‘Twas a wet, bleak, cold afternoon which the M2s intended to pounce upon in order to get some much needed points on the board after some frustrating results since the Christmas break. We headed into the changing room full of anticipation of what the game might throw at us and what the prep talk might be like in Coops’ absence. Were we in for some typical NBM changing room madness, I wondered?

After leaving the changing room with relatively few antics occurring (rare for the M2s), we headed out to warm up under dark clouds. The warm up was completed in usual fashion and we got to the pitch eager to get on with the game. Only to find that the game before had over run. After our second warm up and a visit to all the tennis pitches on the Long Road site we finally got on to the pitch with more than five minutes remaining before the start of the game, a rarity in the second half of this season.

As the game got under way it was clear to see that this team would be no push over, matching us in terms of chances to score. Deeping’s midfield pushed hard into South’s half but James Menzies kept them at bay by putting in some solid tackles. Our relatively young team this weekend produced some quick passing and some top quality distribution from Jon Mann and Chris Walsh in the centre of the South XI, enabling us to push high into Deeping’s half. Some good hockey played by both sides kept the score at nil-nil as the half time whistle approached.

South made a spritely start to the second half and pushed hard from the off. Our efforts were rewarded with a goal due to some sharp passing, as the ball found its way to Ali in the D to hit one home between the keeper’s legs, breaking the deadlock. One-nil to us. This rejuvenated the South side, who were eager to push on and score another. Some slick defending took place by Barney and Douglas who picked out the aerial passes confidently to keep us on the front foot. However the score line didn’t last long, with Bourne Deeping equalising from a short corner: one-one. From here on in it was a test of stamina; who wanted to win the game more. As South were put under pressure, James Menzies received a blow to the wrist (possibly by the ball - sorry, I didn’t see it). This meant the end of the game for him with a suspected fractured/broken wrist, but instead of being whisked away to A&E he stayed for the pizza afterwards. A true South hockey player.

End-to-end play ensued no let-up by either team but South continued to play their game well, keeping the pressure on Deeping, which won us a penalty flick due to a Deeping foot on the line. Dom stepped up and calmly snuck the ball past the keeper into the left hand side of the goal. Two-one South. Barney kept South in front with an outrageous save off the line at head height from a Deeping penalty corner; pure instinct. The final whistle went, victory was ours, the rain subsided and pizza was shared by all; what more could you want from a dreary January afternoon?