Having been officially promoted and crowned champions last weekend, South’s Ladies’ 1s had no pressure to win another game…other than our pride. It was not in our nature to coast on our laurels, so we left Cambridge with guns blazing to meet St Ives 2s on the pitch.

The whole team arrived on time at the changing room, with no incidents en route, to hear Robyn’s pre-match chat, team line-up and goals for the day, and we all then jogged out to warm up. The weather was only a bit windy – the ladies had certainly played in worse conditions before – so Katie thought having her hood up to protect her from the wind was worth the tassels hitting her in her face. Little did she know that would win her LoM at the end of the day.

As predicted, the wind made communication difficult at times and the slow surface made our sticks and the ball feel sticky to the pitch, but despite this the purple side prevailed. The first goal came after Kim dribbled into the opposition D but had her shot deflect off a defender, only for Laura to take the opportunity from the rebound and slip the ball in under the goalie. The second goal was built up from a two-on-one between Kim and Alice, who finally lifted it past the keeper, and the third goal came from a pass across the D to Abi, who had run up the right wing behind the defence to deflect the ball into the goal. There was almost another goal for South in the first half, when Alice lifted the ball for Laura to deflect ay the far post, but this goal was disallowed due to the pass being too high. But before the umpired called this decision though, Alice and Harriet celebrated by bumping into each other and knocking each other over – which earnt them LoM tied with Katie.

In the second half the girls in purple continued to give no respite to St Ives. It was Harriet that scored two more goals for South, one by lifting it over the keeper after a short hustle and rebound, and the other from a short corner that Harriet’s perfect touch slipped the ball between the goalie and a defender. There was also yet another goal disallowed despite pre-emptive celebrations, also from a short corner pass deflected ‘with some force behind it’ by Amalia only an inch above the backboard.

Overall South clearly dominated the game: we played mostly in St Ives’ half, and keeper Bryony only touched the ball once all game. This was in great part thanks to MoM Maddie, who intercepted several attacking passes and won many a fifty-fifty ball. Yet another win and clean sheet for Cambridge South’s Ladies 1s, who continued to prove they deserve their champions title and promotion into Div 1!