In a post-league friendly which was "rescued" by Steve Fleck's bloodhound instincts in tracking down a St Catz groundsman complete with astro key after Sanjay Agarwala's rather more audacious bid to capture the college's Head Porter had failed, South had an entertaining and enjoyable run-out as an aperitif to Christmas. Matt Bailey lent the defence a festive note with some seasonal red tones in a kaleidoscopic plumage, whilst Santa-half was also rather "Chris-Massey" (end of Xmas jokes, Yule be pleased to hear).

Massey it was who dominated in the first ten minutes, with several brick-wall tackles and a nice line in twists, turns and bluffs that created plenty of space for midfield and forwards alike. He was aided by Rob Hay, also in stolid form at the rear, and South worked some good fast moves through Jonny Tostevin and John Taylor before winning their first short after fifteen minutes. After superb work by Fleck, a well-placed Andy Lewis creamed the ball elegantly over the bar just like Jonny Wilkinson but was crestfallen to be told his effort wasn't going to be credited with three points. Taylor then made an incisive goal-line dart to leave Hay and Lewis, again in the danger area, fighting out a gentlemen's excuse-me which allowed a grateful Nomads defender to clear.

A second South short was nearly put away by Massey on the post from a Fleck strike before Nomads started to turn the tables. Despite a determined run from defence by Matt Readman, sure-footed as a mountain goat, the visitors soon broke through into the D, where Steve Parker spreadeagled himself to make an excellent save with an attacker clear away. Massey, Rob Barton and Fleck then engineered a worthy shooting chance at the other end which somehow got lost when they all apparently tried to tackle each other.

But Nomads surged back and, though Bailey heroically closed down a dangerous attack on the right and then - inside knowledge to the fore - blindsided the umpire with a nifty block from the right instep, Parker had to be at his best to keep the visitors at bay. After several fine tackles, however, his defences were finally breached on twenty-six minutes when there was no-one on hand to clear a good stick save and the ball was bundled into the goal to give Nomads the lead.

South recovered swiftly from this setback, with Massey again making the pace and, after Parker had cleared smoothly to the wings, Matt Murray's laser-guided aerial ball set Barton free to cross to the centre, where Lewis pounced on a rebound from the goalie and rammed the ball unhesitatingly home for the equaliser just before half-time.

The second stanza saw Agarwala re-inventing himself as a left-back - with no little success - and Readman and Tostevin joining the attack on a more frequent basis. Massey outfoxed several midfielders with a devastating pirouette and dash before taking a painful blow on the hand which elicited a manly epithet, whilst Readman displayed a neat body jink that sent three opponents the wrong way all at once. Nomads managed a couple of penalty corners in the first fifteen minutes of the half but scoring chances were scarce on both sides despite the open nature of the game.

The visitors' younger contingent, who were impressively talented, played their full part in some flowing hockey but the next clear-cut opportunity fell to Barton, whose reverse-stick shot after fifty-five minutes was firmly struck but well saved. Fleck nearly broke the deadlock with a great effort on South's sixth short corner, Tostevin and Taylor put together a neat move which narrowly evaded conversion and Murray barged through four tackles before being stopped on the gain line.

A final Nomads short corner after sixty-five minutes led to a reversed hit which was deftly cleared by Parker through a forest of bodies but the last five minutes belonged almost entirely to South despite Hay being loaned on a "free" to the opposition. First Readman, in the immortal words of David Coleman, opened wide his legs and showed his class and then Agarwala and Taylor set up Barton, who got a good swing in but found the ball had perplexingly altered its co-ordinates before the stick-head could catch it. He soon tested the goalie with a good strike from a Fleck pass, though, but Murray put the rebound just wide. Taylor then also forced a save and Lewis was again in the thick of the action, nearly converting the rebound and afterwards racing back to tackle robustly when the home D was exposed. Bailey made a last-ditch sweep away when in mortal peril (honourably trusting to his stick skills rather than resorting to a well-concealed emergency whistle) and an uncompleted final assault by Murray and Taylor left honours even on the day.

A 1-1 draw was a reasonably fair result on the whole and, though Nomads weren't sleighed, at least it didn't rain, dear (groan!).