Alison Close reporting from the goal line

It was cold and wet – not the right conditions that anyone would want to play hockey in, so as we sat huddled in the Epsom’s port-a-cabin changing rooms, reminiscing about half time oranges, contemplating whether to go for a run – Epsom were keen and had already done a 1-mile jog, 30-minute fitness session, – no I lie but they had gone out for a quick warm-up jog. With Rids, debut, minding the door and making sure we didn’t get locked in – Liz was very nervous about this and regaled her experience at being stuck in someone’s loo for an hour !! The rain then stopped and we trundled onto the pitch. There were lots of cuddles and “I remember you”, “how you doing?” mainly from Ali and Burrsy (Canterbury were playing before us).

The game started in earnest and Epsom looked a very well drilled and organised team. It wasn’t long before they went 2-0 up, despite some great chances from our forwards, with Fran, Sue etc linking up with Jill and Mitch (debut). At one point I think even Macca missed the goal by inches at a well drilled corner.

The defensive team were certainly kept busy, forcing Ali to make multiple saves with Rids also saving off the line and at one point even Jill came racing back to join in. We had our chances and had several short corners which worked well but we couldn’t quite finish off. Epsom were good with most of their 1’s playing, and they were pinging the ball around the pitch, finding many open channels. By half time, we were down 4-0. A rousing talk by captain Liz, well she said let’s go and have fun! And we started the 2nd half in a really attacking mode winning several short corners again. Epsom defended well and pushed forward before scoring 2 more goals.

It was fun, we had lovely teas (yes it was about the food – as Rids said) and it was nice to have a team from across the club. Let’s hope though next season we can go just that little bit further in the competition.