WH&E L1 1 : 1 Eastcote L2
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Ladies 1s were playing a strong Eastcote side at home Saturday but were determined to be the STRONGER side.
The first 30 seconds of the match, WHE forgot how to hockey but then quickly remembered and it turned into an evenly matched affair (sorry Karen). We played strong defensively, made some great triangles in the midfield and up front we pressed better then we have before. About 20 minutes in, we had a long corner that after a beautiful set of play, ended up on Vicki Lim-Bettes reverse side and in the back to the net. And with that, we were 1-0 up! We had some balls, sticks, and players flailing but all ended up in one piece with a lead at half time.
The second half had moments of brilliance where our triangles were working, switches were on and Chris was standing on her head to save balls that she didn’t even need to! It also had 20 minutes of us giving away about 10 PCs and struggling to get the ball out of our D safely! We held strong but eventually gave up a goal from a penalty corner that ended up in the stick of a red player who buried it. There were 6 minutes remaining now and we were determined to not lose. A few chances at our end were terrifying but we also had three penalty corners down their end that were executed well, but their keeper made some beautiful saves to hold the draw.
The game was evenly matched, aggy at times, but a well-deserved point for the ladies 1s! Player of the match to Chris Putt for outstanding saves and being a wall in the net.
WH&E M2 3 : 1 Eastcote Eagles
The men’s 2s travelled to Eastcote for a late game at 4:30 – better late than never! With former Winchmore player Leo turning out for Eastcote it was always going to be a tricky game, but Winchmore went into the break 1-0 up after a goal from Dom Smith. However, Eastcote clearly had the more inspiring half-time team talk and came out firing on all cylinders, soon restoring parity by following up a penalty corner to find the Winchmore net.
Nevertheless, we kept our composure to score twice more – both goals coming from the right side with first-time shots from Dom and then Jake Sumner, helping Winchmore to a comfortable 3-1 victory.
WH&E L2 2 : 3 Harrow L3
The miserable rainy day turned into a sunny day along with the 2s hope of a win. We began strongly with a goal from Abbi keeping our structure and using the whole width of the pitch. We kept the pressure on, had some fantastic 1-2 touches and played some ‘proper’ hockey. They drew level with a well-executed goal, but our heads still remained high.
Half time arrived and there was a stirring team talk. We continued to pressure the D and it resulted in a second goal. A superb pass from Bridget through to Abbi to tap it in. Gem made a guest appearance back from uni and gets herself a talking to from the umpire she claims she did nothing wrong. Freya made some fantastic saves unfortunately they pulled a goal back.
We continued to pressure and had numerous chances on goal. On one of their few breaks DoD Nellie managed to kick the ball into our own goal giving them the lead. The pressure was now on to try and equalise with 10 minutes to go. Wave upon wave of Winchmore attack was stopped by Harrow including a last-minute shot on goal by captain Pippa which missed by millimetres.
We should be very proud of the way we played, and the lessons learnt will be taken to the next match including Pippa forgetting to tell the home team about teas. Bring on next Saturday when we play Hendon & Mill Hill.
Match report dictated by Lorna and Kareen written by Gem with the occasional contributions from Abbi whilst on the north circular!!
WH&E M1 2 : 4 Southgate Flagons
Surprisingly nice weather by game time and a debut for Oliver so the signs were all good including the first 15 minutes of the game. Winchmore handled possession with confidence and scored through Tim. 1-0 and looking good if we could hold on until half time.
Unfortunately, this was not to be as a break away resulted in a short corner. The experienced and well drilled opposition put it away and their short corner routines were to prove our main downfall. Southgate scored another short and grew in confidence while we seemed to go the other way.
Despite this the threat aside from short corners was not great. The time there was, Matt disguised himself as a red voice to fess up to crossing with a back stick and having a Southgate field goal chopped off. Alas the short corners reigned on our goal and despite some excellent saves we also conceded, reaching 4-1 down.
There was a second for Tim who was on song despite carrying an injury. A neat finish at the post from a short corner for us. Despite our 2 goals we didn’t recapture our form as the opposition continued to dominate the middle. A real bright point was Oliver’s solid and impressive display at centre back.
Big thanks to Sam and Beth for umpiring along with support from Lisa.
We know we can compete for patches but that means we need to work on our game management and consistency over the whole game. Better things to come next week.