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THE WEEKLY NEWSLETTER OF CLIFTONVILLE HOCKEY CLUB

Match Reports

Ladies vs. BBHC, won 4-0 

1st XI vs. Worthing, lost 5-1
Thankfully I can’t remember much about the match, except that we were 1-0 down at half time and fell to pieces in the second half. Goal from Matthew Young.

1st XI vs. Eastbourne, lost 3-2
Unfortunately I remember this game all too well! Too much happened to be written in a single report; for full details see a member of the 1st XI, but please note the editor cannot be held responsible for their reactions! The phrase “WE WAS ROBBED” was invented following this game. Goals from Don Elmore and Stuart Ballard.

Floppy Jaffa

3rd XI vs. Old Bordenians, lost 2-1 (16th Dec)
Hmmm… I am writing this 2 weeks later and cannot remember much except for the completely unfriendly atmosphere of this ‘friendly’.  Porno tells me that he made a superb pass to ROB GARNO to score a goal for us, but we were already 2-nil down at this point. Kriss Tupper got yellow-carded for getting stroppy…. and we should have equalized.  That’s about it really.

PS – in a match report a number of weeks ago I suggested that Roddy had not been playing well in defence.  I now realise that I was totally wrong and humbly beg his forgiveness – he played very well.

Honest.

3rd XI  vs. Tonbridge, lost 8-2
Following the winter break a combination of bad luck and poor teamwork let us down against runaway league leaders Tonbridge.  It was our first game for 3 weeks and the team did not function particularly well against a well-organised Tonbridge team.  (This was our first defeat in the league since mid-November and was very disappointing, considering how many good players were available).

Needing to keep things tight from the start we were cruelly penalised within 2 minutes firstly when a short was given against ROB MACER who had used his stick.  “Not so!” said their umpire… From the short corner Tonbridge scored despite one of the players clearly handling the ball.  A defensive howler (no names DC) led to a doubling of the lead before 10 minutes were on the clock and we were already struggling.  Things managed to settle down and we had a number of good moves before another controversial goal allowed Tonbridge to stretch their lead.  This time SPANKY in goal was taken out of the game by one of the Tonbridge attackers in a rugby tackle style, leaving the other with an easy chance. The umpire said that he had not seen this and the goal was allowed to stand.   A well-taken penalty corner increased Tonbridge’s lead to 4-0, before a couple of substitutions (MASTER WESTBY and CHEESEY DAVE) changed things in our favour. 

Firstly right wing Kriss Tupper was able to score from an acute angle despite MARK KEENAGH trying to touch it and this was swiftly followed by midfield replacement Dave Cheeseman bundling the ball home.  At 4-2 down we had a number of chances before half time to gain another, particularly through centre forward Mark but they were thwarted by some excellent defending.

The first 15 minutes of the second half belonged exclusively to us but we failed to capitalize and it was almost inevitable when Tonbridge scored a goal on the break, nutmegging MR MORGAN (who had the sun in his eyes, honest!) – our heads dropped.  3 goals in the last 10 minutes following some comical defending flattered an arrogant Tonbridge team - this was probably the weakest display of the season from the thirds.  We must learn not to telegraph our passing and we must come to the ball rather than allow our opposition to steal it time and time again.  Very disappointing.

Ville: D. Morgan(C); R. Buchanan, E. Foster, R. Macer, S. Jones, G. Ingoldsby, D. Cain, G. Howard, K. Tupper, M. Keenagh, M. Knell.  Subs: M. Westby, D. Cheeseman, T. Gilliland

PS.       What an unpleasant bunch our opposition were… more details available from grumbling third eleven players…

Spanky

Court and Social

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