A 9.30am push back in Bury was not the friendliest start to the second half of the season. Thankfully there was no need for a 7.30am pitch inspection and the L2s’ convoy headed off into Suffolk.

But first, a history lesson!

Venue of today’s game, Culford School, is an independent co-ed school for day and boarding pupils aged 3–18 in the village of Culford, four miles north of Bury St Edmunds, where it has been located since its move to Culford Park in 1935.

Sitting on 480 acres of park land, new buildings have been added throughout the 20^th and 21^st centuries, including a swimming pool in 1938 and larger expansions in the 1970-90s in the form of an auditorium, pre-prep school, medical centre, biology laboratories, boarding houses and the Sports Centre in 1991. In more recent times, a studio theatre was opened in 2006, the Indoor Tennis Centre in 2009 and in 2015 a new £2.2million library was opened at the academic heart of the school with 10,000 books, a lecture theatre, wifi throughout and a mezzanine space with a coffee bar.

New for this hockey season is the walled garden astroturf, the new home of BSE Hockey Club, adding to the original astroturf pitch installed in 2001.

For more details on these and many other fascinating facts about Culford School, you can visit Culford’s website. Or join the L2s for another educational road trip when we revisit Bury on the 11^th Feb. Reservations for Louisa’s car are being taken already – don’t miss out!

As for the match itself, the L2s knew we were in for a tough game. Bury currently sit top of the table, having only dropped 5 points from the 12 games played so far this season, with a 3-1 win against the L2s back in October. But since then the L2s’ fortunes have changed with a string of wins at the back end of 2016 and we could go into the game with a little more confidence than the previous encounter.

The increased confidence was justified, with South dominating the early part of the game and taking the lead through Izzy after some good play down the left wing. South’s lead was doubled towards the end of the half with some combination of Izzy and Eimear that I’m not quite sure the order of… Bury got a goal back, taking advantage of South’s forward advances to catch us on the break, and we went into the break 2-1 up - a contentious point due to having a third goal from Izzy disallowed in the dying minutes of the half. It’s the first time I’ve encountered the umpires stop a game to bicker between themselves for five minutes but the closest umpire’s mind couldn’t be changed, despite the other umpire’s best efforts.

South started the second half as brightly as the first and could have added to their lead with Lauren and Eimear both being thwarted by the keeper in the opening minutes. After increasing pressure, and a blow to the head to Lucy, Bury finally got their equaliser and continued the pressure but South were able to hold on for the draw.

MoM went to Louisa for a fantastic centre midfield display. Lemon went to Lucy M for her dramatic faceplanting incident in the second half. Which seemed a little harsh in a game full of Lemon contenders – Kath, for contributing to Lucy ending up on the floor in the first place, and Naomi, who was green carded for throwing her stick in a show of excessive commitment (!)

Thanks to Jan and Douglas for arranging teas for us – an afternoon in the clubhouse with the L3s was a great way to start 2017 hockey activities and gave us the opportunity for some interesting discussions about catheters and Princess Anne’s handbags! All in all a really fun day of hockey and socialising and a great way to get back into the swing of things ahead of the highly anticipated South L2s v L3s derby next week!