Ladies 2s WON 2-0 vs West Hampstead
Ladies General : 11am Push Back – 6-1 WIN
Report by Kathy Hammond
Oranje boom – Southgate goes triple Dutch!
Eva Spithout was the hatrick heroine in the first of Saturday’s two mixed-ability matches for the ladies’ section at Trent Park against Southgate’s close friends and neighbours Hendon & Mill Hill.
The young Dutch woman’s three goals accounted for half of the home side’s scoreline as Southgate ran out 6-1 winners. Eva was joined on the scoresheet by fellow teenager Deborah James who executed a brace of perfect drag-flick goals, and by Vicky Greensmith who capped off a match of outstanding selfless play at centre-forward with a fine solo effort.
Despite a brief period of H&MH dominance early on which saw them win a PC, Southgate played beautiful passing hockey with the team’s other Dutch signing Esther Trienekens distributing with superb pace and pinpoint accuracy at centre-mid.
The right-hand side was particularly strong in attack during the first half thanks to our combination of Megan Lam (RB) Olivia Richardson (RM) and Deborah on the wing all team mates from the U16s. So ‘gate went 3 nil up before the ladies in blue stole a march and caught the defence out with a breakaway goal shortly before the break.
Undaunted Southgate came back out and almost scored straight away from the first passage of play as we switched to the left-hand side showing superlative speed and skill.
Aleyna Ayyildiz (GK) and Jo Berndes (S) were instrumental in the second half marshalling the rest of the defence (Rhianna Duthie, Sum Sze Tam, Kathy Hammond and Megan) and with Jo ensuring a back pass was always on. Their constant direction ensured Southgate didn’t get caught out a second time as the team played high and to seek more goals. Sum Sze and Rhianna were both patient and accurate in the transfer, keeping possession until a channel opened up. And Megan stepped into central midfield to hone her distribution and decision-making skills.
Overloading in this way paid off and despite never playing together as a team before, the women in red-and-black worked hard for one another off the ball creating more chances and forcing save after save from the H&MH keeper.
A key strength of this team-for-a-day was its versatility as several players were able to show they can play across different lines. Veteran campaigner Jo Price was dogged in the tackle playing at left and right in midfield and defence having a superb game, while Helena Weblin astounded with her penetrating leads showing she can mix it up on the forward line just as well as in defence.
“We were very grateful to Magda Charalambous who swapped her stick for the whistle and umpired with great aplomb,” said Kathy, captain for the day, “and delighted to have teas once more while we soaked up the sun and the buzzy atmosphere at the club.”
Ladies General : 1pm Pushback – 3-0 WIN
Report by Michelle Joubert
As I sit to write this match report I realise how little I often remember from a game and will ensure to make notes this weekend coming so I can aspire to give a slightly more detailed match report for all of our eager readers out there!
Sadly I even struggled to remember the score at first, although I was certain that Olive scored AT LEAST 3 goals in the game, and pretty certain Laura conceded none in goals, so were going with a 3-0 Victory! (If anyone has got this far down in the report and thinks I have this totally wrong, please do let me know!)
Getting back to Laura, you were amazing in Goals! Saving us from a P-Flick I may or may not have caused, the joys of me doing the write up, you will never really know…
It was a beautiful day for us all down at Trent Park, we continue to just be thrilled to be back out there with all of our friends! It is such a joy to play mixed games across the 3s, 4s and 5s and even more amazing to see how well we all play together, like no time had passed and we had been a team for years!
Thank you again to those who organised the games for us, Captain Cat, our lovely umpires Mike & Pinakeen, thank you! Jo Price for taking some photos – which I kindly requested the ones of me eating teas after to not make it into this report! … Although hoorah! Teas were back! What a treat! Thank you Liz and team! It was accompanied by a half pint shandy (we have to take it easy these days as we rediscover what life on the outside is really like!), some chats with friends and lovely sunshine! We have certainly missed that feeling and it certainly felt like life was back to normal for the afternoon, the ache of playing Saturday hockey certainly was back on Sunday!
We look forward to this coming weekend where we take on H&W in friendlies, and hope to follow it with a (WHOLE!) pint (probably a shandy still, baby steps and all that), and every endeavor for me to come back next week with an actual match report!