Outplayed but still unbowed

Yesterday I played in my biggest loss in over 30 years.  In fact I have been lucky enough not to lose that heavily since I was (I think) 14, in one of my first games of men's hockey for Letchworth Extra 5ths.  It was an away match, on a bumpy grass pitch, and it was cold and miserable, but I remember we went 2-0 up, and then I hit the crossbar.  I don't know what went wrong, but somewhere along the line, we let 13 goals in, to lose 2-13.  Saturday we weren't even allowed to score a goal, although we did force their keeper into a couple of saves, as we were totally overrun by a very good Milton Keynes side.  We had arrived to find one end of the pitch still partly frozen, and had to wait while efforts were made to defrost it.  Unfortunately, as it was a water-based pitch, someone had the bright idea of turning on one of the water cannon to try to unfreeze the offending part of the pitch.  As you can guess, with the temperature below zero, this didn't work too well.  Later when we left, the entrance was like a sheet of glass.  Nevertheless, with the opposition chomping at the bit, we started, and were a goal down inside a minute.  I won't say how many we let in, but the gap was more than 2-13.  It wasn't even that we played badly, it was just a mismatch, and if it hadn't been for our keeper Louie playing a stormer, it could have been more.  Our lads played through to the end, and didn't give up, and in fact weren't even disheartened: we all knew we were completely outgunned.  Pasty, beans and a big mug of tea in the MK clubhouse later (right by their astros), and we were looking forward to next weeks match, against a team in a similar position in the league to us.  Hope springs eternal.

Much later in the day I played as one of the adults in the Badgers match against Aylesbury.  I had expected to umpire, but I ended up playing.  By the time we started it was 5pm, and was really getting cold.  Unfortunately we had to abandon it part way through the second half as the pitch was freezing into slippery concrete as we played, and was becoming too dangerous, which was a great shame because it was a good even match, with all the boys on both sides, mainly 12 year olds, playing well.

Earlier today, I was privileged to watch a top notch game of U16 Boys hockey between Gerrards Cross (and some of our Amersham boys) and Oxford Hawks.  I dropped my son Dan off, who was playing in the joint GX/ACHC team, and stayed to watch, which I usually don't get to do as I am usually umpiring or coaching another junior team.  Final score was 1-3 to Hawks, although the third goal was only scored on the break a few minutes from the end after GX had been pushing hard for the equaliser.  Pace, skill, position, movement, crisp passing, strong tackling, quick closing down to pressure the ball carrier, a couple of excellent reverse stick goals, and some great saves in a really close competitive match.  Many of the boys were taller than me, and certainly quicker and more skillful, and are still getting better and faster, unlike me.  Nevertheless, I plan to turn out next week against Ashford for the 5ths, and maybe some of my experience, if not my speed and skills, may still be of some use.  As I said, hope springs eternal.

New stick starts but fails to score

Having bought a new stick before Christmas, I was finally able to use it yesterday away to Leighton Buzzard late in the day.  Of course getting used to the new stick was the reason why my passes went astray, I was unable to position myself correctly, mishit my shot at goal, and is understandably the reason my fitness was affected, causing wilting late in the second half.  Fortunately I think some of the opposition had also been affected by the winter holidays, so despite my showing, we had a competitive 2-2 draw.  It has been really good to see how well some of the boys new to adult hockey at the start of the season have adapted.  The Leighton Buzzard clubhouse was conveniently on the way home, so even though it was late, we stopped briefly to be sociable, (and for a bowl of chilli while watching some of Spurs-Leeds on the big screen), before making our way back south.

When I got home I found that my eldest had gone out to a party at Frankie and Benny's in Wycombe, and that I had been volunteered to take a turn at picking him and a couple of his mates up at half-past-nine.  On the way back, I commented on my aches and tiredness, and thus prompted, my son did take the hint and asked me how we had got on.  Looking across at me, and at 16 enviably fit, he then suggested that I should go out for a run more often; I thanked him for his recommendation.  He is right though, so I suppose I will have to try and make an effort; maybe I can make it a late New Year's resolution.  In fact, I reckon many, possibly most, of us could do worse than following his advice.  It just goes to show that maybe there's wisdom in youth as well as in the old men.

Seniors off but Juniors start the New Year's Hockey

After several weeks of holidays, the league season proper was due to resume this Saturday, and I for one was certainly looking forward to brushing away the cobwebs and getting a run around.  All last week we looked at the snow on the ground, hoping that the warm weather would arrive and allow us to play at the weekend.  Dan and I were due to start at 10am in the 5s, so we were not hopeful.  By Thursday we still had over 10cm of snow on an untouched pitch (see photo).  The opposition for our home matches were ringing up to find out if we were playing, and our own away matches were being cancelled.  A note from the league said that we had to wait until Friday 3pm to cancel for adverse weather so we hung on until in the hope it would look better.  Although it had warmed up, the ground was still covered and eventually on Friday we had to send out our own cancellations, but we agreed that we would try to clear the pitch Saturday morning so that at least the Juniors could train on Sunday, followed by a county training session we were hosting.

I dragged my boys out of bed on Saturday to help, pursuading them with hot croissants.  We drove down to Newlands at just past 10 to find that the warmer air and rain had almost cleared the pitch.  There were a few small patches of slush but these were obviously melting fast.  In fact the pitch would have been playable by lunchtime, sometimes though, you just have to make a call.

Sunday was a lovely day, and when we arrived for the second session, the little-uns were running around in their training matches.  Looking around Newlands, you would never have guessed that this looked like the arctic tundra just a few days before.  We had excellent attendance for all the sessions which was great to see, and Soma was teaching some new skills, which is always appreciated.  In fact all sessions ran on a little so that everyone got a bit of extra time to get into the swing of things, prior to our first post-Chrismas junior matches next week.

As we were setting up the county session, one of the county trainers came up to me.  It was Neil who now also runs part of the Juniors at Wycombe, and who I used to play up front with in the (pre-merger) old Chalfont 1s.  Like me, he was finding that these days, hamstring problems often take their toll, and he was having a (hopefully temporary) forced breather.  I never quite managed to outscore Neil, though I did come close one year.  When he resumes in the Wycombe 5s, maybe he and his son will play against me and mine in our 5s.  Old warriors never die, they just get hamstrung.  And so, fingers crossed on the weather, and muscles and ligaments allowing, back to matches next week.