It was a very successful campaign, right up until the point we were drawn against Banbury away!
With an early start, Sonning all arrived at the club in good time (except for Mac who apparently got a little distracted the night before and was still out at 6am!), ready to venture up North to take on the Barbarians.
We knew the Barbarians meant business when their umpire warned us “not to have ours ladies back at short corners as their South prem league drag flicker hits it hard”. Sure enough when they were [wrongly] awarded a short corner the ball flew into the net with nothing anyone could do!
Sonning, now 1-0 down, thought that with Banbury having the lead, they might not play so aggressively; but they continued to do so!
Despite this, Sonning played some fantastically skilful hockey. Tamps defended well, winning every challenge thrown at him. Ned, with his speed intercepted all of their deadly passes, (could he be The Flash?!). They had not made any more gains against us before Sonning took a chance of our own. Santa created the opportunity with a skilful ball down the line to Grassick on the left. She took their guys on and came out on top, slipping the ball back to Santa who was now through on their keeper, who he successfully beat for our first goal.
Banbury managed to get another in the first half so we came in with the score 2-1; not bad considering Banbury men's play a division higher than ours and are top of their league.
Sonning started the second half very brightly and an early opportunity came when Tamps won the ball from a great tackle in the D, released it quickly to Grassick who committed one of their guys, slipped the ball to Mei, who drove it forward before finding Santa who again easily beat their keeper to make it 2:2.
Unfortunately Banbury came straight back and made it 3:2.
Banbury maintained the pressure and with their tactic of passing the ball only through their men managed to sneak a couple more goals. The final result was 5-2.
However, a great performance from the Sonning side who played some really nice hockey. Well done to all.
A Special thank you to: Luke for stepping out of bed on a Sunday morning to play at a short notice;
Chad for being multi-talented and saving some fantastic shots;
Radar for unselfishly umpiring the second half.
Players: Laura Garssick (C), Claire Rosenhead, Ruth Purdy, Mei Petch, Kathryn Petch (Senior),
Chad, Tamps, Ned, Luke, Santa, Radar and Mike.
Players of the match: Tamps for defending his socks off.
and Grassick for holding onto the ball and getting passed their guys.
Match Report by Mei Petch