Westbury & United Banks HC: Results for Summer League 2006 (Newest results at top of page)

Coatesy's corner: The final summer league game for the thirds and after a few poor performances in recent weeks the team responded with a good display that eventually saw us end the season 3-1 winners. Westbury had the best of the opening encouters with some good passing and movement but that seemed to stop and we allowed 10-men Gryphons to get back into the game. The first goal against the run of play was scored by Westbury. Ben Jones pounced on a rebounded shot from Gareth Nicholls.Just before half-time Poker must have felt sorry for Gryphons with their 10-men as he felt he should even it up and presented their forward with the ball to cross it in and was finished on the back post.After the half-time Westbury were slow to get off the blocks and took time to get back into the game. The all round passing then started to improve and with 10 mins to go the break through came that Westbury were looking for. After continued pressure, Jimmer found Gareth Nicholls on the left side of the D who crossed it in for Ben Jones to flick into the net. The opposition tired and Westbury were able to counter attack with more ease now. The final goal was started from a 16 yard hit played down the left and eventually finished by Ben Jones who grabbed his hat-trick with a well taken undercut in (perhaps) his last game for Westbury. 

Coatesy's corner: Westbury B 0 - 3 Clinkers..It seems a long time ago now that the below was written by Junior Bottle about Carter..."I would like to pay tribute to the performance of Sergeant Bilker (aka Capt of Vice) at the cricket on Saturday. Not for his quickfire 50 (anyone can do that if you get dropped so often) but for his intervention when the game seemed about to degenerate into fisticuffs"....and how different a couple of days can be. Same person, different sport, different outcome (more of that in a minute).Anyway Westbury for the first half were not even in the game in every department we were coming off second best resulting in us going 2-0 down to two short corners. And then the incident.....Carter made a tackle on the edge of our D, started to take the ball out of defence and then had one of the Firebrands youngsters proceed to dive and clatter Carter round the ankles in a very poor tackle...Lets just say the ball still with Carter went very quickly back towards the youngster at a rate of knots. Yellow card handed out and Carter did not return for the rest of the game. Down to 10 men and funnily enough we actually starting playing hockey and a much better performance from the team.....we still lost another goal with the game final score 3-0 to Clinkers .Thanks to Duncan for stepping in at the last minute and to Tonka for umpiring (he wasn't the one to give the yellow).

Palmer's prattle: The 'C' team once again gave it a good go, but fell to their 7th straight summer defeat. Martin Fey was outstanding at sweeper despite having to go off just before half-time when a N Bristol player tried to rearrange his nose from the inside. The home team scored first, but a great pass from Pete Thomas gave Duncan Ogilvie time and space to beat the keeper for an equaliser. Pete (at left midfield) and Mike Harvey (at left back) were asked to play out of position but still gave strong performances. Harry Newington timed all but two of his tackles to win a lot of ball and cause a few problems to the home defence. The two badly timed tackles deserved cards, but he got away with just one green. He was being marked by former Westbury player Nick Foxwell, who has had more clubs that Tiger Woods, and in true Christian Renaldo style was appealing to the umpire to send Harry off. N Bristol were the better side and played the better hockey. They took a 3-1 lead in the second half. Westbury fought back after Sam Banting had made some very good reaction saves. A short corner was slipped by Feymous to Harry who hammered it in. A couple of chances to equalise did cause the N Bristol defence some stress, but we lacked the quality ball to really create clear cut openings. N Bristol held on for a 3-2 win. Yes it is seven defeats, but we've only played one half of poor hockey in all those games, and worked our socks off in every match against teams drawn from higher up their club's pool of players. Maybe we should look at how we select our squads for next summer to give the 'C' team more of a chance. All credit to everyone who played and gave 110%.

Coatsey's copy: A strong first half performance saw Westbury go into the break at 1-1 with at times some good attacking play, only to let ourselves down with simple mistakes. The ball was often given away cheaply which ultimately lead to Chippenham's opener. Luckily for Westbury Chippenham seemed to go off the boil allowing Ben Jones to get the equaliser a couple of minutes before half time.The second half performance improved on the first with Westbury controlling the pace and the game. There was improved running, passing, marking and overall pressure. In the end Westbury got the goal that they were looking for after a good passing move Ben Jones got his second of the game. It was then a case of hanging on for the final whistle.All in all that was probably the best thirds display of the season - well done guys. Thanks to Chris Bell and Sparky for doing their stints at umpiring.

Palmer's prattle: The 'C' team rose to the challenge of playing N Somerset 1st XI. Their performance was outstanding, the defence of Sam Banting, Feymous, Tim Palmer, Martin Rees and Paddy were superb, keeping out everything the home team threw at them. In midfield George Banting, Alan Christopher, Mike Gossage, Dom Harris and Mike Harvey in various combinations kept control of the ball and put together some sharp possession. The Cs surprised N Somerset by taking the lead. Feymous's shot found a foot on the line and Mike Harvey slotted home the penalty stroke for a 1-0 half time lead. The home side were rattled and things became a bit verbal which showed how shocked they were by the way we were playing. Unfortunately the home team managed to scramble an equaliser followed a few minutes later by the go ahead goal. Two late goals made it look a big defeat, but be assured the C team put in a massive performance and should take a lot of credit from the game. Comedy moment of the match was watching Dom 'I've lost the way' Harris trying to get through the building site to get to the pitch. He made it on the third attempt!

Div 1

Coatsey's copy: It was once again a tale of two half's. In the first half, Westbury were at times looking dangerous. The defence providing good cover at the back and the midfield and forwards working well to get the ball into the final third of the pitch - but alas leading to nothing. For the other times however, we were second to the ball, poor movement often resulting in the wrong option for the final ball being chosen. We had a lucky break in the first half when Westbury corner was struck in by John Ludley and deflected in by yours truly. The opposition starting to control the game and ended up grabbing the equaliser after a promising Westbury attack broke down. Half time and 1-1. The second half however proved more promising. The running off the ball improved with that came the improved passing and eventually the goals that we needed. A through ball was picked up by Geoff Rickard who had his initial shot saved but was able to smash in the follow up into the far side netting. Alex Taylor grabbed a tab in after a well worked (???!!!!) short corner. Alex Taylor then went onto grab two more goals - both reverse stick (the first of which into the top corner (after a deflection)). And to finish Worney capped off a star performance of shadowing their star player with a well taken goal after good work from Ben Jones. The final result ending 6-1 and a much improved Westbury performance . Thanks also to Tonka for Umpiring.

Coatsey's copy: Well it was a hot night away in Bath to a strong Rascals side. Not much to report on really as we were comfortably beaten 3-0 (could have been more with them hitting the metal work 3 times). We struggled to control the midfield with three defenders acting as midfield players. Losing position all too easily allowing the opposition to throw another attack at us. Saying that though, Rascals are top of the table with 4 wins out of 4 so all not too bad (at least we won't have to play them again). Thanks to the team for giving up their Friday evening.

Palmer's prattle: Duncan Ogilvie observed that his last game as Wizard's captain was game number 666. He followed up this with the Robs game on 6.6.06, wearing the number 66 and losing by 6. "Spooky" he said. A very sharp Robinsons team scored after just 18 seconds and again a minute later. We were unable to make any impact on the game and within 15 minutes we were 5-0 down. It would have been 10-0 had it not been for some great saves by Sam Banting and two goal line clearances by Steve Alger, the first with the help of his leg (the umpire said there was a man behind him and didn't give the stroke) and a reverse stick deflection. Only Alan Christopher offered any bite in attack. The half time talk was about restoring out dented pride, we reorganised putting Alan Christopher as an extra midfield player and using just two forwards. We opened the half with an excellent passing movement and played much better. Robs were stifled in midfield and we created more chances. Only one more goal was added late in the game. A much better performance in the second half restored some of our self-belief. Robs were the better side and they had a young player in midfield who was in a class of his own, it was his skillful play in the first half that was our downfall.

Small talk: It was a good game where hard work made up for the general rustiness of the team, with good performances from everyone but especially Tim, Tony and TC.

Webster's waffle: Iit should have been 7 if not more, core was 5-1. Mason 2, TC, Village and Webster, a great team effort beating a team who have been our close rivals over the past couple of years, I think Kinger also deserves a mention making some great saves when we had our usual 10 min slump.

Platform's prose: It was a Wednesday night, it was raining and George was umpiring, which could mean only one thing: the 2nds were at home. A good win, 3-1 with sixty minutes of a great hockey and a dodgy ten minutes before half time when we allowed them back into the game at 1-1. Mooney got a hat-trick, and the second half was a case of just how many we would score, their keeper had a blinder. After he realised we were playing in red/green and stopped passing to the oppo Tommy Alger (after some altitude training in Egypt) was in fine fettle alongside Psycho and Cuttsy in the midfield who all put in energetic performances. Solid defending all round and some good goals - well done fellas

Palmer's prattle: This was an agonisingly close game. The C team played good controlled hockey in the first half and the defence coped comfortably with the visiting attack. Westbury had the better goalscoring chances, Duncan Ogilvie was unlucky when the ball wouldn't run to him when he was well placed. The best chance falling to Harry Newington who arrived on the end of a left wing cross to put the ball the wrong side of the post. Martin Rees playing his first game looked very strong along with Shep, George Banting and Paddy who shared the defensive duties. Martin Fey was outstanding at sweeper and pulled of some great interceptions. Mssrs Brown, Christopher, Harris and Cranfield gave us some bite in midfield. In the second half Chippenham took the lead. The C team then had a strong period of attacking play. A short corner shot from Martin Palmer was expertly miss-hit to Martin Fey who deftly flicked it over the keeper for an excellent goal. Chippenham had their best spell of the game and Sam Banting had to pull off some good saves to keep them out, but they managed to sneak a slightly lucky goal. Pete Thomas had the best chance to equalise in the closing stages, but it just wasn't to be. Yes this was a third defeat, but everyone gave 110% and team spirit still remains high despite this result.

Platform's prose: The 2nds went down to a narrow defeat 2-4 against a strong Bristol side last night. Given that only two recognised defenders were available and several people played out of position this was a good effort and in the end we can feel unlucky not to have drawn the match. We had more short corners and their keeper was the busier during the game overall but Bristol had one very sharp forward who scored an excellent hat-trick. Goal of the game came from Psycho who went on a wobble from about the half way line holding off several defenders before slipping it past the keeper. Their fourth goal came as we pressed for an equaliser near the end. Our other goal came from Mooney, who had a superb game, as did the whole team. Thanks to Psycho and Gareth for stepping in at very short notice and Roger for umpiring. Good effort fellas

Carter's copy: