On a cold and blustery day, ten brave knights trekked to Bishops Stortford with the hope of vanquishing our opponents, Bishops Stortford Curates, in a friendly match very kindly arranged by our respective captains. A few of our players had been struck down by colds so we were one down on a full side, but our optimism was high.

On arriving at their lovely non-sandy astro, we were kindly donated three excellent Stortford players to even out the numbers: a big thank you to Katie, Sophia and Bea who had to don yellow bibs and play against their own team-mates.

The game kicked off. South had first push-back and made good use of it: within a few minutes, a goal had been neatly popped in by Evie H and we reset to our own sides. By half time, we had another goal in, scored by Ceri R (as well as a cheeky goal conceded to Stortford). The efforts of our hotshot forwards Ceri, Nicky S and Evie were supported by superstar midfielders Lauren D, Avi I, Louise W and Georgia G who made some excellent runs and tackles. We went into half time feeling confident, but definitely ready for some Tangfastics and Percy Pigs (captains coming up trumps there).

The second half meant a change of ends and what a relief that was, we were no longer contending with the low winter sun in our eyes. We got off to another great start and before long, Evie had scored her second goal of the match. The latter half saw more visits to our D from Stortford: they were kept at bay by our strong defence of Elly B, May McC, Georgia G and Bea, who tirelessly swept in and grabbed the ball back from our opponents.

Then some top-grade lemonery occurred. An opposition forward sent a long slow ball trickling into the D from way outside, and for reasons best known to herself, GK Claire C decided to shuffle forward penguin style to intercept the ball rather than let it go past. The author of this match report is reliably informed by the GK that it was a save made for comic effect in the spirit of a friendly match. The GK quickly realised the error of her move and that the ball was still in play, so then decided to kick it straight back into Stortford's hands to give them another go. GK's logic here was that it was very cold and she wanted another chance to practice a save, and lo and behold the goal did not go in.

The rest of the second half was injury heavy, with several balls to faces and Avi I taking a nasty fall but valiantly coming back on to join the midfielders helping our borrowed player Katie score her goal. Near the end, Stortford put in a sterling effort to get past the South GK for a second time, which was in no way due to GK making another misguided save and failing to get the rebound... We came off the pitch victorious and in high spirits, ready to see what we can do in our home rematch with Kettering L4s next week. Watch this space!