Richmond Roasted

A game of three halves – we won all three and played well in the first and third but the second is best forgotten!! This leaves the Relics top of the league!

On a day of showers and sunshine the Reading Relics hosted Richmond (who beat the Reading Supervets 1-0 last season in the final match to deny the team league title and chance of promotion), so with revenge very much in mind it was gratifying to see us win so comfortably.

A rare home match and miscommunication meant we had an unexpectedly large squad of 16 Relics all of whom were keen to play! This left the captain struggling with logistics as we needed to provide an umpire for each quarter, a player for Richmond and give everyone equal pitch time (the skipper proved he was unable to multi task and when on the pitch he played like a drain with his mind clearly elsewhere).

Despite numerous substitutions the Relics played a great first half to go 4-0 up with flowing hockey opening up regular chances, we scored one more in a forgettable second half as we lost shape and ball speed in the rain but came back in a storming third half in the bar to ensure the Relics were the last men standing by a significant margin. For the records books Jerry Cooke continued his rich vein with two more well taken goals, Bob wove a web of mystery to beat the keeper twice to score, Pelly struck a sweet short corner and Peter W finished well again.

Much more importantly Woolven was our man of the match as he not only put up with umpiring in partnership with four different Relics players but also chauffeured the legendary Trevor Jones to / from the game and beers afterwards. Trevor’s astute comments from the dug out and in the bar reminded us how much we have missed his hockey brain and presence.

It was truly a pleasure to share the day with the young whipper snapper Rustlers (although as Barry Davies would have said as the evening progressed in the bar “where were the Rustlers…….but frankly who cares!!!!” but more importantly good luck to the 050s cup team tomorrow, your cup match was a fair excuse for an early bath this evening.

My apologies but there were too many players for personal mentions for all!!

PLEASE TRY AND BE AT THE EGM 7.30PM ON THURSDAY 15TH TO VOTE THROUGH THE NEW, IMPORTANT PRO-HOCKEY CONSTITUTION.

Game on.

Micky