As a cool, misty morning rapidly turned into a very hot, humid day, the new L6s squad gradually assembled in the nicely landscaped grounds of Culford School to face Bury St Edmunds. Due to the heat, we readily accepted the umpires’ suggestion to play a game of 4 quarters. About half of our team were new players making their first move from South juniors into senior hockey, and for many of these, this was their first experience of a full, whole-pitch match. They all took to it like ducks to water. Due to the heat, this was required in substantial quantities (water, not ducks). South improved with every quarter played, as we quickly got used to playing together as a team who. With only one sub, it was tough going in the heat, but everyone rose to the challenge and kept working hard (with the assistance of copious Haribos).

There was some sold defending on display – confident clearances and tackles from Lottie and Laura, and some great marking work by Amelia. There were some lovely fast runs down the line and great overlapping movement from Elodie and Esther. Our superb new goalie Zehra made some wonderful saves, including a perfectly-timed dive to spectacularly take ball and player when faced with a 1-on-1.

Overall this was a very positive start to the 6s’ season and a great team performance from a team who only met some of their teammates for the first time today.

No match teas so no PoM and LoM votes – everybody was keen to get home and cool off. There were PoM-worthy moments from everyone on the pitch, and lemony incidents included Lou ushering everyone on to the pitch 10 minutes early (thinking the push back was supposed to be at 12 rather than 12.30!) and Lottie getting sent to the half way line for breaking out too early on a short.