Cambridge South Mens 1st XI needed a strong win over bottom of the league West Herts 3 to find some breathing space in a congested Div 2S mid-table. We started brightly with Paresh scoring an early straight strike from a penalty corner. New Tom and Chalky combined well in the midfield to supply Pearson with a chance at the top of the D and he promptly delivered a drag, which was deflected by a West Herts player in their goal. TWo-nil. Williams began to come into his own towards the end of the first half with solid passing movement into the West Herts half. We kept the intensity high as the clock ran down to half-time and fought off a couple of aerial bombardments to their high, fast forwards; testing the combined fitness of Mario and Luigi (a.k.a. Mariano and Trollman) – luckily Lemon of the Match, Average Aston, was there to mop up the pieces and save the day.

The second half saw a tense start. Xabi, from the sidelines, leaned over to Mens 2nds’ captain and all-time club hero, Simon ‘the Barrel’ Cooper, and said, ‘We really need a third goal to put this to bed.’ As is often the way with Xabi’s prophetic mutterings, skipper Stu promptly attacked their right flank, fed the ball to Pearson who ended up one-on-one with the keeper and in the ensuing scramble chanced a nice reverse flick under the outstretched arm of the flailing goalie. Almost immediately we scored a fourth, with Harrison the midfield garrison clearing a ball forward to Chalk via Where’s Wally?™, who from a tight angle slipped in past the keeper’s right foot. Four-nil and game felt put to bed. Between then and the end, Karran also scored and Aston got his hand smashed in, earning him some late Lemon votes and ultimately the prize.

Special mention to coach Paul for keeping us focused even in the cold and to New Tom, who showed a character-defining amount of humility as the evening of rugby unfolded.