I believe Kettering hockey club has a pitch comparable to a sand dune, as can be shown by the ball moving at a pace that can only be described as, simply, slow. A torrential spell of rain in the first 15 minutes of play not only temporarily blinded any glasses-wearing players, but slowed the ball to a snail's pace through the game due to the sand-to-astro ratio being roughly 50-50. The first half was dominated by the opposition, our 8 South + 4 Kettering stand-in players rarely able to get the ball out of our half. Our stand-in keeper Stu kept us alive, saving shot after shot, but it was not enough. The first half ended 2-0 to Kettering, which I firmly believe would’ve been closer if our team had more experience on such a pitch, however Kettering did play excellently during this half.

We switched keepers at half time, due to Stu (who it should be noted, whacked the ball 15 feet into the air using his unprotected knee in the first half) having lack of interest in moving to the other side of the pitch, also with something about stealing a clean sheet mixed into that. The half started similarly, with high possession kept by Kettering, eventually getting one past our new keeper, who was equally as excellent as Stu. Then, suddenly, something started to click as we began pushing out of our own half, with Wilco and Andy playing many great through balls, however this could not save them from earning Lemon for time related shenanigans. Towards the latter part of the second half, we had the best chance yet. A ball from midfield came up to John on the right wing, who swept it across to me, waiting at top D, who swept it (very poorly it is to be noted, partially as my grip was completely soaked) bottom left, taking a large deflection off of the boot of the keeper, making the score 3-1 Kettering. This left us with about 7 minutes to score 2 goals to equalise. This was quickly turned into 3 to equalise as Kettering got another excellent goal. The final play of the game was a short corner earned from a trapped ball under the keeper after he slid me, giving us a chance to make the scoreline look a bit better. John slapped the ball to top D, admittedly very slowly as if I hadn’t mentioned yet, the pitch was quite slow. It came to me, I hit it into a defender’s stick which deflected into their shin, who awarded a free hit out (for some reason), ending the match 4-1.

Overall, both sides played well, but Kettering were clearly more coordinated, and clearly deserved the game, but it was a great learning opportunity. Seb was awarded Man of the Match for his excellent midfield work. Honourable mention to our whole defence for keeping the Kettering goal count to 4, as it could’ve been much higher.