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.