M6 Hockey is never dull. A game dominated by FOUR

10 minutes before the scheduled start there were ....4 Camb South players present. Luckily the cavalry arrived and there were eventually 15, confusing Bartonez's careful planning

Camb South scored 4 ...luckily Walden only got 3

Saffron Walden scored twice in the last 4 minutes to almost salvage a draw

There was the usual M6 mix of proper hockey (sweeping passing moves, heroic blocks), enthusiasm, and slapstick (stick tackles, air hits, passes to opponents, suicidal play in our own D). Winger Greaves won the air-hit competition with 3 in 5 seconds soon after the start, but there were plenty of candidates for glory.

Walden grabbed the first goal against the run of play as a speculative effort from an extreme angle spun over the line past a bemused away defence. Man of the match and Walden alumnus Georte Toynton equalised joyously from an ad hoc short corner routine (Ed - can you have an ad hoc routine ??), and the first half ended honours even.

Time for the old lags to step up as John Greaves pounced on a George Toynton "through pass" - which in Toynton-land was called a "goalbound shot" for 2-1 and goal machine Rob Barton made it 3-1 slotting the ball tigerishly over the line after some aerial shenanigans. The pair could have had more goals to add to their 600+ but were unlucky when a stray whistle blew as the ball was on its way goalwards from another Barton-Greaves combo move

Dan Loy brought class to proceedings with an unstoppable top-D thunderbolt to make it 4-1. Time to relax

Er no. Time for Walden to come back with two late goals to almost salvage a draw. They may feel unlucky, but it was mainly the awesome goalkeeping of Jo Dant in the second half that prevented the purple-shirted yellow-socked baddies from scoring more against the yellow-shirted purple-socked goodies.

All good fun. even more fun in Toynton-land, as George was convinced he had scored twice ...which would have meant a 5-3 win. This and his carefree shimmies into the D ending in airshots earned him the double of MoM and LoM.

Ed- Who writes these reports?? Oh yes, it was the club chairman, with Mr Toynton subsequently editing scores (inaccurately (see below) and now reversed)

So, variously:

• 15 eventually increased to 16 when Martin G showed up (he has been added to the teamsheet). It could have been 17... except Martin left Thomas G at home to revise for an exam! Apparently Tom really wanted to play as well... Stern parenting. [aside - more co-ordination in casting around for double-ups on the day of the game is called for in future as it turned up waay too many today!]
• "Ad hoc"?!? We had a plan for that shortie and everything - Jonny to slip left to Jan. The shot being off target and George deflecting home was off-script, I will allow
• The "stray whistle" to deny the second Barton-Greaves strike was due to a blatant foul by South!
• Dan's goal made it 3-1, not 4-1
• Rob's goal (which was the 4-1 one) was a neat first-time deflection from a cross from Jonny... which was all along the ground, as was the passing move that got it to Jonny. Not sure what the author was seeing with aerial shenanigans - possibly someone practicing from nearby Duxford Aerodrome?
• The Umpires confirmed the score after the game as 4-3, not 5-3 as some thought. Or 4-4 as others did. That second 'goal' for George was presumably the one that Mr Greaves turned past the 'keeper. George doesn't get the credit for this.