The first England Hockey Championships Mixed Tier 1 match of the season is upon us. I wonder when they named the competition if they considered how catchy it would sound in match reports?

The run up to the match had me slightly nervous to be honest, mainly due to the lack of Level 1 umpires in Watton but, thankfully, they managed to rope in a man in yellow. The morning of the match saw me up nice and early to go and perform a 'pitch inspection'. City juniors were already clearing the frost for us: very kind of them.

The Cambridge South mixed team arrived with their usual punctuality. Watton were busy practicing penalty corners while Colin and I tried to figure out a formation to include the mainly attacking selection of players we had managed to choose. Jan (who kindly took his name off the team sheet to umpire for us - thanks Jan) and the Watton man in yellow started us off and straight away we knew we were in for a tough game. Watton played well, taking chances every time they entered our circle. it didn't help that Colin kept lying down instead of tackling but super sweeper-keeper Lino kept the ball out of the net for the entire first half. The Southerners also had several chances, eventually managing to sneak in a goal after a scuffle on the line. Manager for the day, Tom, organised the subbing from the side lines and came to the rescue to bring Laurie an ice pack when a wayward ball found its way on to her eye.

Half time and a pack of jelly babies later and we were ready for the second half. Watton ladies proved to be a force to be reckoned with and the visitors managed to level the score early in the half. Chris and I decided to stop seeing who could achieve the best open goal misses and he actually managed to score after great linking play from brilliant midfields Kim, Ollie, Alice and Hannah. Shortly after, Watton scored again despite the hard work of defenders Nevin, Andi and Laurie. With a great rotation of players (I can't remember who said it, but one of the Southerners pointed out after Watton equalized again that we had more subs than them; actually, they had no subs, to which a smart Watton girl replied with, 'Watch out guys, they can count.' Brilliant banter), the goals didn't stop there, and after Rebecca had a pop at a Watton player's ribs, South managed to sneak another goal in. The play was end to end as the match drew to a close; perhaps like us Watton hadn't practiced their flicks either. Thankfully the leaping Lino saves and a second goal from Chris saw the Southerners victorious at the final whistle.

Now to explain the match report title. As the match finished at 1.45pm and the pitch was booked until 2pm, Ollie and Chris made sure to continue playing and get our money’s worth. Aiming aerials into the smattering of South players collecting up their belongings, Chris managed to hit the one person who would give him a hard time! Kim yelled out like she had been shot, although thankfully tweed has quite good padding properties and prevented any real damage. This prompted the great one-liner Lemon vote, 'Pearson, who missed the goal but hit his girlfriend.'

Pizzas and birthday cake for Andi (who was turning twenty-one I believe) saw the match day to a close. Chris took Kim to town to buy her something nice while the rest of us went home to warm up.

Well done to everyone who played and a big thank you to those who came to watch, and also to Watton for a great game. Here's to the next round…