Nervous chatter, outrageous driving and a diehard philosophy. Who else could this be, other than the Shoreham College Under 15 Mixed Hockey team in a minibus? Indeed, as a privileged member of the prestigious establishment, I felt the same tension as we neared our destination, knowing two full pitched games lay ahead of us…

We had played both teams before, narrowly being defeated each time, so we were very much hoping for a victory on this occasion. We also knew of some certain rather unmistakable individuals who we would, in due course, face across the pitch. Amongst these was the rather infamous Newlands player, Tim, who owing to his somewhat lofty stature had come to be known as ‘Ten Foot Tim’. Although we had played against him before, and proved that he was not infallible, we still felt rather in his shadow (so to speak).

After the customary warm up (taken as obligatory by everyone but Tessa and Izzie), we waited in anticipation for our first opponents, the Newlands team, expecting to be able to spot Ten Foot Tim a mile off. Unfortunately, we not only spotted TFT, but most of the Newlands team, who equalled if not excelled TFT’s height. Clearly, amongst our opponents, there must have been an Eleven Foot Ellie, a Twelve Foot Tom, and a Thirteen Foot Theo.

Not deterred (certainly not in the case of Rubi, our Captain, who decided to try and raise morale by inventing a war chant of ‘Ten Foot Tim [and friends] shall die!’), we started the match. All was fast and furious for the first few minutes, with great play from the team, including Richard up front, with our Captain on the right wing, Shaun on the left, Peter, Tom and my humble self taking left, centre and right midfield respectively, with a sturdy backup of Tessa, Zulf and Nathan in defence and Cameron in goal.

Come half time, despite all our gallant efforts, and Rubi’s increasingly violent vocal team ‘encouragement’, we found ourselves 1-0 down. After a quick summary, analysis and divulsion of the goods, the bads and the uglies from Miss Grant, which seemed to involve the words ‘what’ ‘Earth’ ‘doing’ ‘an’ ‘are’ and ‘you’ quite a lot, it was straight back at ‘em, with Izzie and Hartley coming on to replace two tiring or injured players, amongst whom was Zulf, who had fallen victim to one of TFT’s slightly hard hits.

Our Captain was delegated to take on the aforementioned giant, and soon we had them under pressure. Ours was for the taking, at least until Hartley (involuntarily) gave the ball a Beckam free kick with his foot, which is, strictly speaking, illegal. Blown up by the referee, we were subjected to a short corner – a very grave situation indeed – and despite the gallant efforts of the five players from our side allowed in the box, a Newlands shot sent the ball home. Oh, the pain!

Nevermind! Look forwards, never back. Such is the ethos of the well trained, by now battle hardened Shoreham College Hockey player. Despite being exhausted, we still had to play another match…and so we did, against Lewes.

Starting afresh, we made good of our experience with Newlands, and really played good Hockey. A strong defence ensured that Lewes had a hard time getting into shooting position. Worthy of mention is Nathan, who was given the somewhat daunting task of taking all 16- yard hit outs (equivalent to goal kicks), when the pitch seemed swamped with Lewes players. Also, our goalie, Cameron, proved that he meant business with several key saves.

We really were doing very well, and despite the other team getting a penalty for a slight incursion of the rules on my behalf (I don’t know, all I did was trip him up and make him drop his stick!), we looked poised to win fair and square.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t quite slip a goal through the Lewes defence. We never gave up, though, with notable work from Richard in attacking relentlessly, Tom for general all round good playing and Peter for a series of good hits when we were awarded penalties.

Up until the very last moment we kept working, with great play from Sophie in defence (females get extremely aggressive), yet more mad courage in the face of adversity from Rubi, and sturdy support from Tessa, ensuring, at least, that Lewes could not score.

The afternoon proved extremely enjoyable, and got us all eager to play some more Hockey in the near future. Many thanks to Miss Grant, our most enthusiastic coach, Mrs Liley, who drove us there and back, acted as timekeeper, and attempted to get to grips with her camera for a group photo, the Southdown Centre, for use of their excellent Astroturf Hockey pitch, all our opponents (it would have been a bit one sided without them), and last but not least all the parents who came and gave us their support…we appreciate it!

Final Scores:
Shoreham College 0 - Newlands Manor 2
Shoreham College 0 - Lewes Old Grammar 0

Match report by: Taylor Carey 10PA