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Westbury & United Banks HC: Results for Saturday 22/12/06
Team	Opponents		League	Scr	Scorers
Legends	v Bluebottles	H	Friendly	5-2	Roper G 2 Wornell Haslett Jacobs M
Bluebottles	v Legends	H	Friendly	2-5	Walkey Beesley
Veterans	v Westberries	H	Friendly	7-1	Palmer M 2 Harvey 2 Beesley 2 Crofts
Match comments
Legends v Bluebottles: The annual Bluebottles match was revived after a two year break following the demise of the STYX invitation side, who used to provide the opposition. Westbury formed a team (who I have called The Legends), who took part in a competitive, entertaining match at Coombe Dingle. The Bottles match traditional took place on Boxing Day and New Years Day, but pitches are no longer available on these holiday days, thus the match was played on the Saturday before Christmas. Bluebottles opened strongly and put a lot of pressure on the Legends' defence, yet the first scoring opportunity might have come when Bomber was stick tackled from behind, but received only a short corner rather than a stroke. Instead it was Bottles who found the opening. A shot at Pete Murphy cannoned back up in the air to Gary Roper who like a tennis player at the net smashed it back shoulder high into the net! A second goal came from Worny who followed up another rebound. The third goal of the half for bottles came when Phil Haslett received the ball practically on the goal line on the right hand side of the D. He hammered it back from the narrowest of angles for a well struck goal. The Legends never gave up the chase and after another good run by Dave Harris, Nathan Walkey was there to score at the near post. The Legends came out with renewed confidence and took the game to Bluebottles. Richard Beesley thumped in a goal to pull it back to just a 3-2 deficit. Dave Ratcliffe cleared a Bluebottles shot off the line to keep the Legends in the game. The match was fairly even for a period of time with both sides playing some good hockey. In the last ten minutes Bluebottles stepped up a gear, and Gary Roper scored his second of the game. In the closing minutes Michelle Jacobs finished off a well worked move to make it 5-2 to Bottles. Legends' skipper, Si Andrews summarised it when he wrote: "Just to say a big thank you to everyone that played in the Bottles v Westbury game. It was a well contested, good natured game in which everyone got a good touch of the ball." Teams: Bluebottles: Pound, Taylor T, Croker, Puetz, Haslett, Wornell, Small, Jacobs T, Jacobs M, Roper, Legends: Murphy, Beesley, Coates, Smith, Ratcliffe D, Mason, Richardson, Walkey, Ratcliffe P, Taylor M, Andrews, Harris,
Veterans: The Vets used to play the ladies back in the early days of veteran hockey, so it was good to add this fixture to the vets' fixtures this year. Westberries gave a very good account of themselves and played some neat, controlled hockey. They broke well and it needed Jez Longden to be at his best to close down some good attacks. George Banting and Brian Nichols were always available for the short pass and Brian was acting as play-maker for a lot of the first half. The Vets opened the scoring when Alan Sparks, who worked tirelessly in midfield worked his way down the left hand side of the pitch, into the D before delivering a perfect pass for Martin Palmer to tap in. Two more goals were added by Mike Harvey with a well placed shot and Martin from a cross from Cocksy. Phil Haslett, playing in goal made a brilliant save from a close range shot with his glove and recovered to kick the ball clear. Westberries never gave up and with guest players Tezzerina (Terry watts) and Limbess (Ian Small), created a scoring chance which Chloe Alger swept in to the cheers of the crowd! The Vets re-established a three goal lead with a fierce low level strike by Croftsy. In the second half Bees was introduced to the game. Afterwards he revealed that when he asked the score and was told it was 4-1, he thought the ladies were winning, (which shows how well they were playing!) Bees then scurried around trying to pull the goals back, whilst his team mates had their cruise control switched on. Bees did score two goals himself and Mike Harvey got number seven with a well taken reverse stick volley. Westberries were unlucky not to get a second when they deflected in a bouncing ball that didn't look particularly dangerous, only to see umpire Tony Webster signal a hit for a lifted ball in the D. Tony umpired well, and it was certainly a case of poacher turned gamekeeper as he was spot on with almost all his decisions. Sarah Griffiths was unlucky to see her short corner turned off the line by Steve Alger, who within minutes had to pull off another goal line clearance. Westberries could with luck have scored two or three more. The final score was 7-1 to the Vets (4-4 for Bees!!!) and it was a well contested game, played in excellent spirit. The games comedy moment came when Jez was running forward with the ball in oceans of space. He suddenly 'caught a crab' and took and enormous tumble, akin the a Germany or Italian footballer being tackled and rolling down hill like a snowball! How it happened only Jez knows because no one was near him! Both sides lost players through injury, Sue Dolby was hit on the foot with the ball defecting onto her head forcing her to painfully retire, fortunately she was OK after the game. Duncan Ogilvie was chasing a ball to the side line only to pull up, and hobble off. After a visit to A&E we heard he had snapped a calf muscle. The team planned to meet him at the pub afterwards, but he will be in plaster for a good few weeks for the injury to mend. No doubt Ger Openshaw will publish any X-rays on the forum to show us the extent of Duncan's injury. I trust that Duncan was able to stand on his good leg and let the bar prop him up!

Westbury & United Banks HC: Results for Saturday 15/12/06
Team	Opponents		League	Scr	Scorers
Veterans	v N Bristol Veterans	H	Friendly	1-1	Palmer M
Academy XI	v Westbury Legends	H	Friendly	1-5	Nichols G
Legends	v Westbury Academy	H	Friendly	5-1	Colquhoun 3 Walkey Banting A
Match comments
Academy v Legends: The Academy side were a mixture of experienced Westbury players and the best of the young talent who have begun to make their mark in the lower sides this season. Reston Smith was looking strong in the middle of the park for the Academy, whilst Andy Griffin was as sharp as nails to make 3 goal line clearances/deflections, two of them within 30 seconds of each other. Geoff Rickard was given a bloody nose when the ball rebounded off Sam Banting at close range, but he was able to return to the pitch with a very fetching plaster across his nose! The Legends looked the stronger side going forward and Nathan Walkey was causing problems for the Academy defence. It wasn't long before he got onto a cross from the right to whip in the first goal. Another was not long in coming as a superb cross field pass found Adam Banting at the far post to sweep it in. It could have been three, but Tom Colquhoun, who has been deadly from the p-spot this season, saw Sam Banting keep out his stroke. The Academy did press forward and had several first half short corners. Jon Fox and Will Holmes were very confident on the ball, and Peter Ratcliffe and Max Longden were able to to make a good impression surrounded by some able players who made themselves available to receive passes, something they haven't had in the lower teams! Will Glynn worked hard and chased back on one occasion to make an important tackle and prevent a shot at goal. Stig like-wise pulled off the same feat later in the game, which showed the effort everyone put in on a very cold day.The second half was fairly even with both sides pushing forward. However this half turned out to be the Tom Colquhoun show. He scored a second half hat-trick with three well struck goals to stamp his class on the game. At 4-0 Gareth Nichols (who came off suffering from hypothermia in the first half - well his hands were very cold), scored as a result of a well worked move down the right. Ned Holmes (Will's brother) played his first game and made a couple of good touches. The game was played in excellent spirit, and it was good to see everyone give the youngsters an opportunity to play in a quality game. Thanks to Tom Ccounsell and Alan Sparksy for whistling on a very cold day.
Veterans: The Veterans had the better of the first half at home to N Bristol Vets. Brian Callis and Brian Nichols looked very composed in defence and N Bristol were kept at bay for long periods. Moving forward Mark Crofts, Dave Holliday, Alan Sparks and George Banting held the ball well. The opening goal of the game came when Martin Palmer ended his 10 week goal drought. Pete Farrell did well to pull a lofted pass out of the air, turn, go forward a few paces before delivering a 40 metre crossfield pass into the D. Martin arrived in the D and slammed the ball shoulder height past Adie Dann in the N Bristol goal. Adie said later it was an awesome goal, he didn't have any time to react! (Thanks Adie, I know what a brilliant keeper you are, and I appreciate the compliment.) Westbury played some good, neat hockey and could have added to their goal. A second goal would not have been an injustice, but it didn't come. Instead it was the visitors who scored an equaliser to take the game to 1-1 at half-time. After the break as Westbury tired, the N Bristol team, many of whom play in the same side in the league, took control of the game. Jez Longden was sweeping up well at the back and Mike Harvey in goal made several excellent saves. N Bristol were also guilty of missing several gilt edge chances. Fortunately they didn't have quite the composure in the D that they had throughout the rest of the pitch. Alan Sparks nearly had the chance to win it, but could not guide his shot inside the post from his position outside it and to the right. This was a very good work out and a game played in excellent spirit, a draw being a fair result on the balance of play, with neither umpire (Tom Counsell and Chris Cocks) ever having to think about brandishing cards.

Westbury & United Banks HC: Results for Saturday 8/12/07
Team	Opponents		League	Scr	Scorers
1^st XI	v Isca	H	Premier 1	2-1	Richardson Frost J
2^nd XI	v N Bristol	A	North Div 1	1-1	Haslett
3^rd XI	v W Wilts II	A	Avon Div	2-4	Walkey Woodward
Wanderers	v N Bristol II	H	Br & NW Som Div1	6-0	Farrell 2 Millman S 2 Alger T Taylor T
Wizards	v Bristol Univ IV	A	Br & NW Som Div 1	2-7	Pope Enderby
Warriors	v S Glos	H	Br & NW Som Div 2	0-3
Widgets	v N Bristol IV	H	Br & NW Som Div 3	4-2	Payne 2 Sheppard Crill
Match comments
1^st XI: The first team notched up their first ever win over Isca 1st XI with a well constructed victory on a rain swept sand pitch. For the second week in a row the game was switched from the water-logged water pitch. Both sides played well in the rain. Jonny Parish cleared off the line from one Isca attack and Ron Wheeler had to be alert to several Isca shots. At the other end Frosty had a goal bound shot deflected by the goalkeeper. The opening goal came from Isca. An obviously well rehearsed short corner was swept in by the player who had injected the ball. At the other end three Westbury shorts lacked a positive outcome. An equaliser came for the firsts. Jonny Parish drilled in a cross and Neller met the ball to deflect it past the keeper. In the second half Iisca found them selves down to 9 men with almost simultaneous yellows. Westbury could not take advantage of the extra space and well still guilty of one or two misdirected passes around the back. Isca returned to full strength only to receive a third yellow. The first maintained their shape as well as their discipline. Gary Roper came close twice to snatching the winner, but the keeper saved one and the other was squeezed the wrong side of the post. A winner did come and it was an excellent tem goal. Joe Thomas pushed the ball through to Gary Roper down the inside left channel. At the D Gary, squared the ball to James Frost, James took one touch into the D and then placed his shot perfectly to win the game 2-1.
2^nd XI: The seconds earned a point with a 1-1 draw at N Bristol.
3^rd XI: And Giffin writes: The thirds had a difficult away trip to Warminster, the game was moved late in the morning from the Training Centre pitch due to flooding. The conditions were not easier with the pitch being quite slippery. However, it was not our day. We went one nil down to a bad pass when in the first 15 minutes West Wilts couldn't get out of their half. We played some good hockey making the Wilts keeper pull off a number of good saves, but found ourselves 3 nil down at half time. We again dominated the second half with goals from Walkey and Woodward. They scored a fourth from another bad pass as we pressed for an equaliser. A disappointing result, a couple of silly errors as we were the better team. Even West Wilts were saying in the bar that we were the better team and the umpires couldn't believe we lost! Man of the match was Gary Catchpole playing centre half.
Wanderers: Well done the Wanderers. They sprayed the ball around the pitch superbly. Tom Taylor opened up the first goal finding Pete Farrell at the far post. Pete's reverse stick touch back across the goal got the perfect spin and he thumped it home from a few inches out. Next up another defense splitting pass fell to Steve Millman to flick in. There were two more well worked goals at the start of the second half. Tom Alger and Steve Millman finished off some excellent passing moves. Si Andrews managed to drag flick his short corner over the bar, but in the last ten minutes Westbury scored two more goals. Millman fed Farrell who received the ball at the top of the D, ghosted past the keeper and fired in a head high shot past a despairing defender who was trying to defend an unstoppable shot. Tom Taylor completed the party when he was able to hit the D unchallenged and banged his shot through the keepers legs. This was the Wanderers of old with an outstanding team performance which gave the visitors little opportunity to make much of an impression.
Wizards: The Bristol University students scored very early in the game and then added two more in the first half. James Pope scored a well taken goal. He drifted left across the D and swept in a reverse stick goal. The Wizards came out in the second half fired up and scored a second goal through Will Enderby to cut the score to 3-2. The students stepped up the pace of the game and within a few minutes had charged into a 5-2 lead. They then added tow more before the close. The Wizards worked hard and there was some good individual moments from the side.
Warriors: Once again the warriors defence put on a first class show in keeping out most of the S Glos attacks. Martin Eland was outstanding and Alistair Jacklin had a very good game. Steve Alger playing his first game for ages had to put in some telling tackles from the start. At the other end of the pitch S Glos were never in any danger. The Warriors only got the ball into their opponents D just once! The Warriors finished up losing 3-0, but at no time did they give up and made S Glos work hard for their three goals. Martin Eland got close to saving the penalty stroke.
Widgets: The Widgets won a second successive game. N Bristol opened strongly but Shep struck his third goal in three games to give Westbury the lead. Alex Payne scored to make it 2-0 at half time. N Bristol pulled a goal back. Joe Crill and Chris Avery were running the midfield and Joe making his Westbury debut scored to make it 3-1. Alex payne, who normally patrols the defensive zone, was playing on the left wing and popped in his second goal. N Bristol scored the last goal of the game with two minutes to go but this could not deny the Widgets a morale boosting win.

Westbury & United Banks HC: Results for Saturday 1/12/07
Team	Opponents		League	Scr	Scorers
1^st XI	v Gloucester	H	Premier 1	2-2	Thomas J Frost J
2^nd XI	v Gloucester	A	North Div 1	0-3
3^rd XI	v Team Bath Buccs VII	A	Avon Div	1-2	Pearce-Smith
Wanderers	v Westbury Wizards	H	Br & NW Som Div1	3-1	Farrell 2 Andrews
Wizards	v Westbury Wanderers	A	Br & NW Som Div 1	1-3	Holmes W
Warriors	v O Bristolians III	H	Br & NW Som Div 2	0-5
Widgets	v S Glos II	A	Br & NW Som Div 3	2-1	Ogilvie Sheppard
Veterans	v Oxted Veterans 2/12/07	H	HA Veterans Plate	w/o	Oxted couldn't raise a side
Match comments
1^st XI: The first team had the opportunity to measure the progress they have made this season when they entertained the league leaders Gloucester. The match was switched from the flooded water base to the sand. If Gloucester thought that Westbury were going to just lay down and die and be 'rolled over' like most of Gloucester's opposition, they were much mistaken. It was Westbury who took the lead with a Joe Thomas goal. The players even had to shelter from a violent hail storm and played most of the game in wet, blustery conditions. Paul Mason felt afterwards that a Westbury win would not have been an unjust result. In the second half Gloucester built up some good momentum, they moved the ball around intelligently and scored two very cleverly taken goals. Their body language said "We've wrapped this up! They won't come back". Strangely, Westbury rode the pressure of playing with ten men with two successive yellows. The first for a stick tackle that wasn't as bad as the two stick tackles that Gloucester meted out, and a verbal comment which was polite compared to the comments fired off by the visitors. As soon as the penalties expired and Westbury were back to 11 men, Gloucester took the lead with their second goal. Ron Wheeler had made several good saves but was unable to stop the ball slipped to a free forward. It took some good tackles, particularly from Jonny Parish, when Gloucester looked likely to break away and clinch the game. A couple of Westbury attacks were stopped comfortably by the Gloucester defence. Near the end of the game a quick break saw the ball run to JamesFrost who flicked in an equaliser. The games comedy moment came when a Westbury free hit, with two minutes to go, was passed back to Herbie, who found no one coming to tackle him. He waved his stick over the ball 5 or 6 times to draw a defender to come and stop him. The umpire then blew him up for time wasting! Clearly he thought that Herbie was waiting to take the hit having not spotted that it had been taken. It wasn't funny at the time, because it gave Gloucester a late attack and a subsequent short corner that was safely cleared by Westbury to preserve a well earned point. The visitors were disappointing in the way they handled the end of the game, and it took fully two minutes before they could muster three cheers for Westbury. No doubt they had expected a comprehensive victory and didn't know how to cope with not winning. This was a good performance from the first team and shows that they can live with the best in the league.
2^nd XI: Duncan Armsby says: Not much to say really, I'm still too sad to report fully on the match that took place on the wet and windy pitch at Gloucester. A very good Gloucester City side outplayed us for most of the match and got the decisive goals to inflict a 3-0 defeat upon us and leaves us sitting 4th in North 1. The skipper had an off day and though we battled commendably hard throughout, we never managed to gain any meaningful periods of possession to threaten the Glos City defence. Only 2 players gained Man-of-the-Match votes, the always dependable Richard Beesley played very well and received 3votes, but the award deservedly went to Neil King who had an outstanding game in goal.
3^rd XI: Giff writes: The 3rds played against Bath Buccs students who were fit and quick ! However whilst they were defensively strong they created few chances. Whilst Buccs had more possession in the first half the 3rds had the better chances with their keeper pulling of two good saves at short corners. Buccs went ahead early in the second half and scored a second through a deflection. James Pearce-Smith scored from a short but the 3rds were available to get an equaliser.
Wanderers & Wizards: The first club derby of the season was like two heavy weight boxers slugging it out, in a tense, competitive affair, with neither side being able to getting in a telling punch. Jon Jarvis and Sam Banting were both hardly involved in the first half as both sides traded blows. The telling punch came from the Wizards who launched an attack down the left, Jon Fox got to the D and slipped a superb square pass to Will Holmes who carefully picked his spot and coolly flicked the ball into the net to the delight of his team mates. The second half saw the Wanderers fired up to take the fight to the Wizards. Andy Griffin was twice on the canvas, but picked himself up after the first one to make the decisive attack to create the equaliser. He cut down the right bye line towards the near post, rode a stick tackle that was about to be turned into a short corner, but with advantage played, he pulled the ball back towards the penalty spot for Si Andrews to flick into the roof of the net. 1-1! The Wanderers then had an early Christmas present. A '16' on the left side of the D was hit square across the D, with pete Farrell the only player there. He intercepted the ball and drilled in the go ahead goal. With the game winding down in the last minutes, a quality cross from the right saw Pete Farrell get a brilliant reverse stick deflection in at the near post to seal a 3-1 win. The Wanderers won the bout on points, but the Wizards weren't pummeled on the ropes and gave one of their best displays of the season. It was good to see the young players play well. Will Holmes was excellent for the Wizards, Will Glynn played well for the Wanderers as did Dave Dinely who was playing his first game for the Wanderers and didn't look out of place.
Warriors: Forget the score, a 5-0 loss! There is a lot that the Warriors can be proud of even in defeat. Bottom club against top club, with three of the selected side unavailable. The defence put in a first class show to keep out all but five OBs attacks. The opponents were a slick side, who played some very good hockey, showing why they are unbeaten this season. Smurf was brilliant in goal and put in a 5 star performance. There was also a smart stop on the line by Roger Montague. In midfield Adam Banting and Dave Holliday worked hard to get the ball moving forward. Max Longden and Pete Ratcliffe are gaining experience in playing against adults. For a change the warriors had a sub, so the youngsters were given a rest and came back stronger with some good touches. We still didn't threaten to score, the best chance came to James Pope on the break, but he was denied by the visiting goalkeeper.
Widgets: There was a disaster in the making at Golden Hill when the goalkeeper (with kit) failed to materialise and the Widgets had to play with no keeper and 11 out field men! S Glos did most of the attacking yet it was Westbury who scored in the first half. Tony Webster was testing his damaged ankle. He attacked the D from the right, his cross shot fell to Duncan Ogilvie, who swept it in. However, Tony was reduced to standing on one legged as a result of this attack. He limped around for 5 minutes ineffectively, then 'hopped' back to stand in the goal as an 'outfield keeper' (not a kicking back). Tony cleared 3 shots of the line! After the interval, S Glos didn't get into the Westbury D as many times as they did in the first half, but early on the snapped up a chance to square it at 1-1. Westbury mounted a number of attacks and Chris Avery looked skilful in midfield. Austin Sheppard had a short corner saved and it looked as if the Widgets could hold out for a draw. However, there was even time for a twist in the plot, because a second short corner saw the ball once again stopped by Austin. This time his aim was true and the ball thumped the back board to the cheers of the Widgets. There was only time for S Glos to restart and time was called for a memorable 2-1 win.