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Newsletter 2006/07
Since 2003/04 the club has produced weekly match reports. From the start of the 2005/06 season this became a weekly newsletter, distributed during the season, containing match reports from each of the games played that weekend as well as other key information and a selection of adverts and offers.
Fri 09-Feb-07Issue 18
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, and for many, there were no times at all. No less than 4 teams enjoyed a restful weekend in front of the rugby, while up with the best was the women’s 1s whipping of West Witney with a wonderful win (excuse the ropey alliteration…) This takes them to top of the table and visions of promotion appear on the horizon. The women’s 6s had their first win of 2007, the Diamonds dragged themselves out of relegation zone with a timely walkover result and the Dragons demolished the dismal Daquiris (oops and again…) On the other side of the unpredictable coin of victory and defeat, we find the women’s 3s and 5s, although mention must be made of T5’s rediscovery of goal-scoring, the men’s 6s and the men’s 1s whose unbeaten 2007 run came to a frustrating end in Wimbledon.
So to a chilly and frost-ridden weekend, slippy slidey pitches likely, but more importantly the chance to don your shiny chequered shirt and tight trousers, and make like a jockey at Race Night on Saturday. And either spend your Sunday starring for the Dragons or supporting the women’s 1s in their cup tie at Dulwich College. And, after months of anticipation, tickets will be available for the Centenary Dinner on 27 April – forms will be circulated from this weekend to buy tickets – get your tables of 10 together - for the joint celebratory end of season and Centenary Dinner, also known as, The social event of the late 2000s.
Reports by: Gareth Weir, Billy Dowie, Doug Heard, Gemma Baker, Emma Parker, Faith Geraghty, Mags Aylward, Mark Jones.
Men’s 1s vs. Wimbledon: Lost 2-3
Unlike the previous week, this was not a performance that will make the end of season video highlights. A beautiful day, an upbeat confident team, some beautiful ladies playing before us, Wimbledon being bottom of the league - all the initial signs were good. Unfortunately, that's where the "good" stayed. Despite the great structure and considerable ball possession, we conceded soft goals and missed multiple opportunities - a combination which compounded by some bad luck/odd umpiring left us without 3 points and meeting Dr Lash later that night with a dull pain and frustration.
That said, we're refocused for next week's clash with top of the league Fareham and there is always Paris Hilton who asked this week "Wal-Mart... do they make walls there?" (GW)
Team: Duncan Holmes, Gary Boucher, Andrew Eames, Gareth Weir, Richard Banwell, Chris Smith, Jimmy Ireson, Tom Cross, Simon Glasson, James Huntley, Andy Balchin, Rob Heath
MOM: Richard Banwell III esquire
TFC: Me (better to remain silent and appear a fool than open my mouth and remove all doubt)
Goals: Andy (x2)
Next game: 10th February vs. Fareham, home.
Men’s 2s vs. Bromley and Beckenham: Lost 1-0
Men’s 3s - No game.
Next game: 17th Feb vs. Oxford University 3s.
Tornados - No game.
Next Match: 10th Feb vs. Wimbledon 6s, home 10.30 CPB.
Diamonds vs. Maidenhead 2As. Won 5-0 (Walkover)
Whassup? That’s the third Saturday out of four that the opposition have cancelled. The three points takes us to 12 and out of the relegation zone.......... but only just. Yet again, we had an enjoyable friendly vs Wes’s 3rds, but it will be 24th February before we have our second post-Xmas League game, and we risk being seriously match-rusty.(BD)
Next game: Saturday 10th Feb. Away to Teddington 5s, 12.15 (Friendly)
Royals vs. Indian Gymkhana: Lost 3-1
After a short game at the club of Where's Wally...we treked off into the unknown, well Osterley...minus Wally Pendrill...who stumbled to the ground by train. After a 6-0 humping two weeks ago and an unlucky 3-0 the week before, the squad turned up more focussed - only two players were hungover compared to the 9 the week before. Leading one nil for most of the game, thanks to Akash's first THD goal in front of his prospective future father-in-law, we finally went down 3-1 after 3 late shorts. Nevertheless, after watching the Scots get taught how to play rugby we came home happy. (DH)
Team: Gavin [GK], Will, Keith, Matheu, Tom, Ed, Mike, Doug, Stephen, Hamza, Akash.
Scorer: Akash
Next game: This week it's the chavs from Old Loughts at home. Expecting 3 points!
Women’s 1s vs. West Witney 1s: Won 6-1
West Witney is actually a really long way away, so the thought of having to drive home and back again another day because the pitch was frozen filled most of us with despair when, on arriving at the pitch there we discovered that part of it was frozen and still covered in frost. Not a huge amount of the pitch mind, but enough to make people nervous about playing on it. Fortunately, the WW captain had a reserve astro up her sleeve and we packed up the cars for the 2 mile trip to a rather nice school with a couple of astros just begging to be played on. And not a speck of frost in sight. Slightly thicker / bouncier / stickier astro than we're used to, but at least the oppo hadn't played on it before either, probably a slight disadvantage for their 'home' game, and it made for an interesting opening 15 mins when neither side could really stop the ball.
Just as things were settling down, one of their younger players bounced off Alex (quite literally) and there was a stop in play while the girl recovered consciousness. While she was being tended to, our two umpires were deep in conversation with the umpires on the next pitch about whistles, and the fact that our guys were blowing them too loudly or something and once there had been some changing of whistles and we had ascertained that we would have one 'flute' and one 'pea', play resumed. Just as scrappily mind you, probably not aided by the 10 minute interval. Anyway, before half time we managed to score, but so did WW, so it was 1-1 at the break.
Second half was a different story. WW had done a good job at preventing us from playing, with a high press and constant hassling of the player on the ball. However, we kept our resolve, playing our game and eventually the pressure was converted into goals. 3 goals in 2 minutes in fact, which pretty much sealed the victory, with a final flurry of 2 more in the last 5 minutes. A brace for both Alex and Lou was complemented by a couple of sexy finishes by Martha and Eeej (yes, she made it to the game this week). Our resolute back four and gk kept the 'goals conceded' to a minimum and with rivals H&W only scoring 4 this week means we are now top of the table on goal difference. Pressure for promotion is now on..... (GB)
Team: Pipes, Alex, Kath, Clare, Nicky, B, Lisa, Gem, Faye, Martha, Lou, Sharon & Eeej
Scorers: Alex (2), Lou (2), Martha & EJ
Motm: Lou
Next matches: Saturday 10th Feb @ DC v Richmond - 11am start Sunday 11th Feb @ DC v Teddington - 12.45pm start (Trophy Round 3)
Women’s 2s - No game.
Women’s 3s vs. Raynes Park: Lost 6-1
We lived up to past performances in this match by managing to concede over half a dozen goals - but don’t they say that consistency equates to class? - so its not all bad. The team was missing some key figures in the shape of our captain and vice captain, Jen, Kate and Karen in defence and Rosie from midfield, however we put out a strong side, including a guest appearance from Lucy M in the 2s (thanks!) - but it just wasn’t to be. Not long into the game we lost Rachael to a ball in the head, and while Dulci’s mum kindly whisked her off to hospital to be mended, we trundled on with the bare eleven, making somewhat hard work of things. If my memory serves correctly we were 3-0 down before we showed any real signs of life, but we managed to pick up our game and made it 3-1 with a goal from Beth. From there we showed our fighting spirit well, but the opposition were unfortunately one step ahead and on the ball before us 80 per cent of the time. We certainly pulled out the stops in defence and made some good rescue attempts together with some convincing saves from Dulci, however the opposition showed themselves to be a league above us (they were last season) and four more unstoppable reverse stick shots from the fierce South Africans (why are there so many South Africans living near Mitcham?) made their way past us to make it a (fairly) convincing 7-1 defeat. Unfortunately the scoreline doesn’t reflect the team effort and we did well to fight off another potential dozen goals. Next time….. (EP)
Team: Emma M, Stacey Sellman, Dulci Davies, Rachael Biggs, Beth Little, George Hills, Emma P, Helen Shackleton, Mo O’Brien, Sophie Carter, Erica, Lucy Muldoon.
PoM: TBC
Umpire: Penny
Next game: Saturday 10 Feb - v. Guildford 2s (Home)
Women’s 4s - No game
Womens' 5s vs. Walton and Weybridge 1s: Lost 2-8
At the beginning of last week there was talk of conceding this game due to a lack of keeper and bodies on the pitch generally. Thanks to our friends of T4, however, 11 willing volunteers were assembled and met on a pitch near the home of Ali G. We were anticipating 70 minutes of something similar to the fate of the Bernard Matthews turkeys not a million miles away in Suffolk. How wrong we were. Anyone who managed to see the England v. Scotland rugby game on Saturday will have an idea of the sort of game T5 experienced. Fans of "Where's Wally" will also spot the marked difference in the usual score from a T5 match (no, it is not a deliberate error) - we actually scored some goals! TWO of them to be precise. Whilst this may not seem much to many readers, it was a poignant moment for T5. Firstly, we never score goals - it's just not in our genetic make up. Secondly, Walton and Weybridge are currently unbeaten in our division and the only team which has managed to score any goals against them is Richmond.
The first of the big surprises came in the first 30 seconds when a goal was scored, not by one of the opposition, but by Kate Leckie of T5 fame. The second was when Kate managed to score a 2nd goal (with help from Kate Lievesley) bringing the half time score to 3-2. Unfortunately, the 2nd half did not bring such good fortune, but we put up an excellent fight until the bitter end with everyone playing their best hockey yet this season. Penny G was a fantastic keeper (is there anything that girl cannot do?) especially considering that she had never put on a goalie kit before. One thing's for sure, T5 know how to pull it out of the bag when faced with the ultimate challenge. If we continue to play at this standard, we might manage a win yet this season. (FG)
Team: Fatima D'Onofrio, Stephie Engeler, Helen Fermor, Clare Furnival, Penny Ganser, Faith Geraghty, Kate Leckie, Kate Lievesley, Suzy Metcalfe, Len Price, Martina Vanderlej.
POTM: Penny Ganser
Scorer: Kate Leckie
Next match: Saturday, 10 February against Epsom 5s - 3pm at CPB.
Women’s 6s vs. Camberley: Won 2–0
Slight struggle to get a team together this week, (skiing?? rugby tickets? Proper excuses girls!) But thankfully we weren’t a player down like last week. Although come 13.50, with a 13.30 start, we appeared to be a team down...getting slightly worried, did they know we were at Crystal Palace?? Had they got lost like myself and Shona from the changing rooms to the pitch?? (It IS an easy thing to do and it’s NOT well signposted!)
14.00 they finally showed up and breezed out of their cars....nightmare to get to... (grr as is Surrey every 2nd week on public transport!) Needless to say sympathy was at an all time low especially as Alanna had her sights set on being back to the clubhouse for England v Scotland at 4, and Lex was eager to get back to house cleaning ;) . After a brief argument about the rules /turning up late...which we were wrong about (eek!) we hit off and took advantage of their goalie still kitting up, as we just had the pitch till three o'clock, Vicky slipped one in at the post. Then to prove we could get one when the goalie was there, Karen shot one in moments later.
After that we all wanted a pop, and threw everything we had at the Camberley keeper...but no joy. Perhaps deep down we were aiming at the keeper for turning up late, so the score stayed at 2-0 to us. Great performance, and good passing by all. Much needed win and points to THD. (MA)
Team: Shona Chambers, Clare Montagu, Jess Beach, Charlotte , Jo Hillyer, Alanna Macintosh, Mags Aylward, Lex Price, Vicky Wright, Karen Logan, Lucy Gilchrist, Gigi Ho
Scorers: Vicky, Karen
Umpires: Ian Wright, Aidan Brock
Next match: Purley - rearranged due to lack of player for Purley this week.
Dragons vs. Daquiris: Won 7-3
A seriously depleted Daquiris rocked up half an hour after the scheduled start time to take on the mighty Dragons. Take us on they did... win they did not! With almost as many Dragons 'helping' them out as beating them it was only a combination of hangovers and general Sunday inability that kept the scoreline below double figures. Still nice work if you can get it! (MJ)
Team: Piggy (GK), MJ, Coleman, Wes Cole, Aido, Alex Fishwick, Tim Sylvester, Lou Morgan, Gemma Baker, Lucy Gilchrist, Alanna Macintosh, Lucy Snell, Lisa Cox & Linds McClaren.
Scorer(s): Aido (2), Gemma (2), Lisa, Chris & Tim.
Umpire: Chris Richman & Selina Lelu
Next Match: Sunday, February 11, 2007 PHC Chiswick Mixed Team 15:00
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