A Festive Victory

We started this postponed match against OCs with a minute silence in memory of Keith Hunt, a good friend and stalwart of RHC, with our thoughts very much going out to Elaine, Tim and Michelle. We were joined by OCs on the halfway line and remembered the good times we had all shared with Keith while also mourning his death.

The game was a 10am push-back and with the pitch shrouded in a light mist the Redsox very quickly showed their superior passing and possession abilities as the younger squad of OCs chased around to little avail. Some good flowing hockey saw the Redsox create but miss a few early chances before Ben Sharpe fired in a rising shot form a tight angle and beat the keeper at the near post, from then on the Redsox were in control and began scoring, but also missing, fairly regularly.

Man of the match Rob Thompson showed great control and strength on the ball to ensure we kept control of the game and moved forward threateningly; Rob finished with two goals, Ben Sharpe two goals and Keevey an impressive haul of four goals.

In truth everyone played well and the squad had a strong but balanced feel throughout (despite having only 12 players vs OCs 15). Hoops had a storming first half at right half and helped drive us forward, Damon and Mace took control of the defence and competed to throw the best aerial, Hamish didn’t put a foot wrong a left half. Alongside Rob T, Rage and South African Steve (or Paxo) kept the midfield in control while Gavin, Sharpe and Keevey kept the OCs defence under pressure throughout with strong running. It was good to welcome Jack Hargreaves back into action although his contribution mainly consisted of picking the ball out of the back of his net four times.

We had a number of outstanding misses as our strikers competed to belt the ball into the roof of the goal but the highlight was Gavin’s run onto an excellent Mason aerial, he rounded the keeper beautifully to leave an open goal and then interesting chose a sand wedge out of his bag and chipped the ball high over the cross bar! Other highlights included Sharpe telling Mace to simply put his drag flicked short corner on target and that the forwards would do the rest, Mace duly threw one straight at the keeper and Sharpe nonchalantly put away a one handed reverse stick rebound; also the sight of Micky charging after a through ball so disconcerted the OCs keeper that he lost his nerve and miskicked his clearance over his goal line unaware that Micky was still 30 metres away!

It was a resounding win that keeps the Redsox within two point of the lead and a great end to the first half of a very enjoyable season, the match was played in good spirit with Mike Gray blowing very well throughout. It was also good to see various members of the Thompson and Sharpe families on the touchline – with 12 goals to enjoy they chose a good game to watch.

Disappointingly OCs did not produce a match tea so the skipper resorted to raiding the kitty to buy hot dogs all round to help soak up the beer, but as always the post-match banter was excellent and a few sponsored jugs helped just stretch out the kitty enough.

Four of the squad headed back to RHC to share a few beers (and a proper match tea) with the victorious Grand Masters and as ever it was good to see so many old hockey friends enjoy some pre-Christmas cheer together.

We are back in action on January 7th away to Bromley & Beckenham so please make sure Bartie knows your avaialbilty.

Happy Christmas and here’s to more competitive and successful hockey in 2017.

Micky