Cambridge South 3s 54 - 2 Bourne Deeping 2s 5th March 2022

Another day, another simple dispatch by Cambridge South 3s, currently 3rd place in division 3NW (Tier 7 in the England Hockey League structure for those wondering) and looking for promotion to 2NW (Tier 6 in the England Hockey League structure). It was a fairly routine route to victory in this potential banana skin of a league match. Bourne Deeping who were sat 6th in the league table prior to the match were neither in contention for promotion nor relegation, but had claimed some rather large scalps during the 21/22 season thus far including promotion rivals Wisbech Town 2s and Cambridge Nomads 2s.

The match itself was rather customary, with Eric Wong getting on the score sheet (as per) and Alistair Smith claiming his second goal in 2 games after returning from a 2 week mid-season break in South Africa – he has since gone onto a goal streak and moved his tally to 4 in 4, with 1 game left to play, a strong end to the season. He has since pledged that a mid-season trip to South Africa will become more of a regular occurrence.

Dan Loy, a rather part-time player this season, made his impact known early on and was involved in a “coming together” just before half time, when a hot-headed Bourne Deeping defender had had enough of the constant stick nibbling by Loy. Dan actually received 2 man of the match votes for this with one of the team giving him the vote for “Juggernauting his way into the opponent’s mind”.

Game ended 4-2 as it says at the top of the web page, and Jonny Camp received a green card for pushing the ball away after the whistle.

Man of the match went to George Toynton because it was his birthday. It was a close vote with votes also going to Jonny, Dan, Lloyd, Alex H, Eric and Ali. Ali received a good vote “Started the scoring early, on a goal roll”.

Lemon of the match went to Ali Smith – votes were for: “Poor time keeping”, “Indecency in the changing room”, “Not scoring quickly enough”.

As I write this it has clearly come back to me why I (Ali) received this Lemon of the match, totally unjustly. Picture this, Shin Kim making a trademark run down the wing, picking up the ball on right T spot, Ali unmarked on the P spot. Shin shifts the ball to Ali. As Ali swipes the ball into the net, the umpire blows the whistle, the ball crosses the line. Goal disallowed. WHAT?! When has that ever happened in a game before! Literally as the ball was crossing the line the umpires blow the whistle to end the match. Unreal.