Bowdon Killer Bee's 3 - Olston 1Another convincing victory for the seemingly invincible machine that is the Bee's. Saturday 21st October saw the English Hockey Association try out their latest format of the game: 10-a-side. I believe this new style to be designed to bring on coronaries among players on a more frequent basis. The usual suspects were involved in the comprehensive destruction of Olston. The usual formation of "defend if we can be bothered" was employed to great effect with Nick West marshalling the defence with some well timed interceptions and admonishments to the more abusive elements of the team( namely me!). Olly Hawkins breaking from the back with the usual pace and power defying Isaac Newton at every manouevre ably assisted by the no nonsense playmaking of J supplying the pacier players. Carl with his unique "one armed bandit" style combined with pure terrier-like instincts of never letting the ball go inter-changed with Al Kenny's man-management skills in the centre of the field. All roads eventually leading to the youth and pace of the team Andy Marsland whose pre-match moans of "I bloody hate grass!" were unsurprisingly followed by a brace of goals. (But if you have that many shots in one game your bound to score eventually!). Short corners again proved to cause havoc with the opposition especially when they saw the way Rains winds up the stroke intent on decapitating the opposition! Sticky's wing wizardry was likened to a certain Welshman who plays football in Red and Black on a Saturday afternoon but to significantly larger audience than Sticky deserved. As he came oh so close to converting another chance at the back post...but fell over in shock as the ball came his way, hard lines mate! All in all a well deserved victory and may I suggest that we have more beer at half time as the more we drink the shorter the passes get!(Memories of the half-time team talk always useful.) Alex Fishwick |