| Westbury
& United Banks HC: Results for Saturday 17/12/05 |
| Team |
Opponents |
|
League |
Scr |
Scorers |
|
1st
XI |
v Bath Buccs II |
H |
Premier 2 |
2-1 |
Webster Poulsom |
|
2nd
XI |
v Shepton Mallet |
H |
friendly |
1-1 |
Colquhoun |
|
3rd
XI |
v Shepton Mallet |
H |
friendly |
can |
|
| Wanderers |
v Shepton Mallet |
A |
friendly |
8-0 |
Jones 3 Hipwell 2 Coates Watkins
Taylor A |
| Wizards |
v Westbury Warriors |
H |
Br & NW Som Div 3 |
1-3 |
Crofts |
| Warriors |
v Westbury Wizards |
A |
Br & NW Som Div 3 |
3-1 |
Harvey 2 Colton |
| Widgets |
v W Wilts IV |
A |
friendly |
4-5 |
Millman S 2 Palmer M Holmes |
| Match
comments |
|
1st
XI: The first team came out ahead in this close, top-of-the-table
encounter with Bath Buccs. The 3 points secured with goals from
Webster and Psycho means Westbury jump ahead of Buccs in the table.
They remain in position to go into the second half of the season
and challenge for one of the promotion spots.
| Prem 2 |
Pl |
W |
D |
L |
For |
Agn |
Diff |
Pts |
| Cheltenham |
14 |
8 |
3 |
3 |
61 |
38 |
23 |
27 |
| City of Bath |
11 |
8 |
1 |
2 |
47 |
21 |
26 |
25 |
| Torbay |
11 |
7 |
1 |
3 |
38 |
30 |
8 |
22 |
| Westbury |
11 |
7 |
1 |
3 |
32 |
24 |
8 |
22 |
| Bath Buccs A |
13 |
6 |
3 |
4 |
30 |
32 |
-2 |
21 |
|
| 2nd
XI: The seconds had an interesting game with Shepton
Mallet 1st XI. The twos dominated the first half but only had a goal
from TC to show for their hard work and good play. JPS shone in a
central midfield role. Shepton had two men forward and 4 in midfield
in the second half, which stifled the second's play and the visitors
quick breaks caused some anxious moments for the home team, leading
to them earning a penalty stroke which they equalised from. Westbury
stepped up a gear and put together a stronger spell of play but could
not find the elusive winning goal. |
| Wanderers:
Shepton Mallet were the latest team to be blitzed by the Wanderers.
Ben Jones completed a hat-trick and Ian Hipwell notched two. Nick
Coates, Dave Watkins and Alex Taylor completed the scoring. |
Wizards
v Warriors: This was the big game of the day. The Warriors started
the stronger side and had the better posession in the first ten minutes.
Will Halliday, who had an outstanding game controlled
the play for the Warriors. The possession did not lead to any clear
cut chances, but Steve Carter was the first keeper in action kicking
a through ball clear. The nearest to goal the Warriors came was a
Harry Newington cross that evaded any Warrior's sticks. The Wizards
then began to get a grip of the game. Tim Denner surged forward with
some good runs and Fazzer, Rickard and Crofts began to look more dangerous.
A string of short corners put pressure on the Warriors defence who
coped effectively with all but Fazzer's shot that went wide. The Warriors
then countered and earned a short corner. Mark Colton stepped up the
thump the ball home to give the Warriors a shock lead. The Wizards
again had spells of pressure, but they were unable to turn this into
a goal. The first half came with a confident looking Warriors team
turning round one goal to the good. There were more shocks in store
for the Wizards at the start of the second half, as both sides pushed
forward. Sam Parker's through ball found Mike Harvey in the D, and
Mike expertly glanced the ball past Steve Carter to take a 2-0 lead.
The Wizards moved up a gear and had their best spell of the game.
A short corner broke down, but was not cleared from George Banting's
shot. Mark Crofts spun and hammered the ball home. There followed
a period of backs to the wall defending for the Warriors. Mark Colton
was a key figure at sweeper for the Warriors as his defence managed
to keep the Wizard's attack from creating many clear cut openings.
There was an interesting contest between Harry Newington and Poker,
with Harry being spoken to by Roger for using his stick to body check
Poker. The Warriors lacked width in the second half, and never really
penetrated the back line in order to produce the quality cross needed
to score until one decisive move saw a cross from the right reach
an unmarked Mike Harvey, who should have scored from around the penalty
spot. At the other end Sam Banting was never stretched to make a save
but had to use his pads to keep out a number of shots. When he was
beaten on one occasion, Pat Tampkins swept round and cleared off the
line. With the clock running down the Warriors earned another short
corner. Mark Colton again thumped it and Mike Harvey, this time, made
no mistake in getting the vital touch to steer it into the net. There
was still time for Fazzer to miss-hit the ball wide with an open goal
at his mercy. This was an enthralling game with great commitment from
both sides, the Wizards can be credited with the better hockey, whilst
the Warriors can claim their short corner set pieces clinched the
game (all three of their goals came from shorts). They also seemed
to have the extra 5-10% determination to keep what they had got. Will
Halliday and Mark Colton looked to be the most influential players
on the Warriors and the Wizards defence played well to nullify the
Warriors as they pushed forward. Both teams
were a credit to the club and entertained the hardy band of spectators
at a temperature a tad above freezing. The Warriors not only won the
points they had the pies as well as the visiting team! The table shows
both teams well placed at the half way point in the season.
| Bristol & Som 3 |
Pl |
W |
D |
L |
For |
Agn |
Diff |
Pts |
| Firebrands E |
10 |
10 |
0 |
0 |
44 |
8 |
36 |
30 |
| Westbury D |
10 |
7 |
0 |
3 |
29 |
12 |
17 |
21 |
| Westbury E |
10 |
7 |
0 |
3 |
30 |
20 |
10 |
21 |
|
| Widgets: Poker
and Junior heard the call to arms and headed for the pitch behind
the military base at Warminster to play W Wilts. It all went surprisingly
well to start with. Will Holmes showed his skill down the right, feeding
Tufty. Steve used his experience to attack the near post, slip it
through to Martin Palmer who scored with ease. Then it all went pear
shaped. The Widget's defence started handing out early Christmas presents
in the way of poorly hit clearances. These were gratefully snapped
up, unwrapped and turned into a 3-1 deficit! Basic hitting was very
disappointing on a pitch which admittedly slowed the ball down through
a lot of surface friction, but players must learn to get their feet
round the ball! Tufty pulled a goal back after he took possession
of the ball in the D, twisted and turned before hitting in at the
near post. There was an improvement in play in the second half. Will
Holmes showed his skills down the right. When he adds pace and body
strength he is going to go places. Alan Collier received the ball
out on the left and with a little help from his right foot controlled
it and passed to Tufty. Tufty's run took him into the D where he unleashed
a blistering drive to make it 4-3. With 5 minutes left the ball was
crossed from the right and Will Holmes tried to sweep it in at the
far post, only to be stopped by the goalkeeper who had already kept
out a string of shorts from Shep and me. The ball was lying by the
keeper. Many players would have tried to shovel it back under the
keeper's body (not very clever!) Not Will, he pulled the ball back,
used his feet to step right (Widget's defenders note his good use
of the feet) and pushed it past a home defender and in the corner
of the goal at his far post. 4-4! A great come back...but the worst
case scenario came up! Several lunging tackles in the 36th minute
were missed and a home forward struck at goal. The ball bounced off
Sam Banting's pads to a Widget defender who only needed to make a
good contact and hammer the ball away. The poor technique came up
again. He topped the ball to an un marked forward who showed how to
hit the ball properly with a thumping shot to win the game. An agonising
end to a game which seemed lost for some time, then through some good
play a superb come back was engineered, only to be thwarted at the
death. I wonder if they have a firing squad on the base for errant
defenders? Will Holmes caught the eye again and scored his first goal
for the club. Junior put in a strong performance at right midfield. |
| Westbury
& United Banks HC: Results for Saturday 10/12/05 |
| Team |
Opponents |
|
League |
Scr |
Scorers |
|
1st
XI |
v City of Bath |
H |
Premier 2 |
5-3 |
Roper 2 Webster 2 Richardson |
|
2nd
XI |
v Bath Univ |
A |
North Div 2 |
0-5 |
|
|
3rd
XI |
v W Wilts |
A |
friendly |
can |
By us |
| Wanderers |
v Somerset Gryphons III |
H |
Br & NW Som Div2 |
8-1 |
Jones 2 Carter Taylor A Nichols
G Ludley Millman S Hipwell |
| Wizards |
v |
H |
friendly |
|
|
| Warriors |
v Bath Buccs |
A |
friendly |
1-3 |
Colton |
| Widgets |
v Robinsons VI |
H |
Br & NW Som Div 4 |
2-1 |
Palmer M Pritchard |
| Westbury
& United Banks HC: Results for Sunday 11/12/05 |
| 2nd
XI |
v Devizes II |
A |
Cup |
1-2 |
Pearce-Smith |
| Match
comments |
|
League tables at the end of the first half of the
season:
| Prem 2 |
Pl |
W |
D |
L |
For |
Agn |
Diff |
Pts |
| City of Bath |
11 |
8 |
1 |
2 |
47 |
21 |
26 |
25 |
| Cheltenham |
13 |
7 |
3 |
3 |
56 |
37 |
19 |
24 |
| Torbay |
11 |
7 |
1 |
3 |
38 |
30 |
8 |
22 |
| Bath Buccs A |
12 |
6 |
3 |
3 |
29 |
30 |
-1 |
21 |
| Westbury |
10 |
6 |
1 |
3 |
30 |
23 |
7 |
19 |
| |
| Div 2 N |
Pl |
W |
D |
L |
For |
Agn |
Diff |
Pts |
| Bath Univ |
11 |
10 |
1 |
0 |
59 |
15 |
44 |
31 |
| Westbury A |
12 |
9 |
1 |
2 |
35 |
18 |
17 |
28 |
| |
| Bristol & Som 1 |
Pl |
W |
D |
L |
For |
Agn |
Diff |
Pts |
| Som Gryphon A |
10 |
9 |
0 |
1 |
34 |
18 |
16 |
27 |
| Robinsons C |
10 |
7 |
1 |
2 |
31 |
19 |
12 |
22 |
| Westbury B |
10 |
6 |
2 |
2 |
41 |
20 |
21 |
20 |
| |
| Bristol & Som 2 |
Pl |
W |
D |
L |
For |
Agn |
Diff |
Pts |
| Westbury C |
10 |
9 |
0 |
1 |
48 |
11 |
37 |
27 |
| Bristol Univ C |
10 |
8 |
0 |
2 |
43 |
12 |
31 |
24 |
| |
| Bristol & Som 3 |
Pl |
W |
D |
L |
For |
Agn |
Diff |
Pts |
| Firebrands E |
10 |
10 |
0 |
0 |
44 |
8 |
36 |
30 |
| Westbury D |
9 |
7 |
0 |
2 |
28 |
9 |
19 |
21 |
| Westbury E |
9 |
6 |
0 |
3 |
27 |
19 |
8 |
18 |
|
| 1st
XI: The first team pulled off their best result this season with a
comfortable 5-3 win against the league leaders. Meaks writes: The
firsts are putting in a run of good performances, this week against
the league leaders, who like Cheltenham last week seemed to be missing
a couple of players (?). The defence looked solid, the forwards ran
their nuts off all game, even the Legend made it back to defend in
our 25 and there was good natured piss-taking support from the sideline.
A 5-3 win with goals from Shads (2), Legend (2) and
Richardson (Klinsman).A win in our re-arranged
league match next week against Bath Buccs will put us right back in
the mix. |
| 2nd
XI: The seconds lost 5-0 at Bath University. Ger
said the Uni were a very impressive side and well worth their win.
They looked a better side than Devizes last year. This a good game
to play in the seconds gave everything but came second to a quality
side. Slider's two part report: Part 1: We thought we were ready!
We thought we were prepared! We thought we could mix it with the league
leaders! Bugger, it all went horribly wrong... Looking
back, everything was going to plan, right up until the whistle blew...
then we conceeded 2 sloppy goals in the first 4 minutes and we had
to chase the game. By the end we'd barely had a shot on goal and had
conceeded 5 disappointing goals. To seal our fate, Tezzer 'the Ginge'
Watts lost his wee ginger head and spent some quality time in the
'sin-bin'. Poor old Tezzer, he's been great this year.To
put it simply we played poorly. Our passing was weak and our touch
poor. In every department we were second best. We worked hard and
fought valiantly, but for all our endeavour, we just have to say well
played to a very impressive Bath Uni side.Bugger!
Never mind we had Sunday to look forward to... |
| 2nd
XI:
...and so to Sunday's cup game. A wonderful
chance to seek a cup run as we travelled to Devizes. Sadly, our weekend
of despair continued. Making 4 changes from Saturday, we went down
2-1 to an extra-time golden goal. The full story though is a strange
one... A 2nd team curry on Saturday night to
drown our sorrows and bond as a team, seemed like a good idea at the
time. It wasn't! The midnight curfew was abandoned as the boys headed
to Pam Pams and at 1am we left town a stronger, closer team. Unfortunately,
it meant we were not at our best for our match as tired bodies dragged
themselves to Devizes.'Responsible' JPS hilariously
threw up on-route whilst driving just as we overtook him, Ger had
woken up in his clothes and Platform Pete arrived at half-time after
getting stuck in London. We passed poorly, our 1st touch deserted
us and we again had very few shots on goal. We had a shocker!To
compound things, the umpiring was somewhat strange... I got headbutted
in a tough challenge (unpunished), TC received a crazy yellow for
being hit in the face, Straun received a 15 minute yellow for an innocuous
challenge and I got a yellow for accidentally running into someone.
We got a flick that wasn't then should have had another and both us,
Devizes and their crowd were in disbelief at the aggressive umpiring
which ruined a fairly pleasant, friendly match. |
| 3rd
XI: Despite Tonka's grand efforts to arrange a game,
players became too thin on the ground to fulfil the fixture. |
| Wanderers:
The Wanderers played their league match against Somerset Gryphons
that was abandoned in the fog last month. Steve Carter struck an awesome
short very early on (although the subsequent shorts did not reach
that standard again!) Ben Jones made it two with a powerful run and
a well executed flick over the advancing keeper. It was Tonka who
caught the eye with his surging runs down the right, the defenders
buying his over the top dummy every time! He had in several of the
opening goals. Ian Hipwell set up number three with his cross shot
neatly turned in by Alex Taylor. Ben Jones then showed how to completely
miss hit/flick the ball. His minimal contact somehow confused the
goalkeeper and the ball trickled in. Gareth Nichols added number 5
with a subtle reverse stick glance and John Ludley made it six at
the half scoring with just 5 seconds left on the clock. Somerset reorganised
in the second half and Westbury were unable to play the flowing hockey
they had produced throughout the first half. The visitors scored a
consolation goal from a rare defensive lapse. Ron Wheeler was called
into action much more to keep out a number of shots. Tufty and Ian
Hipwell scored to make it 8 for the Wanderers ad wrap up the first
half of the league season. |
| Warriors: The
short drive to Bath to play Bath Buccs ended in defeat. Mark Colton
scored the only goal. It must be sometime since the Warriors sufferered
back to back defeats especially with big game against the Wizards
next week. |
| Widgets: The
Widgets faced 5 successive short corners in the opening minutes of
what was to turn out to be an eventful match. The youngsters in the
Robinson team played with good skills and dominated the start of the
game. However, the tide turned. Shep had some how managed to do his
clowns impression when taking a hit in wide out on the right. He topped
the ball, nudged it with his size 11s and fell on his back side. The
visitors were not amused by Shep's comedy routine. On his next visit
to the same spot he hammered the ball across for Martin Palmer to
slap home. A goal mouth melee at the home end saw some sloppy defending
and a couple of feet in the D. Vigorous appeals for a stroke ended
in a short being reversed to a hit to Westbury. A couple of the older
heads on the Robs side wobbled and a yellow card was shown. Westbury
then dominated up to half time and were denied a second goal by some
good goalkeeping. Robs started the second half strongly and equalised.
Their body language suggested that this was the impetus they needed
to go on and win the game and Stuart Horn and his defenders had to
work hard to keep them at bay. Westbury then managed to change gear
and started creating their own chances. Robs received a second yellow
and it was at this point with time running out that Paul Pritchard
struck from a misdirected short corner to win the game. Will Enderby
brought his solid tackling to the midfield, Shep had a strong game
and Will Holmes played with skill down the right. This win almost
took the Widgets off the bottom of the table but OBs beat S Glos. |
| Westbury
& United Banks HC: Results for Saturday 3/12/05 |
| Team |
Opponents |
|
League |
Scr |
Scorers |
|
1st
XI |
v Cheltenham |
H |
Premier 2 |
3-1 |
Frost J 2 Goodman |
|
2nd
XI |
v Cheltenham II |
A |
North Div 2 |
3-1 |
Pearce-Smith Small Moon |
|
3rd
XI |
v O Bristolians II |
H |
Br & NW Som Div 1 |
3-3 |
Bell Coates Evans |
| Wanderers |
v W Glos IV |
A |
Br & NW Som Div2 |
1-3 |
Haynes |
| Wizards |
v Weston III |
A |
Br & NW Som Div 3 |
8-2 |
Christopher 2 Rickard 2 Crofts 2
Farrell Ogilvie |
| Warriors |
v Firebrands VI |
H |
Br & NW Som Div 3 |
2-4 |
Harvey Brown |
| Widgets |
v S Glos III |
A |
friendly |
2-3 |
Thomas Millman C |
| 1st
XI |
v Derwent |
A |
cup |
2-1 |
Webster Richardson |
| Match
comments |
| 1st
XI: The first team had a good win against Cheltenham who were lying
2nd in the table before this match. Meaks wrote: A 3-1 win (Cheltenham
claimed to be missing 6 first teamers) with goals from Frosty (2)
and Goody and probably our best performance so far this season.
At least this might make the long trip to Derbyshire
for our HA Trophy match on Sunday slightly more bearable. |
| 1st
XI: Meaks reports: As Tony "Legend" Webster always says,
"away games shouldn't be played if the travel time is longer
than the time on the pitch". Which makes Redmaids school a long
away trip for Tony. Frosty kindly offered Terry the chance to take
his place in the firsts by dropping out at 8.15 Sunday morning. JP
and Tony were well prepared, packed lunches, warm clothes, gloves
with string through the arms and bottoms wiped.The game...mostly shoddy
with patches of great hockey and plenty of discussion points. Mace
gets a yellow for a 50-50, Nellor a yellow for, in his words "asking
a question" and goals from the Legend and Nellor helped us to
a 2-1 win.Thanks to Psycho and Bomber for driving, Terry for stepping
in last minute and Miriam, Netherlands for winning the best High Street
Honey award (January to June 2006). |
| 2nd
XI: Slider reports: A solid 3-1 win over Cheltenham
saw us maintain our winning form and stay within touching distance
of Bath Uni. A mixed 1st half performance saw us take a 2 goal lead
with neat finishes from man-of-the-match JPS and from Limbo (performing
well on debut). Due to Clintus going down sick with tonsilitus, Paxo
stepped into our goal and performed admirably - even managing to pull
off the greatest reaction save we'd all ever seen, during a tight
1st half. Some slack defending gave Cheltenham
hope, but a classy 2nd-half display saw us control the game and extend
our lead with a short corner strike from Moondog. With all our 2nd
half pressure, we probably deserved a fourth goal to round off the
win... ask Terry why we didn't get it! |
| 3rd
XI: Tufty wrote: Physical game in which the 3's
could not match OB's determination. Chris Bell scored a good individual
goal to equalise their opener and Nick Coates scored from a muffed
short corner. Actually we muffed a few short corners! A bit of variation
might not go amiss? They levelled following OUR short just before
half time. The second half was poor and we found
ourselves behind again. It could have been worse but for some good
stops by Ben Jones who stood in as keeper late on. Going forward we
rarely put many passes together, the exception being our 3rd goal
which Nick Evans bagged from close in after Bell & Millman had
exchanged passes down the left.There just remained time for a couple
of comedy fluffs. Firstly Millman missed his shot completely following
a short corner slip. Then Evans, after stuffing the keeper with his
miss hit shot, contrived to dance with JJ as they neglected to put
the ball in the empty net. Quite humourous but for the fact we dropped
two points. |
| Wanderers:
The Wanderer's brilliant winning run came to an end at 26 league games
in a row. A 3-1 defeat to local rivals W Glos puts a small dent in
a second championship. No doubt the Wanderers will bounce back with
another long winning run. |
| Wizards:
The Wizards confrimed their place at second in the division with a
big win at Weston. Alan Christopher, Geoff Rickard and Mark Crofts
bagged two each and Pete Farrell and the skipper completed the scoring.
If the Wizards can maintain the form they have shown they can finish
runners up at the end of the season. If Firebrands slip up the Wizards
are well positioned to close the gap on them. |
| Warriors: The
warriors lost their top of the table clash with Firebrands by 4 goals
to 2. |
| Widgets: The
Widgets lost a second game to S Glos with Pete Thomas and Chris Millman
scoring in a 3-2 defeat. |
|