Abstract : Two teams, one in purple (CSHC) and one in green (Sheffield and Sandy) faced each other in a pre-season hockey match (Long Road pitches, 12pm GMT). The purples were the victors with Man of the Match, Izzy E, demonstrating wonderful pace and exquisite precision, and Lemon was awarded to Katie Gibson with her less successful “Hail Mary” technique. As such, here the L1’s have demonstrated some novel work on a fascinating and relevant subject.

Introduction: The reader is referred to Jan’s weekly preface for the L1s’ week commencing the 25th August 2019.

Methodology:
South decided to start the game with a team of 11 and continued in this fashion for most of the first half (35 mins). The experimental procedure showed promise against a strong Sheffield side. There were moments where the goals could have come from either side, despite all the relevant risk assessments and safety protocols being followed. The experiment was not proceeding as expected and as such, to mitigate this, Katie Cooil joined the South side after driving for 4h (see acknowledgements) to heroically solidify South’s game. To this set-up was added some sunshine, tense rivalry and 1 packet of Haribo Starmix. The second half (35 mins) was conducted as the first, except improvements included pace, tenacity and 3 goals for South.

Results:
The first half started with some interesting methodology and it was a fairly even game. Both teams fought to grab a goal but Sheffield couldnt get one past keeper Loopy, who was on top form. The more interesting half was the second, where it was observed that South decided to pick up the pace and were able to nip past Sheffield’s strong defenders who had held them off well for most of the game. Izzy E was too much to handle and it can be seen from the scoreline that she fired two past the keeper. Although interestingly she used the goalie’s head as her mark, scoring her second from the lesser known ‘helmet deflection’ technique. Not something you’ll see very often in this field. There was commendable work demonstrated by Jenny in the midfield, although some initial confusion surrounding where exactly “half-left” played was evident. Katie Gibson showed the eager midfielder where the more typically known “left-half” position played and this appeared to provide favourable results, as seen by her skilful play there. Kim Cooil had a great game which correlates well with patterns and trends demonstrated by Alice Wright, who faced tough opposition on all sides. However she was not successful in getting a green card as anticipated by earlier statements before the match.

Discussion:
It has yet to be concluded if in fact these result mean that South will take the league and end with promotion. As above, the preliminary results suggest that this form of attack from South is a good one, and has laid the foundations for the upcoming season. Katie Gibson would like to open debate on whether it really is best to make her wear the unicorn horn on a weekly basis, as the results above as well as previous work evidences the fact that, despite recurring Lemon votes, behaviour patters will not desist.

Conclusion:
An epic battle between two sides of the Cambridgeshire league resulted in a three-nil win for Cambridge South. The opposition fought hard but were overcome by South’s wingers throughout the second half. It is suggested in future work that South retain Katie Cooil, keep Izzy E on the wing, and aim to repeat the above results with more wins in the coming season.

Acknowledgments:

Katie Cooil (Travel)
Izzy E (Goals)
Long Road ( Pitch Hire)
Robyn McLean (Captain)
Kim Cooil (Cake)
Sheffield and Sandy (Had a good game - thanks for coming!)
Alice Wright (keeping her temper-ish)