As everyone is aware, there has been a somewhat…heated rivalry in recent history between these two Cambridge clubs, unfortunately with Nomads (somehow) winning in the last few encounters. However the team were optimistic and ready ahead of the challenge.

The day started with the surprising arrival of our coach, Paul, who had informed everyone that he could not come to the game as he would be picking up his son. Paul then realised the gravity of this game and decided the team needed him more than his own family, and left his son stranded to find his own way. This is true commitment.

The game started slowly. Fairly even, but most surprisingly it was not the rough, physical, aggressive game that we had prepared for. Neither team were angry, there wasn’t a fight in sight. This was not the game I had been promised. South were playing fantastic hockey, starting with some incredible defensive play from the back line; including the impenetrable force that was our well deserved man of the match, Dean. Midfield controlled the pass well and, with good link up play, did not give Nomads many chances.

From great movement and leading run came both of South’s goals. Who knew Harry Lewis could move so quickly? After securing both goals with some great runs he had the chance to get his hat-trick but, being the team player he is, he decided to allow the keeper to gift us a flick so someone else could score for once. Pearson stepped up to the spot to try and secure a three-nil lead and most likely the game. The keeper had other ideas though. Not sure what those ideas were exactly as he appeared to be doing some sort of rain dance, failing to understand the rules of flicks as he came off his line to charge down and save the flick. He celebrated for the brief second it took for the umpires to award a retake of the flick. At this point everyone backed Pearson to score this second chance - a 50% success rate isn’t (too) bad… So the score remained two-nil and we all knew who was Lemon.

The final ten minutes of the game showed a bit more of the Nomads I was promised: fast, aggressive and getting desperate. They came at us with ferocity, somehow a ball got through our strong defence and the score was two-one. This seemed to rattle South and we then seemed to do everything possible to gift them another. Despite a lot of dangerous dribbles that led to turnovers we held on until the end of the game.

We had finally broken the run of losing to Nomads, in a fairly civilised style (ignoring the last ten minutes).