On a perfect sunny day at Trent Park, Southgate Flutes began with a minute’s silence to remember Jacky Murray, the secretary of LX Ladies who died recently and very suddenly after a game of hockey.
Once the whistle had gone Southgate (and friends from Hendon & MIll Hill, Aces, Old Cranleighans, Letchworth and Epsom) were on the attack. “We played some lovely flowing hockey,” said captain Lynn Bryden, “and you would never have known that we had not all played together as a team before.”
Some early forays by the opposition – essentially a touring side of O60s players drawn from across the south of England – into the D were soon stymied and Flutes were able to breach the LX defensive lines to win a PC beautifully converted by Caroline Hunt from a slick Sue Saunders injection. The women in red were on the march now and Caroline followed up her score 10 minutes later with a skilful solo run beating the keeper 1 on 1 to claim her brace and the winning goal.
The second half saw no more goals, but Flutes were on the ascendancy with plenty of chances denied only by some great goalkeeping from the diminutive LX shot-stopper. Final score 2-0 and a place in the quarter finals on March 19.
Thanks to Mark Langley and Paul Creeley for umpiring and to our new friends Maggie, Julie, Sue, Deborah, Colette, Kim and Pam for making the fixture possible.
