Southgate’s four men’s teams playing in the East League took all 12 points on offer scoring 16 goals for no reply.
Demir demonstrates goalkeeping prowess
3As bashful goalkeeper had his day in the sun protecting a slender lead v Hertford 3s.
3As beat Hertford 3s 2-0 to climb to second in East Div 5SW with goals from Ruben Straat and James Atkinson. Matt Ellis was player of the match but GK Veysel Demir also put in a stellar performance.
After going 1-0 up thanks to Straat’s reverse-stick strike, Demir pulled off a top-quality save to protect the lead. “I made an absolutely amazing diving top corner save with my left hand glove,” he said modestly. “Tremendous! Outstanding! I’m absolutely speechless!”
Demir, who went on to describe himself as “the future M1s ‘keeper” had plenty to do in the second period too after James Atkinson slotted away Southgate’s second. “Hertford started pressing hard and the ball was whizzed into the D,” explained Demir. “The striker deflected it from the P spot, the ball was going top corner and another terrific, diving save this time with my stick – truly incredible – kept us in the lead and with a clean sheet.”
Tankards A beat Bedford 5s 5-0 with three goals for Alastair Whatley and one a piece for Jack Levene and captain Will Hargrove. Harry Grinham was man of the match as the team go second in East Div6SW. “This was a really good team performance and nice to have kept a clean sheet as well,” said captain Hargrove. “The first 15 minutes saw us play well but with nothing to show for it. However, all this changed as we managed five evenly spaced goals thereafter.”
Most of the Southgate team’s success resulted from building pressure and retaining the ball. “Bedford were competitive in midfield but with only one man upfront they rarely managed to relieve the pressure,” explained Hargrove.
Tankards Y moved up to third in East Div8SW with a comfortable 8-0 win v Hertford 5s. Finlay Batchelor scored four, with Haimish Patel and Wayne Garner bagging two each. Man of the match was Freddie Trathen. The team was dominant from the start playing with an intensity that never let up. “As a performance, it was one of the most complete that I have ever seen a Tankards team play,” said captain Justin Edwards. “ Every single player did well and contributed to some very fine hockey indeed.”
Led by Justin Edwards in goal and Jez Lavy at sweeper with a solid centre back in Mark Thomsett, together with some great work at right back by Tony Mastroddi, Ys control and dominance was driven by a well balanced midfield. “We just kept on making the right decisions, setting up our forward line with opportunity after opportunity,” said Edwards.
It was very difficult to pick a man of the match performance for Y but votes went to Jez Lavy for another super performance, Guy Garner for some lovely stuff in midfield, including a very composed display at centre and James Fletcher, who had his best game yet for Tankards. “However, the man of the match vote went to Freddie Trathen,” said Edwards. “With Freddie at left back, we had attacking outlets on both sides of the pitch and I don’t think there are many teams that could have coped with that.”
Tankards Z beat St Albans 9s 1-0 thanks to an MS Patti strike with man-of-the-match going to Mat Mitchell. The team remains sixth in East Div8SW and benefited greatly from the cameo sprints of Adrian Scott-Knight, Upkar Paik and Chris Gerrard not to mention Nigel Dixon’s performance between the posts to ensure Z held on for a great win.
“When the Z team was selected, there was a concern that we had over-played the maturity card, but we needn’t have been worried,” said men’s chair of selectors Neil Prior. “Congratulations to all – Nigel Dixon, Nigel Spencer-Knott, Mat Mitchell, Joe Kelly, Ben Millson, Vivek Dongha, Pinakeen Patel, Ian Grammer, Robin Tullo, MS Patti, Upkar Paik, Brian Woolcott, Adrian Scott-Knight and Chris Gerrard. The age range must be some kind of record – nearly 70 years, Vivek is 14 and the oldest amongst the team can work out the exact age gap between themselves!”
Flagons rue Christmas celebrations
A 10am start away to Wimbledon proves costly for flagging Flagons. Read full report
Flagons rue Christmas celebrations
A 10am start away to Wimbledon proves costly for flagging Flagons.
“The early start coupled with some sore heads evident from Christmas celebrations on Friday night, meant we got off to a very slow start,” admitted Flagons captain Greg Wildisen. A slick reverse stick shot saw the Southgate men’s O40s side go into half time a goal down but some stern halftime words from Wildisen led to a Southgate rally at the start of the second period. “But we weren’t as clinical with our finishing and stumbled to full time three goals down,” he said. “But for some handy work in goal from Mike, we could have been down a fair few more.”
The final game of the year for the Flagons is at home at 1.30pm on Saturday against the old foe; East Grinstead.