Match Reports For Saturday 11th September Season 2004 - 2005
Mens 1st XI
Mens 2nd XI
Mens 3rd XI
Mens 4th XI
Mens 5th XI
Mens 6th XI
Mens 7th XI
Mens Centurions
Ladies 1st XI
Saturday morning brought the dawn of a new era......South Division 2.
After being really charming to the umpires in the hope that they won't give
out too many cards, the whistle blew. Sunbury came like a steam train and within
5 minutes they were one up. It was at this point that the girls realised we
would have to run this year. Before half time we equalised with Anna Truman
taking the credit.
The second half was a different story altogether and it is with great pride
that I can say that we were fitter than Sunbury. Mellie Attfield scored from
a penalty corner and put us ahead. Then it was the arrival of Audrey. What pride
we have in her.......take on the goalie and make her look like a muppet (twice).
Two amazing goals left Staines winning 4-1 and Aud winning Man of the Match.
Doris of the Day went to Mellie for sausage abuse.
Ladies 2nd XI
Ladies 3rd XI
After a night of partying at our retiring captains wedding the night before, the 9.45 meet was meet by a few heavy heads and weary eyes, and then when we realised we were down to 10 panic set in. We managed to reach Henley without the use of a map as we new it was near Tescos! (Jeanette has offered to do maps for next week, but we are at home!) Adam our new coach suggested a new formation based on our shortage of players and it certainly helped. We were all over Henley for the first 20 mins but their keeper kept the ball out. Henley then caught us on the hop and scored, immediately Staines fought back and our new Captain Jeanette Tucker scored from a cracking hit at the top of the D. Henley scored again from a dubious advantage but Staines did not give up. We had another penalty corner and Linda McCormack got her stick to a deflecting to make the half time score 2 all.
The second half was tough but Staines continued to work hard as a team and were rewarded by a further goal from Tracy Stanley.
Player of the match was new comer from our colts section Daisy Crawley who never stopped running. Dick of the day was Tracey who appears to have forgotten how long the pitch was over the summer and kept running off the end.
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After a short trip up the M4 we arrived at Henley to find that the gate was locked! Great start, we thought and we began to wonder whether or not the match was on. Much to our relief the Henley players soon started to arrive and the match was soon under way.
With only 10 players, and testing a different formation, Staines got off to an excellent start. Thanks to Adam's brilliant 'floating' formation, Julie and Tracy were easily able to escape from the Henley defence and were therefore free to receive many balls from Ingrid, Wendy and Lou with the help of the skilful midfielders Linda, Clare and Jeanette. The game was going really well, until a surprise breakaway from the Henley forwards left us 1-0 down.
Nevertheless this did not stop us, as following shortly on from Henley's goal, Jeanete raced into the D and scored a fabulous goal. 1-1, and Staines pressed on to try and score another goal. If my memory serves me right, this is the point where Tracy had her 'Dick of the Day' moment. During the entire match Tracy skilfully continued to urge the ball towards the goal. However, at one point, concentrating extremely hard on her amazing run down the pitch, Tracy forgot where the pitch ended, tripped over the ball and ended up almost crashing into the fence. Luckily, no injuries were sustained, and if anything this moment helped her score her brilliantly well-deserved goal later in the match.
Anyway, back to the match, and to Henley's second goal. This one a slightly less tidy goal, involving almost all of both teams desperately trying to keep the ball out of, or get the ball into, the goal. Much to our disappointment the ball just managed to slip past Karen and into the goal to make the score 2-1 to Henley. Again Staines kept on pushing and thanks to Linda's great effort; she was successfully able to 'stab' the ball into the goal and therefore equalled Henley's 2 goals. Much to our relief, half time approached and we were able to take a hard earned, and pretty much desperately needed breather after all our hard work in the first 35 minutes.
As the whistle blew for the second half we all knew what we had to do: Win. The great forwards and midfielders continued to win many short corners to put pressure on Henley, and when Henley occasionally broke away and started to head for our D the superb defence kicked in, with many remarkable tackles from Wendy, who seemed to be in two places at once, from Lou, who did not once let Henley's attackers get past, and from Ingrid, whose face was slowly turning beetroot from all the incredible running and tackling she was doing up and down the pitch. From then on the team never failed to prevent the ball from slipping into our goal again, which meant that when Tracy finally scored her well-earned goal, by whacking it gladly past the goal keeper, and then when the final whistle eventually blew to end the match, Staines left the pitch absolutely exhausted, delighted to have won and laughing and joking about a certain umpire who had forgotten her contact lenses and urgently needed to read a recent rule book!
The match was a great success; a brilliant experience for me, and a great start to what I know will be a wonderful season!! Well done to everyone who played, thanks to Pauline for umpiring (correctly!) and thanks to Adam for coaching us superbly and introducing us to the 'floating' formation!
By Daisy
Ladies 4th XI