Men's Match Reports

The match report this weeks comes from our Court correspondent, as our normal trainee overseas war correspondent is taking a rest whilst analysing the various permutations of league positions...

The game started brightly with us playing some nice attacking hockey but without creating too many chances. Our attacks tended to peter out on the edge of their D with their two most able and mobile players deployed to pick off our crosses. We did, however get three short corners and their goalkeeper was forced into several sharp saves....

So the Gondos took to the pitch on a sunny Saturday afternoon in Woking to continue our search for our first ever league title. With Epsom having been thrashed 6-0, Woking were our next opponents in this difficult patch of four good teams (Southampton at home and Oxford away to come)....

Epsom started the day a well-regarded 4^th in the league. A good quality squad of regulars who have always given the Gondoliers a challenging outing...

The omens were not good. First we had no goalie as James is spending the rest of the season in a futile bid to gain an Oscar. Then Tom got sent off the pitch by an umpire before the match had even started. Ok it was the water-based pitch and we were due to play on the sand-based, the umpire was blowing for the M2s game, and no cards were actually involved, but Tom was nevertheless evicted from the astro. The Gondoliers stayed cheering the 2s while we waited for the Windsor team to arrive, but, barring a couple of regulars we had met earlier in the season, none of them did...

Despite the hiccup against Oxted when we threw away victory (also notable for the day Regan got sent off for verbal abuse and Kuhle uncharacteristically buttoned his lip) the juggernaut marched on with an emphatic victory against a Havant side that was substantially the same that had beaten us earlier in the season.

Yesterday, at Guildford, the Gondoliers were served a stern wake-up call by Oxted Moonshiners – ably assisted by young Ian, Haslemere Vets’ star forward. We entered the game half asleep and a tad complacent. A significant proportion of the team continued to play as if they had left their office Christmas parties only an hour before...

The Men's 1s took their season break indoors to try and play their hockey with the theme being "Outdoor on Tour" as was depicted by some of the tackling put on show. But thankfully some of our more experienced indoor players showed us all how indoor should be played and we learned quickly...

A few succint messages about the Gondoliers win over Amersham & Chalfont. It seems to be one of those non-rhyming poems. Anyway, glad they won and that they reported it...

So now clear water between the Gondos and the rest at the top of the league after our impressive 6-0 over Horsham....