Bad day at the beach for Henley

Henley were on the road this week, making the trek across the Big Smoke to play London Wayfarers in Crystal Palace. The National Sports Centre sounds fancy but it was difficult to see the difference between the beach volleyball courts and the hockey pitch, with a decent layer of sand covering the astro turf.

A disrupted weekend of train travel also set Henley on the back foot slightly, with some players only arriving 20 minutes before push back and with the weather coming in, it was all adding up to be a tough day at the office for Henley. This was confirmed within 5 minutes of the start; Wayfarers counter attacked as quickly as the pitch would allow and won a short corner, which was dispatched through the legs of Roy ‘Polo’ Cox. This quickly became two goals as some scrappy play in the D left the ball on the far post for an easy tap in.
Like the weather, things were looking bleak for Henley. Who better to try and turn things around for the travelling side than skipper Ed Foster, who latched on a through ball and finished sweetly on the reverse, over the on rushing Wayfarers’ keeper.

Half time arrived and Henley went out confident having felt they were on top for most of the first half, with Ed Hughes-Burne in particular looking solid in defence. This confidence was rewarded when Luke Gupta pulled the scores level and momentum was fully in Henley’s favour until a rash decision from the umpire sent David ‘Pele’ Ralph to the side-line for 5 minutes after the umpire had suggested Ralph had attempted to volley the ball out of play.

Salt was rubbed in the wound when a few minutes later, Henley’s Benji Hetherington was given a breather for ‘deliberately’ clearing the ball with the back of his stick. A penalty stroke was awarded and sent home. This led to a phase of play which resulted in further ill-discipline and Wayfarers smashing 3 more goals in, leaving Henley 6-2 down after a disastrous 10 minutes of play.

Once back to full strength, Henley managed to pull a few goals back through Rhys Joyce and Luke Gupta but the final result wasn’t what they had hoped for, losing 7 – 4. Despite the score line, Geoff Joseph managed to set himself a new personal record with the most time spent off the pitch at the umpire’s request.