Ladies 1st XI 2 – 3 Barnes 2nd XI
In an electrifying encounter, OC XI faced off against Barnes HC in a fiercely contested battle that ended in a narrow 3-2 defeat for OCs.
The game kicked off with OCs displaying their attacking prowess early on, as Madi scored sensational opening goal, (giving her MOM this week ), providing OCs with a strong start. However, Barnes HC responded with a well executed goal, dampening OCs’ spirits momentarily.
Undeterred by the setback, OCs regrouped during halftime, drawing inspiration from an impassioned team talk delivered by OCs Ladies 1s captain, Molly Hanson (what a star ❤️). The motivating words galvanised the team for the second half, instilling a resolute determination to secure victory.
As the second half commenced, Barnes HC came out strong, swiftly scoring another goal. Despite the setback, OCs remained resilient, with goalkeeper Aimee showcasing her exceptional skills by pulling off remarkable saves to keep the team in contention. However, Barnes HC managed to extend their lead with a well-executed flick, pushing the scoreline to 3-1 in their favour.
Amidst adversity, OCs showcased their fighting spirit, clawing back a goal through a brilliant corner routine. Gabby’s powerful slap found the back of the goal, reigniting hope for OCs.
Despite their valiant efforts until the final whistle, OCs were unable to level the score, with Barnes HC emerging victorious. Despite the defeat, OCs exhibited determination, resilience, and teamwork throughout the match. We did indeed “leave everything on the pitch” in the words of Ben, but unfortunately we could not secure the win.
Men’s 2nd XI 2 – 0 Tulse Hill & Dulwich 1s
The People’s Team headed to JAGs for the second time this season with a juicy top of the table clash against Tulse Hill & Dulwich in store. The home side sat 2 points above the C’s albeit having played a game more.
Despite being armed with a two man travelling band of Messrs Doble and Phillips who described the setup as “village”, the away side were outnumbered by some strong home support making the task at hand even more difficult.
In the spring sunshine, OCs started tentatively on a difficult surface, nervous given the stakes at play and nothing to do with the 5 pint min rule in place from the night before. Tulse Hill looked dangerous on the counter until the likes of Bloomfield, Cornwell & Lamb wrestled control of the midfield. The C’s won a few corners late in the half and would surely have gone into the break in front if Tom ‘Stott’ Lawson understood the meaning of putting it on a plate for his deflectors.
After a clear half time message from the legendary combo of Mathews and Meers, the younger lads in the stepped up whilst the older lads were more interested in a verbal battle with the home support and the Tulse Hill number 33. The first corner of the second half saw OCs without any flickers on the pitch. But a well designed corner saw Callum Kent, a Cranleigh school legend, pretend he was flicking and slip the ball to the right to Matt Cornwell. Cornwell’s shot was saved but the ball flew up and Ollie Davies was on hand to overhead smash it, Andy Roddick style, into the netting. 1-0.
A slender lead soon became a nervy one but bad lad Barber was solid as ever to keep the home side at bay. As the game entered the final quarter and Tulse Hill searched for an important equaliser, tempers flared, tackles escalated, and a few players from both sides were sent for a sit down. With Tulse Hill at 10, the C’s capitalised as Lawson slotted a well worked corner with 10 minutes left. 2-0.
A scrappy end saw OCs take all 3 points and leapfrog Tulse Hill to the top of the table with a game in hand. The side return to Thames Ditton next week for another tough game against King’s & Alleyn’s.
MOM: YJB
DOD: OD
CHAMPAGNE MOMENT: OD
Ladies 4s 2 – 0 NPL 1s
A beautiful spring afternoon for our rematch with the NPL ladies on home ground. NPL are a formidable team – and once again, they gave us a great match, with some unexpected challenges.
We were strong from the get go – Ella intercepting passes, and defence pushing high – Lizzie moving the ball all the way into the D, for Colleen to claim our 1st goal 15 minute in.
We dominated play, with lovely transfers and reliable passing, solid defensive work and some wonderful play developing in the forward line with Elle literally dancing that ball up the pitch.
As the umpires commented afterwards ‘you got the ball in the net many more times than you scored’. We had several near-misses. Izzy A’s goal from right slip was denied as her hit judged too high, despite hitting the backboard. On another short corner, Coleen pinged the ball in goal but it caught the post & popped out.
The second half saw Izzy A secure our 2nd goal, an absolute blinder with Izzy driving the ball up & taking the keeper on in a one to one, where she masterfully held the ball long enough to pull the keeper out & score.
We also got a P flick from NPL defence feet on the goal line. Niamh bravely stepped forward and made a strong shot, defended well by the NPL goalie.
It was a great match. And we played superb hockey. Great passing, great team work – love how it’s coming together. So proud to play with this fabulous group of ladies!!!
Happy International Women’s Day & Mothers Day Weekend!!
Player of the Match went to Issy A, followed closely by Niamh
Report written by Tash Behrens
Men’s 3s 2 – 2 Wanderers 1s
Ladies 5’s 3 – 0 Barnes 7’s
Well a win – whoop whoop whoop whoop!!!!!!
We arrived at the Barnes pitch expecting it to be freezing and were pleasantly surprised at the lovely sunny weather. It was so nice that, after losing the toss, we thought that the sun in our eyes would adversely affect us and maybe it did as the defence were under a lot of pressure in the first half.
There were a few feisty players in the Barnes team, and I think that a small number of them were using the match as practice for the National Shoving Championships. But with one exception (ahem!) everyone coped with the physicality well, particularly our younger players.
After about 20 minutes, in one of the (what seemed like it to the defence) few times the ball was out of our half, the goal scoring opened when Poppy demonstrated her considerable speed and ran the ball along the side of the pitch into the D and scored. Not long afterwards Nicola added to the scoreline in a great mother and daughter effort.
So, 2-0 at half time and we were expecting Barnes to come out really strongly in the second half as they had been getting really rattled with each other. However, our excellent forwards and minds seemed to take control and kept much of the play at the Barnes end of the pitch. We had a lot of chances and the third goal came from a short corner where the ball was rolling about in front of the goal for what seemed to be a relatively long time before Hildegard slotted it in.
All we needed to do was protect the goal for the last 10 minutes or so. Barnes got a short corner in the last couple of minutes (and I have to apologise to the team for the green card I got as it was not good especially in front of our young players) which the defence managed to thwart.
A 3-0 win, the third of the season and a fantastic team effort with some lovely hockey played.
POM deservedly went to Lucy. Well done.
Hamstrings 5 – 2 Old Kingstonians
Why do we all buy Worcester Sauce?
A trip to the leafy banks of the Thames in early Spring is always a treat. As the ghosts of Henry VII, Elizabeth I and Oliver Cromwell flitted and danced across Ditton Fields our assembled motley crew were present with the aim of altering recent history that had seen us fail to topple the OKs for a number of years.
When Lizzy I set up KGS back in 1561, following Henry’s decision to move to the country to hunt stags with rabid dogs and build Hampton Court, she could not have envisaged that the cradle of English hockey would lose its shine and see hard times for the OK club. 2 recent fires at their Hampton Wick headquarters and a lack of support from KGS, sounding as familiar as the lack of support for the OCHC from Cranleigh School, times are tough. Such an important club must not be allowed to shrink any further.
Greg Hutchins, the closest in age to Lizzy I, made his Hammies debut as did the 1980’s rugby shorted Matt Lilly. Otherwise we were the usual blend of tired and creaking crocks.
We started like Henry’s dogs, determined to bring down the stags for a royal feast, in our case baguettes and sandwich fillings. Two early goals from the rampant Rob Leach and a rare conversion by Howie put us 3 up at half time. Baz “The Provider” Jones further cemented his legendary status.
OKs changed their approach after the break that we took time to recognise and suffered a loss of domination. A foot on the line resulted in a stroke, that, in other parts of the county would have been seen as a penalty goal. On this occasion the charade was played out as a tame stroke rolled into the corner of Golden Glove’s goal. Bored of setting up goals Baz collected the ball on his own in the OKs 25, beat 4 men, well, one man 4 times, before slotting home for a super goal that did put the game to bed. Another stroke for another foot on the line, another charade and our lead was reduced to 2.
No last minute squeaky bum times as in the past 3 years but instead our 5th goal with a minute to go from Knappy who was set up by a very generous OK defender.
Matt L shined on debut but Howie in the midfield ran miles and did the necessary well.
We jump above OKs in the table with a good run from here on in likely to enable us to be in the top 4 and thus achieving Champions League status.
Thank you OKs for coming back to TD with the teas and ensuring that the right spirit in hockey lives on.
I have no idea why we all buy Worcester Sauce but we do.
PoM Howie Cruthers
Goals. Rob Leach 2, Howie Cruthers 1, Barry Jones 1 and Knappy
Barnies v Spencer. 9th March 2024*
*Based loosely on a true story. Recollections may vary.
OC 4 – 1 Spencer
Grant * 2
Powleyy *
MoM Grant. DoD Ed.
With the Barnstormers looking to push themselves into the Champions League positions and Spencer keen to avoid relegation; the seriousness of the game was underpinned by Captain Yongy bringing his iPad onto the pitch to reveal a new formation, which was received with a mix of excitement and confusion, in equal balance. After all smiling and nodding we had a little side discussion as to how many minutes (seconds?) it would be before we went back to 4-4-2, but the “shield” worked quite nicely so we cracked on.
The match started with (relatively) high energy as both teams were eager to secure a victory and we dominated the early exchanges, creating several goal-scoring opportunities. Alas the OC curse in front of goal was strong on this particular Saturday and it remained goalless for the first quarter. Eventually the dam broke, with Grant delivering twice in quick succession from short corners. The first an absolute laser of a drag flick into the top corner, the second a well-directed low shot. We continued to move the ball nicely and Powelly put one away taking us to 3-0. Time to pile on the pressure and put this one to bed…….
Of course this is the Barnies, at the fortress, and we are OCs, so in a kind gesture of sportsmanship we handed them a fairly soft short corner. Inexplicably Paddy (who otherwise had a great game) wandered off from his right post duties and the ball thudded into the back board where the right post man might have been.
Half time and the opportunity for a reset and some words of wisdom from the Skipper, and Gerry, and Paddy, and CB….generally everyone had a bit to say ensuring there were at least half a dozen different “clear messages” for us to focus on as the second half got underway.
As the second half got underway the crowd gathered and became more vocal. As ever we are grateful for their support and encouraged by a particularly vocal Closey, Ed responded to his encouragement to “chuck it” with an aerial mirroring the former skippers approach to such a skill, the ball sailing gently towards the oppo about 4 yards in front of him somewhere between the knee and the waist.
We continued to move the ball around nicely in the second half, but as more and more chances were created we seemed to get goal fever with a lack of composure in their D and some particularly optimistic shots taken. Special mention to golden stick pursuer CB for one of his attempts from a highly improbable angle, who shortly afterwards was heard to utter “I would have passed it if it was a cup game”. Finally all the pressure came good and Powelly got another one to put the game to bed and make it 4-1.
Despite the many strong contenders, and possibly linked to the discussion of the treasurer not paying for teas for the home team, a savage round of tactical voting took place and in a miscarriage of justice akin to the Birmingham Six or the more recent Post Office / Horizon scandal Ed was voted DoD.
MoM was Grant for a calm and controlled display at the back and his 2 goals.
