The road to Lee Valley begins…

The mixed team assembled on Sunday morning after maybe a few too many G and Ts at Novi the night before. This is fine…we play better on a hangover, right? Everyone was pretty punctual except for Chris and Kim. I received a panicked phone call from Kim to tell me she has no idea where Chris was… Poor timing to play hide and seek, Chris! Jack had tagged along to come watch but was easily persuaded to don his personalised yellow shirt after hearing that Richard had called in sick. Once everyone's whereabouts were confirmed we all set off for sunny Essex.

We arrived at Campion school and got ready in the lobby as no-one was about to tell us where the changing rooms were - lets just call that team bonding?! Unlike our usual mixed team form, we indulged in a proper warm up and even practised some attacking penalty corners. Harry had yet to take his sunglasses off at this point; I think the world was still just a bit too bright. Colin's inspirational pre-match team talk was punctuated with Georgie explaining how women function…I think the men are still slightly confused.

We started strong. Linking passes and making great runs off the ball resulted in a early opening goal for Chris. This was shortly followed by me totally missing the ball and not scoring (earning a couple of lemon votes but not enough to take the title). I redeemed myself not long after and managed to sneak in past their defence to slot away a well-timed pass from Chris to the post. Havering took advantage of a dip in our concentration and managed to put one away despite Matt making amazing saves off his chest.

The next bit needs some explaining… Saturday night at Novi saw Harry try to persuade everyone to take up salsa dancing - all Robyn's idea of course - but Harry was realllllllly gunning for it. So we decided that we would tee Harry up for a goal during a penalty corner so he could celebrate with some salsa moves. It all went to plan until Harry bottled it and gave the ball back to Chris: no goal, no salsa. We finished the half three-one up thanks to a barrage of attacks from Jack, resulting in a goal.

I learnt two things during half time. Firstly, that as a forward I am still allowed to mark, and secondly, that Harry set himself up for a high step count on his Fit Bit by shaking it all morning (I felt that was too much information but thought I really should try and defend at times too).

Colin's lesson in marking during half time had done the trick. Straight from the whistle we attacked hard and tight marking from Emma, Janette and Diane kept Havering out. Chris scored two more goals though great passes from Jason and Kim. Havering were awarded a few penalty corners which firstly led to Matt kicking the ball into laura (he hugged her in apology, cute), then Tom deflecting the ball into a Havering girl (no hug, not so cute) and finally in Havering scoring. We received a penalty corner soon after and a well practiced L1s' routine saw a cool goal from Kim (get it?).

Havering weren't quite finshed yet and managed to rocket the ball up the pitch and into our net before Tom made it back to defend after one of his classic runs up front. The score at this point was six-three but that wasn't enough for South. Super passing up the right though Ali created a scoring opportunity for Jack, who buried the ball into the back of the net. We weren't done yet. Georgie and Harry effortlessly brought the ball up from midfield and Sophie…I (I never know whether to talk about myself in the third person, but anyway) scored. Eight-three to South at the final whistle.

Thanks to Jan for travelling to the match to umpire. It was worth it just for the Capri-sun and chocolate bar after the match alone, right?!

This win means we've made it into the cup run (slightly scary) and will face either Teddington or Surbiton in the next round… Stay tuned, hockey fans!