Women’s 3s 2 – 0 Wayfarers
The sun was shining, setting the tone for a positive start for the OCs ladies 3s last match of January. The game started well with OC’s pressing hard, with their relentless pressure cumulating in a OC’s breakaway with a firm ball crossed into the D for Izzy to slot it past the goalkeeper. Score! 1:0 to OC’s! Wayfarers continued to fight back however OC’s solid defence stopped their attacks. Lucy battled relaentlessly as the ‘slightly’ physical side used brute force on occasion to win possession.
Half time chat fuelled with sweets helps to refuel the team who started the 2nd half slight fraught with OCs taking some time to get back into their stride. However once found, the mighty OCs 3 won a short corner executing it perfectly as Jenny on the left slip smashing it past the keeper. 2-0! With a rattled opposition, who stepped up the physicality, poor Ele took a battering being pushed to the floor and carded unfairly given she was defending her position. OCs though with 10 top battlers kept their heads, with Helen taking time to play free hits. As the clocked ticked down, Izzy, Alice and Molly continued to battle on up front with the final whistle eventually blowing. A solid win again for OCs.
Man of match – Ele for solid relentless defending.
Written by Jacqs Stacey
Hamstrings 2 – 4. Old Loughtonians Supervets
Exam question:
Who was the winner? Every Saturday the same question. What about this weekend?
For me, the weekend started early with an early Friday morning whatsapp “accidental” team call. Was everyone up and ready prepping for the weekend? Closey was first on, butt naked, hair tousled fresh from the shower, towel over shoulder, full commando. A good look, and lucky Mrs Closey thought i, waking up to that every morning.
Anyway, long story short, Rich had built in an early and probably unsurmountable lead in the DoD stakes. Apols to those still in bed!
Moving on: Friday became Saturday and the long schlepp to the Essex-boy fortress. Shit traffic testing the strength levels of old men’s bladders. Everyone waiting for the usual “why are drivers so fucking useless” from our beloved SiC. Was today going to be a repeat of the head-butting fiasco of the first leg? Were tempers going to fray?
Jamie got us settled into our pre-match routine, a solid warm up and the boys primed and ready. Who was going to be the winner?
Early exchanges probably went OLs way, as they eased into the game more quickly than us. It was end to end, but OLs going deep and early when they had the ball, the OC legends more circumspect as we built our play more steadily down the channels. 15 mins in, the ball fell to an OL player free 10 yards out, and our courageous skipper put his neck on the line but alas could only stop the ball with his body. A flick to the OLs and 0-1 down.
Could OLs be the winner?
Or maybe the umpire who rewarded SiD’s outburst of objections within a metre of where the umpire was standing with a 2min green card? Or maybe the other umpire who thought Si should have been off for longer?
Concentration lapsed a little bit, some mix ups at the back, and 1 became 2 and 2 became 3. We battled on, keeping them honest where we could, with glimpses of attacking zeal, a flashing cross here, a dribble and through pass there, but nothing coming. Half time bought us some respite and a chance to regather. Stirring words from our skipper, the lads all chipping in with encouraging comments. Come on lads, lets score first here, see if we can win the second half and see if we can nick it. There’s fight in the old dog yet.
Second half: the OC legends build some momentum, doubt creeping into the OLs game, better go forward from the OC legends and the back 4 starting to get the measure of the silky skills of the oppo, judging when to step in and when to hold back, winning more and more 50:50. A solid base for us to start to threaten more. The team pushing forward more.
Finally, a corner. Just rewards for building pressure. DoD candidate stepped up, desperate to assuage his guilt of waking everyone up, desperate to use the inspiration of a naked Closey. Boom! A well taken shot. We had clawed one back. Come on OC’s: we can do this!
OLs felt the pressure and started to take the wind out of the game. Knocking it about, sensing the danger.
OCs lushing forward now, rolling the dice, building into the game, but damn, against run of play, a cracking cross, a stick stuck out and the ball in the back of the net. Shit, game over 3-1.
But the boys stuck at the task. Pride pounding in 14 legends’ chests. Ni surrender, do or die: Audentes fortuna iuvat, as they used to say a long time ago. Some great skill and build up play with Rosco conducting admirably and out dear poacher extradentary, the great Ado in the right place / right time again. 4-2 clawback. And OCs overall winner, but sadly only of the second half.
Final whistle (5 mins early!?).
Who was the winner? Was it OLs who played good hockey in a friendly spirit? Or was it our inspired author, collecting a unique treble of DoD, MoM and match report duties?
You know the answer: hockey was the winner.
Final score 2-4
Goal scorers – Rich MaxDowel & Ado White
MOM – Rich MacDowel
Women’s 7s 0 – 2 Teddington 7s
OC W7s put in a valiant effort against Teddington.
Both teams looked evenly matched in the first half, with neither side scoring by half time.
After the break, OC attacked and defended well, created chances, and worked well as a team, however we were unfortunately unable to get a goal of our own. Teddington scored 2 goals in the second half resulting in a 2-0 loss for us. Great effort all round unfortunately not reflected in the final score.
Puricrans 2 – 1 Amersham
Our bogey side at home came and were beaten for the first time.
A fast start saw us playing some top-quality hockey and a 2 goal lead after 15 minutes did not flatter is. Birdy scored the first with a tap in after a super team move with Knappy being gifted a goal by their keeper to make it 2 – 0. At that point we stopped playing the way that caused Amersham difficulties. A poor clearance gave Amersham a way back in but we held on without too many alarms to secure the win.
We lie 3rd in the table with the top 3 teams all on 32 points although Reading have a game in hand and both Reading and Brom Becks have a better goal difference.
A break this week but all still to play for.
M o m – Gordon Loader
Goals – Bird and Knapp
L5s 4 – 1 Barnes Blazes
An overcast morning of hockey over at Richmond Park Academy for our away clash with Barnes. We were determined for a victory.
Some great hockey being played, and we moved the ball well in the first half, going into the break ahead, with goals from Jenny and Hildegard. When we resumed play in the second half, we secured another 2 goals from Paula and Jenny with a fantastic worked corner….and unfortunately a battle scar being picked up by Bernie, with an elbow to the face, but hopefully the result is the silver lining:
Final score 4-1
POM Freya St-Gallay
And we move to 8th in the table 🥳
Written by Orla B-W