Feisty Wayfarers Subdued

Thanks to a lot of encouragement from Barty during the week the London Wayfarers agreed to honour a rare away fixture at Reading HC. They clearly decided to take things seriously as they brought a strong squad of 12 good players who engaged in a serious warm -up and pre-match briefing and played the first 20 minutes looking like a top league side rather than the bottom team in the league. Despite skipper Hoops being away on parental duties Barty fortunately fielded a strong Redsox side and generously invited Micky to roll back a year and captain the side on the day.

London Wayfarers went 1-0 up but not for long….a good short corner slipped finish from Keevey and a flowing Redsox move finished well by Steve B saw us win back the lead and start to play good flowing hockey before half time.

In the second half the Redsox dominated play and Mike Rippon demonstrated a thing of rare beauty in Vets hockey, a perfectly executed drag flicked shot corner to beat their very agile 16 year old keeper (a nice way to celebrate a new Rippon arrival over Christmas). Rippo proved a threat to LW throughout with his pace and control and was central to our win. Further goals from Terry and Keevey (again) made it 5-1 before a rare defensive aberration allowed LW to score a consolation second goal and reduce Martin’s record to 1.6 goals against per game!

The Redsox diamond formation worked well and when the team passed the ball early and quickly we looked a class side that deserved to maintain its top of the table position. Big thanks to Jo N and Mike G for umpiring well in the face of some unnecessary bolshiness from the LW who clearly expected to come to RHC and win and were frustrated to be on the end of a good drubbing!!

Thank you Hoops (and the Redsox) for letting me captain the team once more, it was an honour….. keep up the excellent hockey and you’ll win the league again!

Micky