Untitled Document

Westbury & United Banks HC: Results for Saturday 28/11/09
Team	Opponents		League	Scr	Scorers
1^st XI	v Exeter Hornets	A	Premier 2	3-1	Hancock Poulsom Blake
2^nd XI	v Lydney	H	North Div 1	1-1	Moon
3^rd XI	v N Wilts	A	Avon Div	0-1
Wanderers	v Firebrands V	H	Br & NW Som Div1	2-3	Yuill Farrell
Wizards	v O Bristolians IV	A	Br & NW Som Div 2	1-4	Pope
Warriors	v Yate III	H	Br & NW Som Div 3	0-1
Widgets	v S Glos III	H	Br & NW Som Div 3	3-2	Goodman 3
Badgers	v Somerset Gryphons	A	Bristol Badgers	3-1	Wanklyn 2 Yuill
Match comments
1^st XI: Andy Krebs reports: Despite pleas, this author will not be subdued, here is what really happened on that rainy day in Exeter. 13 Good men and true from Westbury made the longish journey to Devon to cross swords with a resurgent ECV team who were lying 2 points behind Westbury in the table. Tim 'Michael Fish' Hancock's predictions of inclement weather were initially proven true, and latterly proven very true as nature showed it's contempt for honest sporting endeavour by providing cold breezes and copious amounts of rain.The game started and all but the most biased observers would have suggested that Westbury were the better team. It was clearly the case that the early movement up front from Gary Roper, JoeThomas, Stuart Blake et al was flummoxing the rather slow starting defenders from Hornets as Tim Hancock captialised on good posession and opened the scoring early by a low push down to the right past the flailing keeper. The game was looking like a good un as Hornets appeared not to have any answer to the clever interlinking play from the Westbury defence and midfield.The game started to even out slightly as Hornets found some stride and found a little space in midfield to allow their game plan to take shape. Sadly it did not appear that their game plan involved being particularly effective as we continued to hold possession. Owen Kemp in particular showing some outrageous touches to bamboozle and non-plus the Hornets midfield and defence.A few good defensive from Jonny Parish, Andy Smerald and Terry Watts kept Hornets at bay, a second goal was added by Chris Poulsom and Hornet's replied with 1 due to a rare lapse in concentration allowing a 2 on 1 with the goalkeeper ending in an inevitable goal.The second half was similar in style to the end of the 1st half, the Westbury keeper being called upon a few times to keep the score in favour of the visitors. Gradually however Westbury retained the game and started to flow through their midfield with Neil Richardson and Chris Poulsom linking well with Paul Mason, Smerald, Hancock and Jonny Elms (Making his league debut for the 1st team this season). The game progressed with little to show for either teams hard work until a superbly crafted goal was deflected in at the far post by Stuart Blake capitalising on the slow defending from Hornets and rounding off a superb performance which involved much spinning and falling over, only to be outdone by Joe Thomas' aerial on the Westbury 23 which travelled about 3 inches up the pitch, 100ft in the air and 40 yards sideways onto the roof of the school.Apart from these abberations, a superb performance by all, showing that in a game we could easily have lost by the odd goal, that sticking with our game plan and playing 100% simple passing and moving hockey, we are capable of getting good results against good teams and going on to do really well in this league. Our work rate won us this game, and will continue to do so if it is kept up. A pleasure to play in the game, the man of the match was Owen Kemp, with Joe's aerial abilities earning him an almost unanimous Dick of the Day.Well done to Jon Elms who slotted into the midfield superbly perhaps raising the question why he had not been playing in the 1st XI sooner than he was. Such is the competition for places at the moment that those who get their chance and play well will mean that more established players are going to have to start having a think about how they will regain/retain their place in the 1st XI squad. The up and coming players in this team are not requiring a bedding in time, they are good enough and keen to show this. This has to be a good thing, especially with the recent change in fortunes of the 2nd XI, these players are no longer "developing". Many of them have developed.
2^nd XI: The seconds battled back to get earn an equaliser at home to Lydney. The team still felt disappointed as a win wa snot outside their reach, but the winning goal couldn't be engineered. However, it took some outstanding work by Pete Murphy to keep what they had secured.
3^rd XI: The thirds lost on the road again, but were so unlucky not to get a win. The woodwork saved N Wilts several times whilst other efforts whistled the wrong side past the post. Richard Beesley adds: Lost 1 - 0. Gutted!! Chances - North Wilts 2; - Westbury 20!!!!!
Wanderers: Firebrands built up a 3-0 lead after turning round 0-0 at half time. The Wanderers played some neat hockey whereas Firebrands made good use of their long ball game and their strong striking power from short corners. The Wanderers staged a come back with first Alex Yuill sweeping in the ball at the back post. A few minutes later Pete Farrell hit a sizzling shot to make it 3-2. Both sides came close to scoring again, but Firebrands held out for the win. There were a lot of positives in the way the Wanderers played and never gave up.
Wizards: The Wizards were unable to get a result at O Bristolians and fell to a 4-1 defeat. James Pope was on target for a consolation goal.
Warriors: Yate came to Coombe Dingle top of the table and scoring an average of 5 goals a game. The Warriors turned on a top class show to keep their opponents at bay. Phil Simon cleared one short corner off the line. In the end it all came down to a scrambled goal 15 minutes from the end. The Warriors didn't create many chances, but defence and midfield tenacity deserved a point. Well done to everyone on duty for the Warriors today.
Widgets: Jon Jarvis writes: In warm sunny conditions the youth development team took on a South Glos team that got beaten 4 nil by the warriors last week. In reality it was freezing and pouring down so thanks go to Alan Sparks and Sam Parker for umpiring and the 8 or so spectators.The team was strenghtened by James Goodman who in the first half worked well with the kids up front and we managed to go 2 nil up at half time, both by James.Unfortunately Zeyn Mulla pulled a muscle at the start off the 2nd half which disjointed the team and South Glos managed to score two goals to make it 2 each.Heads didn't go down, good play by Ned Holmes, Pete ratcliffe and Josh Wanklyn up front helped by James Goodman, resulted in a short corner 5 minutes near the end, which Goody expertly converted via a flick into the top corner. He did score all 3, 2 drag flick shorts, but the team played well in extremely poor conditions.Big game next week against the league leaders any 'older experienced' players fancy a game even though there is a vets game on sunday?
Badgers: Pete Farrell reports Birthday party, school course work and gainful employment amongst other things meant that 7 of the Bagders were unavailable, so on Saturday we planned the trip to Clevedon with the bare 11....then injury to two more on Saturday meant a desperate phone call to my lad Matt and we turned up with just the 10. But its not in the Westbury tradition to baulk at adversity, so we decided to sacrifice a forward and play with just the two up front- Alex Yuill and Josh Wanklyn. Midfield was made up of Dave Parry, Max Longdon and Matt Farrell, with a defensive line of Aidan Farmer, George Minchin and Alex Webber and yours truly at Sweeper and Joe Petch in goal. The notoriously sandy Clevedon school pitch resembled a beach where the tide had just gone out with large puddles of water which made firm accurate passing even more important, the team talk before the game empasised this, as well as the need to be available to receive the pass. The team definitely listened and understood because some of the hockey we played was outstanding despite the conditions and we totally controlled the first half and went in 2 nil up with both goals scored by Josh...who is turning into a bit of a goal machine.The second half was similar but with a bit more pressure from the opposition, and they created some good scoring chances. One resulted in a penalty corner which would have ended in a goal but for a fantastic save with his stick by Joe. Despite this increased pressure we continued to move the ball quickly as the pitch drained and one such fast flowing move resulted in our 3rd goal, this time scored from close range by Alex Yuill.The Gryphons managed to nick a goal back...probably down to me leaving their centre forward unmarked on the penalty spot, but by then we were more or less home and hosed!So...well done to the lads for putting on such a good perfomance in such appalling conditions. Thanks to the brave souls who supported us on the sidelines..and particular thanks to Jez for blowing the whistle at the appropriate time.

Westbury & United Banks HC: Results for Saturday 21/11/09
Team	Opponents		League	Scr	Scorers
1^st XI	v Swindon	A	Premier 2	3-1	Blake Thomas J Watts
2^nd XI	v Yate	H	North Div 1	3-2	Frost J Longden M Haynes P
3^rd XI	v Swindon II	H	Avon Div	1-1	Beesley
Wanderers	v Bristol UWE III	A	Br & NW Som Div1	2-3	Farrell Armsby
Wizards	v Imperial	H	Br & NW Som Div 2	0-2
Warriors	v S Glos III	A	Br & NW Som Div 3	4-0	Colton Palmer M Chave Ash
Badgers	v S Glos	H	Bristol Badgers	2-1	Yuill Wanklyn
Match comments
1^st XI: An excellent 3-1 win for the first team in Swindon, roundabout capital of the world.
2^nd XI: No it's not a typo, the seconds broke their duck with a 3-2 win against Yate. Their play has deserved more and at last they got some just rewards for their efforts.
3^rd XI: In driving rain the thirds found themselves 1-0 down to Swindon. Both teams were scrapping it out for points near the basement of Avon Division. With time running out and Swindon looking to keep a grip on all three points. Up came Richard Beesley. As the ball broke down the right wing Richard, forsook his place at sweeper and kept trundling up the pitch. As the ball was crossed from the right Richard in his customary post match interview, said " I saw the ball coming, I just wanted to get the timing right, it took ages to get to me, and then I hit it and looked up!" He heard it make that beautiful sound when it hits the backboard and accepted the high fives from his delighted team mates. There was even a chance to win the game from a couple of late short corners, but Swindon stayed solid in defence to keep Westbury out.
Wanderers: The Wanderers were also involved in a 3-2 game at Bristol UWE, but came away as the losers.
Wizards: The Wizards couldn't find the flowing hockey they played last week and fell to a 2-0 defeat against ten man Imperial. The only plus from the game was that it stopped raining for the entire game! Mark Crofts writes: Lost 2-0 As good as we were last week, we were exceptionally poor for a game against 10 man Imperial who played as if they meant it. To put things/life in perspective, we had a 1 min silence in memory of one of Imperial's players who died at the age of 32 a year ago - he was their 11th man Saturday.Only high spot for us was a flying header stop from JJ in goal! Thanks to Steve Millman & Chris Cocks for umpiring.
Warriors: The Warriors were on top for most of this game at S Glos, but as two weeks ago they spurned a host of first half chances. The home goalkeeper was also guilty of making some startling saves when he in theory shouldn't have been able to react to as quickly as he did, but he did to his credit. Mark Colton did score from a first half short, but it was disallowed because the umpire believed that the stopper's hand had been used in place of the stick to allow Mark to strike! The second half saw Westbury become much more clinical in their finishing. Mark Colton thumped in a short corner to give the Warriors the lead. There were three comedy moments in the game. In the first half with Mike Harvey on the bench, Justin Chave pushed out the short corners. His second dribbled mere inches, his stick having caught a crab, however, his stick flew high into the air out of his wet hands and had it been more aerodynamic it would have been blown over the fence! In the second period with Mike back on, Justin shaped to push in a short corner. Martin Palmer yelled, "Let Mike take it," several times, whilst waiting for Mark Colton to come up from sweeper to strike from his usual reverse stick stop. Justin had other ideas and injected the ball out to the almost unprepared Martin, who stopped open stick and thumped it into the far corner with power rarely seen from his hitting! This was quickly followed by an end to end move. Mark Colton banged a long ball down the right to Martin Palmer who threaded it past two defenders to Justin Chave. Justin still had a lot of work to do to get to the D and pick his spot past the keeper, which he did expertly. The icing on the cake came when Simon Hewitt broke down the right wing. He found Tom Ash outside the D. Tom beat several defenders going to his left and delivered an unstoppable reverse stick shot into the left hand corner for his first goal for the club. The home team weren't able to offer much in attack, but battled away valiantly to keep out the Westbury attack. The Warriors defence intelligently set up camp on the half way line where they maneuvered the home team out of scoring opportunities. The third comedy moment came when Brian Nichols pushed the ball back to what he thought was his sweeper at pivot, only to see it was Martin Hicks (his goalkeeper), half way between his D and the 25. Seeing that it was his keeper, Brian confidently passed the ball back to is stick side, but for some reason Martin elected to use his foot (OUTSIDE THE D) and was rightly punished with a short corner. Some umpires would also have shown him a yellow, although in fairness he didn't have any home attackers anywhere near him. Martin was fired up to win this one as he was playing against his former club, so a clean sheet was an added bonus for him! Three good points from an excellent second half with some good hockey being played by the whole team.
Badgers: The Badgers hosted S Glos this morning at a wet and windy Coombe Dingle which did not deter the usual supporters club. The sun did come out towards the end. I missed half of the first half but arrived to be told we were 1-0 up through an excellent Yuill goal.The team looked really organised with Ratcliffe, Herman, Pardington, Farmer, Minchin and Petch mopping up any attacks in the middle part of the game. The midfield of Webber, Maydew, Yuill and Zora looked solid and passed the ball well creating some good opportunities for themselves and the attack including some great play from Holmes N.In the 2nd half our second goal came after an excellent team move with Mulla making a pass from the bye line for Wanklyn to sweep in his first goal for the club at the far post. The opposition pulled a goal back as a result of relaxed marking with a player free on the far post to push the ball in to an open goal. Deteriorating concentration levels and tiredness started to show as the game went on with players holding on the the ball too long and dribbling in to flat sticks at times. The opposition had a couple of near misses and Westbury had several other well made chances to score with a couple of shots going just wide and the S Glos keeper making some saves. Final result Westbury 2 - 1 S Glos, well done lads!Thank you to Chris Cutts, Holmes W and Longden M for providing the structure for the Badgers, to Jez Longden and Ratcliffe P for sharing the umpiring and as ever all the support. Also thanks goes to Ratcliffe D for collecting money at the end and Duncan for washing the shirts. Any other volunteers to rotate the shirt washing would be well received.

Westbury & United Banks HC: Results for Saturday 14/11/09
Team	Opponents		League	Scr	Scorers
1^st XI	v Team Bath Buccs II	H	Premier 2	0-4
2^nd XI	v O Bristolians	A	North Div 1	0-6
3^rd XI	v Team Bath Buccs V	A	Avon Div	0-3
Wanderers	v Robinsons IV	H	Br & NW Som Div1	5-2	Harris Dom 2 Taylor T Webster Holliday J
Wizards	v N Somerset	A	Br & NW Som Div 2	0-1
Widgets	v Mendip II	H	Br & NW Som Div 3	5-1	Harris Dave 2 Mulla Holmes N Alger T
Badgers	v Firebrands II (15/11/09)	A	Bristol Badgers	0-4
Match comments
1^st XI: A competitive game finished as a 4-0 home defeat for the firsts against Bath Buccs.
2^nd XI: The seconds came unstuck at O Bristolians and lost 6-0. O Bs are a club on the climb and doing what we were doing five or six years ago.
3^rd XI: The thirds were also in action against Bath Buccs and lost to the student team by 3-0.
Wanderers: This was a fiercely contested local derby by two teams who played some tricky hockey at a fast pace. Both teams traded goals in reaching a position with less than 10 minutes to go tied at 2-2. Chances were being created at both ends, and Andy Pound had to be outstanding to keep out two late Rob's efforts to add to a string of great saves he made in the first half. Tom Taylor had opened the scoring with a thumping short corner strike. Dom Harris made it 2-1 when he picked up a rebound and banged it high into the net, before Robs squared the game again. There was a feeling on the side that Robinsons were close to getting the decisive third goal, but then Tony Webster stepped up to the plate. First he went round the goalie to open up a great angle to his right on the goal. He hit his shot firmly to make sure it went in, not with quite his normal trade mark power. Some how the keeper dived and pulled off an amazing save. Tony's head didn't drop and a few minutes later he was at the left hand post to pick up the ball and flick it high into the net for the 'go-ahead' goal. Just to make sure the game was made safe when Dom Harris wriggled past a couple of defenders to make it 4-2. A fifth goal came when a goal bound shot found a visiting foot and James Holliday tucked in the resultant penalty stroke. Robinsons can rightly feel that the score flattered Westbury, as both teams were very evenly matched. The difference came down to finishing in the D which favoured Westbury, with Robinsons finding Andy Pound an impenetrable barrier at a time when they looked most likely to win the game.
Wizards: Mark Crofts reports: Lost 1-0 - We turned up on a somewhat blustery and wet day at Gordano school, Richard Beesley declaring, "It'll be sunny in 15 mins"! He was not far off, we certainly played some sunshine hockey. After last weeks poor performance, this was a excellent effort from all players involved today.The first half was pacey and skillful from both sides, with the home side just edging the game with more chances then us. We played 4 across midfield, 2 up front and our normal solid defence. We had a couple of shorts, one well saved and generally played well against the 2nd placed team in the league. 0-0 at half time. Second half - we kept our shape really well and for a 20 minute period had the majority of the play; we just could not score with the final shot and penetration in the D lacking.15 mins from the end a missed tackle from moi on their right and a pass from the back goal line ended with a scrambled shot trickling past a despairing JJ.We upped our effort with Bees marshalling the defence forward more. Then a breakaway from NS and a harsh flick decision against JJ. JJ made a superb save from the flick and then went on to make 2 further stunning saves a few minutes later. A couple of chances from us, a short corner and a disallowed goal and it was suddenly all over. Rather empty feeling having played so well and not got a point. Noteable performances from Denners and Sparky in Midfield, plus Bees at sweeper (new permanent position!!) and JJ's great saves, but everyone played well and we should take heart from this gritty, skillful and hardworking perfomance. A few went back for the non inter club game (!) with the rest partaking at the pub in best home reared black spot, corn fed pork sausages and cheesy Venezuelan cracked pepper hand cut chips in the style of Portishead. Very pleasant.Team: JJ, Bees, George, Reesy, AJ, Croftsy, Sparky, Denners, Coops (non Jurgen), Geddes, Popey, Harry, Parks. Well played
Widgets: Dave Holliday writes: First time this season that we had played against another development side; showed how far we have come!! Great performance by everyone helped also by superb support from the "Dingle Kop" on the side. From a squad of 14 we were able to include EIGHT juniors. Total possession in the first half, but brilliant goalkeeping kept our forwards at bay. More clinical finishing in the second half eventually gave us a 5 - 1 victory. Scorers Zeyn Mulla , Dave Harris(2), Ned Holmes and Tommy Alger .Thanks again to Tommy and Dave who pulled the strings in midfield and ensured that the youngsters were brought into the game at every opportunity. Peter Ratcliffe had his best ever Widgets game and could have scored a first half hat-trick with surges from right midfield - great hits from the top of the D which would have beaten most goalkeepers we come across at this level. Encouraging debut by Josh who clearly was not fazed playing Senior hockey for the first time. Also welcome to Niall our new goalkeeper who dealt with everything that came his way extremely well (apart from short-corner they scored from; think he must have been unsighted). Roll on our next League game - we are in the mood for more goals!!
Badgers: Pete Farrell writes: A disappointing result that doesn't reflect the amount of effort and work the boys put into the game against a strong Firebrands Team, who had a six foot plus senior in goal. Whilst we had Alistair Jacklin in Sam Banting kit. (Cheers AJ!) The lads competed well for every ball but too often we left opposition players unmarked in the D. When we did have the ball under control and going forward we created a number of good opportunities, one of which resulted in Josh "winging" another of the Brands senior players as the ball traveled en route to goal. We were unlucky not to get on the score sheet. The learning points from today's match are that we need to stick close to the players we are marking in defence, make sure that we keep our width and to make sure that our passes find a team mates stick.....and of course not to be too dis-heartened. I'm sure that this will become routine with every game the lads play together and that we will be able to rise to the standards we aspire to. Thanks to all the supporters who turned out (and Jeanette again for full time cakes!) and apologies for the cock up that meant we had to switch pitches from sand to water part way through the first half!

Westbury & United Banks HC: Results for Saturday 7/11/09
Team	Opponents		League	Scr	Scorers
1^st XI	v Gloucester	A	Premier 2	2-3	Thomas J 2
2^nd XI	v Cirencester	H	North Div 1	0-5
3^rd XI	v Bristol Univ III	H	Avon Div	0-4
Wanderers	v Bristol & West III	A	Br & NW Som Div1	1-0	Webster
Wizards	v Bristol & West V	H	Br & NW Som Div 2	4-4	Lipfriend Pope Holmes W Newington
Warriors	v Mendip II	A	Br & NW Som Div 3	3-3	Cooper A Palmer M Ogilvie
Widgets	v Firebrands V	A	Br & NW Som Div 3	1-3	Beesley
Badgers	v Bristol & West (8/11/09)	A	Bristol Badgers	3-0	Yuill 2 Mulla
Veterans	v Indian Gymkhana (8/11/09)	H	HA Trophy	w/o	Indian Gymkhana couldn't raise a side
Match comments
1^st XI: Andy Krebs reprts: This writer has been under pressure to provide more concise match reports so here goes. Went to Gloucester, had a good team. Started ok, pitch was slippy as hell. Went in 0-0 at half time. Could have been more clinical in all areas of the pitch. We weren't.Glos. got 2 early goals in the second half and we panicked. It ended 3-2 to Gloucester. Joe Thomas got both goals. (he managed to pull rank on Max Longden's claim to the 2nd.) Hugh Barnes got man of the match.There? Happy?
2^nd XI: Reston Smith write: Another disappointing weekend for the second team. For the second week we conceded within the first five minutes. Subsequently we played the game in the Cirencester half. The front line working hard to pressurise the Cirencester 16's and turning over ball. We created a number of opportunities but we just seemed unable to make the pressure tell. The first half began and ended with a Cirencester goal. Cirencester, having been confined to attacking on the break, took their opportunity when it presented itself.Although we were two goals to the bad we went in at half time confident that we could turn the game around.The second half began with Westbury conceding another goal early in the first half. We pulled ourslves back together and began to reassert our game. The pressure was rewarded with a short corner. A Cirencester player using his leg to stop a goal bound shot. A penalty flick was duly awarded. Tufty confidently stepped forward and was denied by a good save from the Cirencester goalkeeper.Things went a bit to pot subsequently. Cirencester feeling that the game was secure played some good possession hockey but still looked very threatening on the break. There were two more goals in it for Cirencester with one from open play and one from a Penalty flick awarded in similar circumstances to Westbury's own.There were some positive performances from the game. Jonny Day had an outstanding game performing the task of marking Cirencester's dangerous centre forward (who I believe had previously scored 5 against Westbury in one game) - his close attentions meant that his man only scored one in this fixture. Jon Elms had another assured performance at right half.We need to have confidance and faith in our team mates that we can turn this bad run of results round.
3^rd XI: There were some good spells of play for the thirds against Bristol University. Dave Wornell cleared one effort off the line but the students struck a first half goal. Pete Murphy was a giant in goal charging down a number of shots with his lightening feet in commanding his D. There were two quick goals in the second half scored by the university. The best Westbury chance unfortunatley found a red and green foot with the goal mouth beckoning. There was fourth goal from a University short corner. Despite the defeat it was encouraging to see the progress made by Alex Yuill, Alex Maydew and Ed Minchin as third team players.
Wanderers: James Holliday writes: I don't like to boast... But I had 2 games against Bristol and West in One weekend and came out with two Wins! How did everyone else do? You can read all about the Badgers game on another thread, but the Wanderers game was awesome.The Wanderers this week had discipline, team spirit, team commitment and self belief. And when you look at the team, you can see why! The team was Pound, Will Jones, Martin Rees, Tom Taylor, Danny Lochtman, Matt Taylor, Dom Harris, Graham Brown, Tony Webster, Pete Farrell and myself. This week we also had Struan Wilkin and Duncan Armsby was making a comeback from a honeymoon injury. Bristol and West didn't make it easy for us and also had a good mix of youth and experience and they also had Lloydy in the middle of the park.Struan linked in well with the team and gave players the confidence to pass the ball crisply in all directions. This week we saw the importance of keeping the ball instead of attack, attack, attack! This really paid off and you could see the frustration building in the B&W team. We went in at half time 1 goal up. It was a team goal that started in our 25, with 5 or 6 passes that strung together nicely, followed by a tap in that Tony Webster couldn't miss. (Just to confirm... Tony did tap it in to score!!)In the second half, we matched them for pace and fitness and we absorbed some constant attacks and Andy Pound did a great save late on to retain the 3 points. It was a well needed 3 points (look at the table below) and a well deserved 3 points. The 2nd half of the season will be very tough, as we are making enemies for all of the right reasons... Playing great, competitive hockey until the final whistle blows. Keep this up guys... Its fun this way!!
Wizards: Alan Sparks reports: A much changed Wizards side gave a battling if patchy display to snatch a draw in a game that could have been won. Westbury's changes made it difficult to keep shape both with and without the ball. A lot of Wizards possession ended with players being unable to find a colleague for a simple pass, or carrying the ball too far and losing it in tackles (those who watch the England rugby team earlier in the day would find this familiar). The opposition had a strong contingent of good younger players supported by a few older players. They were able to take advantage of our turnovers to generate unmarked players, leading to chances which were converted into goals. JJ will be available to talk you through his attempt to sit on the ball for the first. We were 2-0 down approacing halftime when a mazy run by Will Holmes on the top of the D lead to Ben Lipfriend turning in a wide cross-shot.The Wizards played better in the second half and we started to find some passes to our forwards higher up the pitch. The weight of pressure gave us chances but left us vulnerable to counterattacks when we gave the ball away. James Pope scored a second after Tim Denner played a cunning ball into the D and back off the post (2-2), we conceded (2-3), James Pope flashed a shot past the post to excite the spectators (still 2-3),Will Holmes scored from a short corner (3-3).With about 8 minutes left Britol & West scored again (3-4) and the drizzle became a downpour. The Wizards started a wave of attacks. We had a good move down the left and Harry had his shot well saved by a diving keeper. Other attacks fizzled out on the edge of the D.Finally a short corner was won. As the injector was preparing Steve Peutz blew for full time. With all Wizards around the D first shot was saved, another push came of the post, the follow up was saved, Tim Denner kept the ball in the D and then Harry slapped in the equaliser.Thanks to Steve and Chris Cocks for umpiring in such lousy weather and to the handful of brave fans.
Warriors: The Warriors could easily have scored three or four golas before Andy (not Jurgen) Cooper scored from a right wing cross from Graham Aitchison. Mendip hit straight back with an equaliser inside a minute later. The Warriors then took control of the game when Austin Sheppard banged a long ball into the D for Martin Palmer to deflect neatly past the keeper. Martin then turned provider when he took a self hit right wing corner, worked his way to the bye line and crossed for Duncan Ogilvie to turn in. Everything was set for a good win, but half time came and interrupted the flow of good hockey the Warriors were playing. To a degree the Warriors hit the panic button with some poor passes. On another day the home team would have conceed three penalty strokes but rode their luck and only conceeded two short and one long corners, which Westbury couldn't convert. At the other end Mendip pulled a goal back when a defensive stick deflected a short corner in and a scrambled goal squared the game at 3-3. The win could still have been achieved, but some 15 to 20 chances came and went in the second half, with the forwards not getting the ball in the net. Some wayward shots, missed deflections and great saves by the home goalkeeper conspired to keep the score at 3-3 at the final whistle. Andy Cooper had an outstanding game in midfield and capped a great game with his first goal for the club.
Widgets: The Widgets went down by three goals to one against Firebrands. The Brands players said afterwards what a good game it was to play in and they were impressed by the youngster that played for the Widgets.
Badgers: Following 2 weeks off, one where we could not raise a side against N Somerset (half term) and one where OB's couldn't raise a side against us, the Badgers faced the Tigers from 'Bristol's Friendliest Hockey Club' Bristol & West. With some additions to the expected squad we had 15 players available. We seem to have an abundance of budding forwards.The team started excellently and went 1-0 up early on through Mulla tapping in at the far post. Two further goals were added by Alex Yuill in the first half, one from a PF created by excellent team play, taking us to 3-0 at half time. Half time team talk was about keeping the shape and protecting the lead which the team did very well with B&W only having a couple of chances. A spectacular save from a hungover JJ diving down to his right from a short corner, the final play of the game ensured a clean sheet. Everyone played really well. Herman and Webber were solid at the back. Good basics were shown by Linfoot and Wanklyn, a good example to some of the others. Plenty of flair from Yuill, Maydew, Longden , Holmes Jnr and Dinely. Zeyn caused problems on the right wing as usual. Thanks to the seniors who patiently rotated and did as expected by keeping the youngsters involved.Not only did we win the game on the pitch but we also won on our friendly support off the pitch - a true sign of the strength of our club. A special thanks to Janette for bringing the cakes and for those that looked after Alex 'Drogba' Yuill after he was taken out by a sniper.