Harlequins Mens Hockey Match Report

Harlequins (E) 2 - C of I (E) 1

Munster Division 3

Sunday 6th October 2002

Scorers: J. O'Mahony, M. Egner

By A. Mathewson

I'm not sure what happened on Sunday. However, it was something of a miracle...We seem to have won our first match of the season (2 - 1). We were all suffering a bit from the victory dinner (well I was anyway!) and it seemed that the C of I people must have been at something similar. We were a bit stuck for players and noticed a few players who were playing for the IVs that I had in mind for our team. We ended up with bare eleven, and in any event the game went very well, we had new player at left back (me) and Jonathan from Cricket (sorry don't know his surname), Mark Egner and another young fella called David.

Both Mark and David were very good players on each wing and they were fast and caused CI no end of problems. Jonathon looked a bit like a goal keeper playing out field but we' ll give him a go next time at goal so that we will have some cover for Clive if things get heavy on the plumbing front. Groovie Joe and John Eakins were marvelous in midfield and Tony Denis and Simon King were the kingpins of the wall against which a load of their atacks broke down. Indeed, the wall looked as if they had gotten to know each other since last weeks introductions.

To the game. We kicked off and we had a substantial amount of the ball, playing well in nice little triangles etc. I thought our team had radically improved since I last played with them and the effects of a long season with millions of defeats were not hanging over them. C o I had a few short corners and Clive saved the resulting shots with consumate ease. Clearly, his new helmet isn't getting in his eyes this year.

We got our first goal after about ten minutes following a period of sustained pressure where we were in their half most of the time. The second came from Groovie Joe about 5 minutes after that and we were cruising. I'm not entirely sure it was a deliberate shot, more like a cross that went wrong, but it went in anyway and we were well happy!

Just before the break of half time Gavin Payne had to go away for an assignment, which left us with ten players. We tried to sort the team out to compensate for his absence and we suferred a bit more pressure in the second half. With a few more short corners conceded and one occasion I 'inadvertently' kicked the ball off the line but looked so clumsy that I didnt give away a flick (thanks to David Egner for that one!!)

We held out well for the rest of the second half until about ten minutes to go when we conceded another short and they scored from it.

That next ten minutes was a very long and draining period of time that I have expunged form my memory for reasons of mental health. However, I do recal that Gavin came back from his 'meeting' with about five minutes to spare until the end and it made a significant difference to our ability to hold on for the win. When the whistle blew for full time I was very relieved and happy. I am now really happy and am looking forward to the club meeting tonight to describe our exploits if full glorious colour.