Eastcote vs Henley

Eastcote at home, the most famous of the Northwest London hockey clubs. Last time we played these lads Henley lost 6-0, would the Tesco car park hockey club of Henley be able to win on their home turf? Things started well with a solid 2 goal lead built up in the first 35 minutes. The first was a penalty flick from Spanky (Richard Woolfrey), who tactically positioned himself such that the sun bounced off his head and blinded the opposition keeper. The second was a beautifully coordinated deflection goal, with Spanky and Ben (Chatterbox) Proudfoot, proving that teamwork does make the dream work. Meanwhile, whatever the Herbert family puts in their food is working, with the family (+Brandon) backline seeing off the chances of the opposition. Combining this with solid communication and (mostly) solid marking throughout the midfield, Henley kept Eastcote away from the Henley D. This led to Henley ending the half with a two-to-nothing lead.

However, like the famous West Germany vs Hungary World Cup comeback of 1954, the boys of Eastcote came into the second half swinging. The tone of the game shifted, with Robbie Farina receiving two completely deserved ‘undeserved’ green cards and Sam Baker getting a green card for being unable to count. This allowed Eastcote to put the pressure on to Henley with no less than 15 short corners. Two goals later Eastcote and the best club in Southeast Oxfordshire were feeling the pressure. This was alleviated by a drag flick from ‘The Fergus’, who achieved a 100% on-target success rate for his drag flicks. He did however feel bad for the opposition keeper and elected to deflect a promising opportunity wide of the post. In the middle of the pitch, Will managed to use his size 18 feet to successfully block many of Brandons' beautiful through balls, yet these feet did not prevent him from spending half of the game lying on the floor. Perhaps these repeated falls led to his voice finally breaking on one of Eastcote's many deadly breakaways. Fortunately, Adams's voice implies he has finally left the choir, and the defensive unit saw off the breakaway.

To seal the deal, Spanky had another opportunity to take a penalty flick, even without his devious sun-based tactics, he put the ball into the net. Whilst Brandon marshaled the troops to see out the final part of the game.

In the end, it was a 4-2 victory for Henely. Big thanks to JB for continuing his 100% home management run and to Nardus for taking time out of his busy netball schedule to play for us.