After two wins on the bounce, the M1s set off to Ipswich - with the exception of Chris Pearson, who decided to head to Felixstowe (LoM). Following a strong IES start and after conceding first, South responded with probably our best thirty minutes of hockey this season.

Oli ‘Lineker’ Lamming, resident post man, was on the receiving end of two okay runs/passes from Chris P to tap in from a combined distance of one metre. Clinical. Two-one went to three-one when Harry C finally managed to fluke a deflection into the goal, Pearson again with the assist.

Somewhere amidst the first half goals, our Australian maverick Paresh took an unfortunate stick to the nose and had to head for the sideline for some TLC. Coincidently, South kept a clean sheet while P was off the pitch. Perhaps he was pre-occupied with his home country’s Rugby Union defeat to New Zealand earlier that day?

The message at half time was simple: make it four early on to close out the game. Despite starting the second half well, minds began to wander on to whether a jalfrezi or a tikka massala would be the curry of choice that evening. IES capitalized by scoring two quick goals to square up at three apiece.

To South’s credit, the team absorbed the pressure and swung the momentum back in our favour. Bhav behaved impeccably for the entire match and launched many fluid attacks by ‘switching back and forth like a Swiss mountain pass’, earning him MoM. Chris P also switched back and forth, slipping right on a short when he'd called left before confessing he really had meant to say right… to the confusion of all his team mates. Chris Greyveling escaped a green card by claiming he couldn’t hear the whistle, which strangely (despite his youngish looks) the umpires seemed to buy.

With one minute to go, the team were camped in the IES third trying to sneak the winner. Before we knew it, IES had countered and scored a devastating winner with the last hit of the match. It really was a sucker punch after we had dominated large parts of the match and should have finished the game off with some decent opportunities in the second half.

Despite finishing the game with a bitter taste, post match teas were a solid 7/10 (chilli, grated cheddar cheese, brown & white baguette…in case you were interested), which was more than could be said for Shin’s magic tricks. Stick to the day job, Shin.

To finish on a positive note, the M1s' Christmas wish list is shaping up nicely: a SatNav for Chris P, a hearing aid for Chris G, a didgeridoo for Paresh and a Press-Ups for Dummy’s instruction book for Colin.