hard in midfield, the attacking line was free to cause havoc. A loose ball in the D was pounced on by Virdi who showed exceptional mind-control skills to convince the entire Wisbech defence and their keeper to occupy the far side of the D while he calmly hammered the ball into the middle of the empty goal. The less said about his goal celebration the better. Good interplay between Haslop, Snetler and Halse created a number of chances, with one notable one finding Halse in the D with the ball in front of an empty goal. I wouldn't be so cruel as to describe what happened next, but suffice it to say, we shall be gleefully reminding Halse of that moment for some time to come. Shortly after, McCulloch selfishly(?) popped up again to flick home a rebound from a tight angle and bring the goal tally to 7. Despite numerous other attacks, South couldn't add to this but comfortably played out the final 10 minutes with some good possession.

This was all topped off with some quality match teas in the sun at the Red Bull (earning the bar-girl a (wo)man of the match vote, and a couple of players, who shall remain nameless, lemon votes for their dubious post-match dress-sense).