• Dave withdrew from the game due to a virus. Jan’s attempt to present this as being the equivalent of a Victorian woman with a case of the vapours was seen as overly harsh.

• Jan has a blind spot for the number 5.

• Neil provided pre-match nutrition in the form of bags of prawn crackers and spring rolls.

• Oli nearly started the game with his stick bag still on his shoulder.

• Neil got green carded for pushing.

• Harry got green carded for a deliberate foot, having been sold down the river by a bad pass from Jan. This wasn’t the only time Jan passed straight to the opposition forwards.

• Chris P launched an aerial over the astro fencing. 15 minutes after the game had ended!

• Rob kindly re-directed his shower head so the entire team could use it. Whilst they were not in the actual showers…

• But Joe, Joe, oh Joe! Nando’s pink chicken, deliberately wearing odd socks in some bizarre act of defiance against 'the man', and most especially that lob over Cameron made Joe the clear winner of the ‘award’.

The hockey? Well…

South 3rds(ish) filled a blank weekend by playing out an evenly contested friendly at Shefford & Sandy 2nds of Division 6SW.

The game started at a good pace, with both sides working the ball around smoothly. There were few clear chances though, until Shefford won their first penalty corner and struck it crisply into the corner. We attacked straight from push-back, with Ali driving down the right wing and winning our first short of the game. The initial strike from this was blocked, but the rebound dropped to Chris P, who worked himself space and flicked home.

Buoyed by this quick exchange of goals, we pressed forward and begun to create more opportunities. This pressure saw us go ahead when Oli collected a second ball, and cracked goalwards. The ball took a nick of a defensive stick, which took none of the power from the shot but instead added a little elevation as it fizzed into the top corner.

By now we were holding the balance on territory and possession, but the hosts were looking nippy and incisive on the counter. One such break saw Cameron saving twice in quick succession. However his defence failed to get the ball properly clear, and when another shot came in it deflected off Joe’s attempted block, looping wildly high in the air over Cameron and topspinning back down into the goal, clipping the underside of the crossbar on the way. Aw, nuts.

Talk at half-time was that we were playing really well and were a little unlucky not to be winning. If we could continue in the same vein after the break, the goals would surely come. We had reckoned without the hosts’ keeper, who put on an inspired showing after the break. His best saves were a double effort that came during a period of extended pressure in the S&S 25, the second part being a diving stick save low to his right that stopped a shot seemingly destined for the near corner. He even got a piece of our third goal, pulling off a good save from Paul’s initial flick only for the ball to drop to Joe for him to knock home.

The game continued in much the same vein for the remainder; us pushing on, S&S hitting on the counter. Rob attempted to re-create Shefford’s second goal, but he didn’t quite get the top-spin needed from the defensive stick. The ball went up above the keeper, as required, but kept climbing, over the crossbar, over the Astroturf fence and ended up providing the greatest threat to a skylight in the pavilion roof. However as time ticked down we lost Neil and Harry to green cards in quick succession, our offenders following two home players that had been sent to the sidelines earlier in the game. In the brief window that we were down to nine the hosts converted a short, the injector deflecting home for the equaliser.

A note on the umpiring. Four cards makes the game sound fractious. It was not at all. That might prompt some to think “Ah, the umpiring was over-officious then!”. Not that either. The cards shown by the excellent S&S umpires are what allowed the game to flow as well as it did. Both sides knew that if an overly robust challenge was made then the umps would deal with it, so could concentrate on their own play rather than mithering at opponents. Sometimes one says both sides played well. In this case all three teams on the field had a good day, which made for an enjoyable match for everyone.