Men’s 1st XI 2-3 London Wayfarers
The 1st XI dusted off the cobwebs in the first outing since December and in the event their last until the pre-seasons start in late August. On a hot day the match was preceded by an immaculately observed minute’s silence to mark the life of Prince Philip. Despite this being a friendly between two rusty sides, the quality was good but we paid for a lack of firepower up front and although we led fitness and missed chances cost us.
Ladies 1s 0-1 Richmond
The Ladies 1’s were raring to get back into the season with a win away at Richmond. After paying our respect to Prince Philip, our 3.01pm push back saw us start strongly dominating the first 10 minutes and winning ourselves a penalty corner unfortunately failing to capitalise on this. As the first half progressed we lost our momentum slightly and against the run of play conceded with a momentary lapse of concentration to go 1-0 down. After a stern talking to by coach Moors at half time we fired ourselves up determined to do better for the second half.
Unfortunately it didn’t go to plan. Richmond pressed us hard winning a series of penalty corners which we defended strongly, and also forcing us to defend hard throughout the pitch and Molly having to make some outstanding saves in goal. We had a few breaks but again failed to score. The warmer weather took its toll and at least we managed to hold Richmond to a draw in the second half. Final score 1-0 to the home team. Although disappointed with our performance and the result, we were still all buzzing from being back on the pitch, as a team and playing competitive hockey. Onwards and upwards to next week.