A sunny Saturday in October, the L1’s first contest was with the A14. After all South ladies arrived safely into Changing Room 4, Captain McLean revved up the team. Recounting the previous seasons St Ives match played in artic conditions – a half frozen, snow topped pitch. I’m not sure what was worse, the sun, wind and slow sandy pitch the L1s faced today, or the polar opposite ice rink last season where the ball actually travelled above 10mph.

St Ives first push back and South ladies pressed hard from the start. It can sometimes take the L1’s a while/whole of entire first half to get their heads in the game, but the ladies were focused from the off. St Ives have recently come down from a 10 year stint in Div 1, thus the standard of Hockey was high and South Ladies certainly matched that. 

St Ives pace off the ball was fast, earning them the first goal of the match as they took a quick break. However this only drove our ladies forwards to penetrate St Ives D, putting those training drills into practice! WAAHOO finally! Securing South not only 1, 2 but… 3… 4 short corners in the first 20 minutes. Fourth time lucky, and at the top of the D Robs McLean slipped it left to Alice Wright, who took a straight strike to the bottom left corner to hear the blissful sound of the backboard. Taking us to 1-1 with 10 minutes until half time. South pressed on, working some lovely triangles up the left and right hand side. From Amalia to Alice W to Robs Muz to Alice Hug back to Robs to Sarah to GOAAL! South took the lead 2-1 into half time after a well worked, all team touch goal.

*Jaffa cakes & Haribo half time refuel*

The second half St Ives came back fighting. However, with South’s 3 rolling subs, the legs just kept coming. Carly finally subbed off for a 5-minute breather after some sterling distributional work in centre midfield. Laura made some cracking leads up the left wing, taking on St Ives defense and even a one-on-one with the goalie. South held off St Ives with a 2-1 lead for the most part of the second half, playing clean, purple to PURPLE hockey. Well, apart from Alice Wright (GREEN CARD). An unfortunate interception from St Ives forward line took the score up to 2-2. The final 5-10 minutes saw South with 3 short corners, the pressure amounting and we just couldn’t quite put it in the back of the net. Final score 2-2, much to Robs Murray’s delight. Well played ladies, a exceptional effort from all.