A mere sixteen hours after England Ladies played out their opening encounter against Germany in the Sentinel Homes Hockey World League Finals (now showing on BT Sports), it was South M4s' turn to grace the turf.

In a first half of limited incidents, South did have the ball in the net courtesy of a solid strike from Paul South. Unfortunately, the umpires deemed that the ball was struck outside the D. It turns out that decision was spot on. At the other end South were lucky not to concede a short when a strong save by George rebounded the ball into an Ely forward's face. Ely inadvertently returned the favour shortly afterwards when a strong tackle down the wing resulted in the ball ricocheting into Ben's head. But he's made of tough stuff and bounced straight back up. The only other noteworthy point of the half was a tactical change at the back which saw sweeper Pip switch positions with right back Jan - a move generally thought to have had a negative impact later on in a clubhouse poll.

The game's opening goal came early in the second half when the promising Southern midfield play broke down and a flood of opposition forwards found themselves outnumbering South defenders in the D. Things were looking desperate and the home side relied on a heroic George preventing further deficit with a vital save when faced with three on one. Despite the loss of an arm protector the keeper kept brave and put his body on the line. South slowly regained authority and came close when a few short corners went begging, including an incredible save from the keeper to deny Toby's flick nestling in the corner. The deserved equaliser eventually came following one such short. The ball wasn't properly cleared and injected back in from Sev. Rob trapped but his mis-hit shot fell to Paul to touch on, for Simon to volley home at the back post. South were dominating as the game concluded but there wasn't time to find the winner.

A point earned or two dropped? Probably more the latter, though Ely would certainly have been disappointed with a loss. Fortunately, the other crunch game in the division saw Nomads M3s and Kettering M3s split the honours in a similar draw. George and Jimmy (US sitcom characters?) shared the MoM award for exploits at either end; and LoM went equally to Ben and Jelley (ice cream anyone?) for warm-up avoidance.

The new and improved pizzas ordered from Perfect Pizza went down a treat.