Abingdon Hockey Club

ABINGDON HOCKEY CLUB 3RD TEAM MATCH REPORT 6th March 2010

ABINGDON 1 2 WEST HAMPSTEAD

WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH THE THIRDS GET STUFFED

West Hampstead, second in the league and beating all comers except Swans, were expecting to give us another thumping and found our resilience quite frustrating. They had all the possession but our defence is no pushover with both Petes, Dave and Richard closing them down quickly, sticking with them and getting in telling tackles. They never looked like scoring from open play and we always looked dangerous on the break. Halfway through the first half the Londoners had a shot from a short corner which Tony saved but the rebound went to one of their players who slotted home. Ten minutes later, however we came back with a breakaway and Stu equalised with a well struck rising shot from the edge of the area. The game continued much the same way in the second half until a harmless ball came through and Tony, instead of just shepherding it off, kicked it to a Londoner who scored. It was heartbreaking because we were holding them so well and they were showing signs of frustration. We were worth a point at least but worse was to follow. West Hampstead did not shower, went straight to the Boundary House and ate nearly all the food, leaving us just a couple of sandwiches. Still it is nice to have a good crowd turning up for food and a few pints

MAN OF THE MATCH : Stu, the fittest and most skilful player in the side whose passing is improving week on week and scored a brilliant equaliser.

THE BRICK : has to be Tony who played brilliantly until that last crucial senior moment.

Richard Smart

ABINGDON HOCKEY CLUB 3RD TEAM MATCH REPORT 27th Feb 2010

SONNING 3 1 ABINGDON
WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH THE THIRDS GET STUFFED

Another game featuring young, fast and skilful forwards who kept us pinned down in our own half for long stretches of the whole game. However there is a resolute steeliness to our defence, particularly since the arrival of John Barron who very rarely lets anyone past him and uses all sorts of methods to stop them. Not bad for a man who will soon be getting his bus pass. It was also good to have our Zimbabwean trio together, offering us the possibility of a breakaway. Sonning`s forwards were getting frustrated and then, ten minutes before half time the unthinkable happened ! We took the lead ! Several things happened which do not normally happen.

A good clearance to one of our players, Froggy.
He stopped and controlled the ball.
He got into their D WITH THE BALL !
The keeper came out and Froggy somehow slipped the ball past him.
The ball rolled agonisingly slowly over the goal line.
Being in the lead at half time was quite a novel experience and Malcolm was unable to give us any advice on how to deal with this new emotion. Our defence continued its sterling efforts to keep these young skilful players out but in the end they proved too strong and scored three in the second half, two from short corners and one fine strike from open play.

In the evening the club met up at the Kings Head and Bell at 8.00 for a very pleasant evening, I hope this will become a weekly event. Froggy, Tony, Phil and I represented the thirds. Lets do it again next week

Richard Smart

ABINGDON HOCKEY CLUB 3RD TEAM MATCH REPORT 6th February

ABINGDON 0 11 SWANS

This game did not start well and quickly got worse. We turned up at Gosford Hill for a home match against the league leaders and waited for our team to turn up. After a while it became apparent that there had been a mix up and unless we took drastic action we would have no keeper so a couple of guys drove round to Pete Bowen`s house to borrow his kit. It was getting late and we had to get started so we did with just nine players and no keeper. We were quite chuffed to only concede two goals in this time and eventually we got Jamie Simmonds, an ex Tilsley Tiger, padded up and his nightmare baptism of fire began.

7 – 0 down at half time and words of encouragement were hard to find. We decided to imagine we were starting again at 0-0 and played much better in the second half only conceding four. The scoreline belies the fact that we actually played quite well for long periods and were worth a couple of goals at least.

There were two noteworthy incidents in the second half. First Malcolm tried to drill the ball straight through Richard Myhill`s head but he ducked and only received a glancing blow which had him taken off for about five minutes to recover. Then Ed the Frog was blatantly fouled twice and on each occasion his fiery Gallic temperament caused him to revert to abusing his wrongdoer in quite colourful French. There was no match tea so some of us went to the Boundary House and the Swans went home to look up the words `enculer` and `connard` in a French dictionary

Richard Smart

Dear All,

Yes, the date for the next social is finally fixed! We are going to have a pub night / crawl around Abingdon (Start pub TBC), on SATURDAY FEBRUARY 27TH.

We hope to see as many people as possible there, it will be a great opportunity to catch up with others in the club who you don’t normally play with and perhaps haven’t socialized with in a while.

It promises to be an evening of much merriment – so pop the date in the diary and we will see you there!

All Best
AHC Committee

ABINGDON HOCKEY CLUB 3RD TEAM MATCH REPORT 13th Feb 2010

SLOUGH 6 0 ABINGDON
WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH THE THIRDS GET STUFFED

In the morning we had ten players, one failed to turn up so we knew we were in for a tough game of nine versus eleven with substitutes. Our line up looked a bit like a super vets team with four players over 50, four in their forties and Jamie, our youth policy. Our plan was to defend in numbers and hope for a breakaway using Jamie`s pace. We defended very well and were only 3-0 down at half time. Pete Long came closest to scoring with a well struck shot which hit the post with a resounding clang, trouble was, it was OUR goalpost ! Just before half time Richard Myhill accidentally cracked an opponent on the top of the head with his stick which resulted in a lot of threatening and obscene language directed at poor old Richard who, as we know, wouldn`t knowingly hurt a fly but now has a reputation for being the `animal` of the team. Several players tried to placate Richard`s victim but he wasn`t having any of it and in the second half we leaked three more. We actually played very well and Slough said afterwards that they found it very hard to play against us. Apart from Richard`s attempt at reducing the number of Slough players on the pitch , it was a nice sociable game with samosas , beer and chat in their clubhouse.

If we can get a regular eleven out and maybe some young players we could hold our own in this division but when half the team is over fifty it`s difficult to play against a good development side like Slough.

Richard Smart

South Hockey League, MBBO Division 2.

Witney v’s Abingdon
at Wood Green School, Saturday 30th January 2010.

Following last week’s strong display, Abingdon were in a confident mood
as they travelled to Witney for the return fixture against the Division
2 leaders, looking to avenge their heavy defeat at the beginning of the
season.

Abingdon had the better of the opening 25 minutes and by mid way through
the first half had opened up a two goal lead. Owen Blackburn gave the
visitors the lead after 10 minutes, tucking the ball under the advancing
goalkeeper from the edge of the circle after Ron Smith’s quickly taken
free hit caught the Witney defence napping.

Ten minutes later Abingdon deservedly went two up. From a free hit
outside the circle the ball was played to Andy Ringsell whose ball into
the circle was deflected past the Witney goalkeeper from close range by
Ron Smith.

Despite Witney coming back strongly towards the end of the first half,
the Abingdon defence held firm to maintain their two goal lead at half
term.

Witney made the best possible start to the second half, as they pulled
one back within a minute of the restart to make it 2-1. Then, with 15
minutes remaining, the home side drew level when Tim Hardy sent an
unstoppable drag flick into the roof of the net.

In the final 10 minutes both teams had good opportunities to grab a late
winner. Will Trigg and Denis McMillan both had close ranges shots saved
by the Witney goalkeeper, while Witney won a couple of penalty corners
but were unable to find the back of the net.

Final Score: Witney 2 Abingdon 2

ABINGDON HOCKEY CLUB 3RD TEAM MATCH REPORT 30TH JANUARY

HIGH WYCOMBE 2 0 ABINGDON

THE THIRDS` MOTO : WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH THE THIRDS GET STUFFED

After last week`s blip when the thirds entered the unfamiliar territory of winning we were pleased to go back to our comfort zone of consistent losing.

Dave `motormouth` Rollins and Malc `optimist` West gave inspiring and uplifting team talks before the game started and we pushed back, amazingly convinced that we could win and for long periods we held them and even had a few chances ourselves with Ben Lawler and Edouard ( FrogEd ) both going close but they scored a very well taken goal ten minutes before half time. Under lesser leaders, heads would have dropped but it is a tribute to Dave`s and Malcolm`s powers of persuasion that we entered the second half convinced, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that we could get something out of this match and we battled to the bitter end and even when High Wycombe scored rather a soft second goal heads did not drop ( apart from mine which is always rather close to the ground )

The trouble is a good hockey player has skill, pace, stamina and intelligence. Several of our players have one or more of these attributes but Smarty no longer has any of them. High Wycombe had some players who had all of them, one sickeningly talented player whose face I never saw because he was always well past me by the time I managed to look up.

The team played with determination and resilience, we are improving and one day I reckon we will win another game and eventually we will have to change our moto.
Richard Smart

Dear All,

As you know the committee have been in talks over how to grow the club. We have lots of ideas, but we are all agreed that what Abingdon could do with is a junior section.

Yesterday Anna and I went to a junior hockey competition for all the primary schools in the vale, there were so many young girls and boys who clearly loved playing hockey and currently do not have a junior section in the vale to play for.

We are hoping to work in partnership with the Vale and local schools to set up a junior section at Abingdon. Before we can set up a fully functioning junior section we need to invest in getting coaching qualifications, and also need to get CRB checks and put policies in place. However, we are hoping to (from next September) work with the schools in the Vale and the Vale partnership to help with some junior training courses / sessions that we are hoping will run for boys and girls aged under 11. The idea would then be to set ourselves up so we can take over the following year and start with maybe offer some coaching sessions and perhaps arrange some friendly games. Then build on this on years after, gradually expand until we have a proper youth section which will then feed into the men’s and ladies section and really strengthen the club.

We are working on this now and it is very exciting, I hope you all want to be a part of it!

I will keep you updated when I have a firmer idea of what is happening.

It was overcast as Abingdon Ladies 1s travelled down the M40 to Amersham and Chalfont HC, but hopes were high after the promise that the Ladies had shown in the first half of the season.

From the off the Abingdon Ladies challenged the Amersham defence, Anna and Gemma looking strong in the middle, driving the ball forwards and into the D, well supported by Paula and Lisa. Within the opening few
minutes Abingdon narrowly missed a chance and Amersham went on the defensive. However, as the Abingdon side pushed up to put the pressure on the home side, Amersham were able to make some counter attacks, but
these were held off well by the Abingdon backs, led well by Chantel whose sweeping was top class!

Abingdon continued on the offensive, narrowly missing a number of chances, but this only spurred the girls in blue on until a lovely pass to Aimee F in mid-field saw the right open up – she drove the
ball forward with skill, took it all the way into the D, the last Amersham defender came towards her, but Aimee saw Sarah S had made the run on the left, so she made a brilliantly timed pass, giving Sarah
the time on the ball the compose herself and flick it (seemingly effortlessly) over the Keeper and into the back of the net.

The Abingdon side continued to pile on the pressure, but just before half time Amersham managed to sneak in an equalizer from a well executed short corner.

Half time 1-1. Abingdon knew they could win this and came out hard in the second half. The ladies all played brilliantly, everyone fighting hard for the ball, passing well, playing together as a team and really putting Amersham under pressure and forcing the keeper to make some excellent saves. The Abingdon defence worked well together to hold off the challenges in the second half, and Keeper Lesley made some absolutely fantastic saves.

Abingdon pressed hard throughout the second half, never giving up. Unfortunately the ladies were not quite able to score to take the win but certainly deserved to. However, a 1-1 draw against Amersham is an excellent start to the back half of the season and bodes very well indeed for the Ladies 1s.