Leigh 1 - Bowdon Killer Bees 5

In the absence of General Coifurus Erectus, David 'Yokker' Swarbrick stood in as captain for the trip to Leigh (at Golborne!!). After acquiring a couple of players off Roger 'I'm not having a Dave in my team' Peach we set off on our sightseeing tour of Golborne.

We arrived at the pitch with everyone wandering where the oppo were only to find out that they were playing in the game before. This promptly lulled us into a false sense of security. "They are going to be knackered" states Andy 'Dave' Marshall, "so we can run rings around them". Then follows fifteen minutes of Leigh doing exactly that to us. Lo and behold Dave 'Trigger' Moseley sends the ball forward to Dave 'Yorkshire Terrier' Brown who slips it to Dave 'Rodney' Taylor who gives a pass to Chris 'Dave' Swithenbank to dribble past the Leigh defence and score the first goal.

Immediately from the restart Leigh throw an aerial which Nick 'Dave' West fails to collect leaving Adrian 'Dave' Reid stranded and so Leigh equalise. This then prompts a defensive rethink so Dave 'Jack Russell' Philips slots into right back and Andy 'Dave' Marshall slots into wandering right half.

The second half starts with Leigh's attacks being thwarted by the collective talents of Adrian 'Dave' Reid, Jay 'Dave' Burns and Nick 'Dave' West. This prompts the Daveless Jo T to pop up from right wing to reverse stick a goal which just made it over the goal line; 2-1. The Yorkshire Terrier and Trigger then tried to gift Leigh with the equaliser but Adrian 'Dave' Reid deftly guided the ball wide of the post. From the resulting long corner Dave 'Jack Russell' Philips gets his thumbnail ripped off and so we go down to nine Daves and Jo. Despite this we manage to score three more goals in the last ten minutes, one more from Jo T and two from Dave 'Yokker' Swarbrick. This momentous match also included three assists from Chris 'Dave' Swithenbank. More than he's given in his whole hockey career. (Ouch! Such a civilised match report until that last bit! Miaowww baby! Miaow! - Ed)

Bamber