Who put that pre-match hype video on here?!???? I’ll watch that in a bit and see what that’s all about…

Soph’s Scoundrels v Colin’s Crusaders

Final Score 3-2 (HT 2-0) (Scorers; Lou C 15ish, Andy T 25ish, Harry 40ish, Joe 45ish, Soph 63ish)
MoM - Oli (aka The Wizard)
LoM - Andy T

There may have been some great matches yesterday, but today’s mixed game had to have rivalled the drama and entertainment factors of most of the Saturday league fixtures.

There can’t be many clubs in the land that can get 22+ volunteers to come along to play a friendly game of hockey after a typically mega social event the night before, inclusive of two umpires (equipped with their little chit-chat radios), two goalies and eight pizzas. Even the sun was out and the pitch soaked from overnight showers - perfection!

The game started with a wave of pressure from Sophie’s team, resulting in a goal for the girl who can’t get enough of Cambridge South, Lou C, who made the trip all the way up from the capital.

The two debutant goalies, Andy and Pete, were on fire! So too were the umpires, Guy and Neil. Neil was getting his money’s worth out of the green card in his pocket, whipping it out (the card!!) on George and Andy T, who were conducting lumberjack practice. The game was kept close all the way through the first half and, despite sustained pressure on Soph’s team’s defence, Colin’s talented squad of Southerners couldn’t hit the target. Some players (such as myself) decided to join in up front, abandoning their defensive duties and a breakaway counterattack resulted in Andy T smashing the ball in to make it 2-0 for the whites at half time.

The half time team talk for Colin’s squad was centred around explaining why the 1-1-8 formation was gonna transform the game. Unbelievably it looked like it was going to work as goals from Harry and Joe quickly evened up the scoreline. This teed up an epic final twenty minutes of hockey with chances for both teams. With about five or ten minutes to go, Sophie got the ball near the top of the D, smashed it at Harry (who had been telling me earlier in the game how chilled out defending was), who deflected the ball into his own net.

Colin’s team tried desperately with the little time left to get the equaliser but the hangovers started to bite and we couldn’t get near the goal to level it up.

What a great game! Thanks everyone for playing and a big thanks to the goalies and umpires.