Your match report author went road tripping with the Moncks and Mr Barton for this one. And it was a truly delightful trip up the A1 where we, in between chocolate biscuits, vanilla lattes, chicken-pasta-mayo salad, and, of course, carrots, studied the various RAF airbases that we passed by. Our new found interest was caused by the fact that we were going to play hockey at one!

Whether it was because the Leadenham players were going through the airbase obstacle courses on a daily basis or they just knew their hockey was unclear - one thing was sure, their midfield and defensive lines stopped most of South's attacking efforts. Not even the Dave Monck Hail Mary's could break them down. Only when South managed to link up some passing from out wide via the midfield and out wide again did it pose a threat to the Leadenham goal.

Unfortunately, Leadenham were not only good at defence: they scored two before the break, and then got another two after (the latter rather soft, according to Jan, who stepped up and put on the goalie kit). On the positive side, South defended all the short corners! And Douglas was a man transformed as centre back and a well deserved man of the match.

In other news, the captain somehow managed to lose his own last-to-the-pitch-buys-first-to-the-pitch-a-drink challenge (even a last minute sprint didn't help, with Simon Frampton jogging leisurely into the ground, all smiles). Luckily for the captain, Mike Coxe stole the lemon-light, with a beautiful stick tackle and subsequent yellow card against his old club side!

The teas were pulled-pork burgers with chips, in front of an open fireplace, surrounded by an impressive collection of whiskies. Upon leaving, it was almost as if we had gotten a draw in this one.