Ashford (Middlesex) Hockey Club

Saturday 5th Nov: Newbury & Thatcham 3s 0 – 0 Ashford 3s

This Bonfire Night saw Ashford’s 3rd XI battle to a deserved goalless draw against Newbury & Thatcham. Given their poor results so far this season, Saturday’s match saw the team turn in a performance that was less about explosions of individual colour and brilliance and instead embodied the dogged and intense fire of team spirit and work ethic.

For much of the game both teams cancelled each other out: chances were few and far between as the battle in the middle of the pitch burned relentlessly. The game sparked inconsistently but, as the second period wore on, Ashford began to dominate in central midfield and there were some strong forays forward from these areas that heralded pleasing and fluid positional interchange from the forwards. These resulted in a number of short corners that Ashford were unfortunate not to capitalize on and special mention must go to the Newbury & Thatcham captain who gamely took a powerful Bhamra drive to the forehead via a vicious deflection off his stick!

The plaudits for only their second points of the season, however, must go to Ashford’s defensive players. Trialing a new-look back line and defensive-midfield partnership, Ashford were resilient, combative and increasingly communicative, ultimately deserving of their first clean sheet of the season. Let them feed this newfound fire with similar levels of desire and commitment as they go into November!

Whilst the times against fixtures seem to have a bug, here’s the times for you as per the latests fixture sheet I have…but please, do check in with captains and let them know your availability…just in case there’s been another update!

SAT 22nd OCTOBER – also PLACE YOUR BETS SOCIAL from 7pm
ladies 1s vs Winchmore Hill HOME at 10.30
Men’s 1s vs Wallingford HOME at 12
ladies 3s vs PHC CHiswick HOME at 1.30
Men’s 5s vs Marlow HOME at 3
Men’s 2s vs Gerrards Cross AWAY at 12
Men’s 4s vs Oxford AWAY at 2.30
Ladies 2s vs Eastcote AWAY at 3

SAT OCT 29th
Ladies 3s vs Hendon & Mill Hill HOME at 12
Mens’s 2s vs Maidenhead HOME at 1.30
Men’s 4s vs Oxford Hawks HOME at 3
Men’s 1s vs Oxford AWAY at 1
Men’s 3s vs Phoenix & Ranlagh AWY at 2.30

All members of the men’s section are invited to an urgent meeting tonight at the Clubhouse at 7.30pm to discuss which of the way forward for the coming season as regards to the lower teams. Please be there if you can.

The AHC pre-season Newsletter has been e-mailed/posted out to all paid up members today. Or view it on line here. Pre-season Newsletter;
Hard copies are also available at the Clubhouse. Men’s, Ladies and Colts midweek winter training dates are contained in the latest, 6 page edition of ‘Read & Black’, details of the forthcoming Club Day on 3/9/11, along with all the other latest and other Club information. Please contact your team captain, the Men’s and Ladies Club Captain or pressofficer@ashfordhockeyclub.co.uk for further details.

‘Ashford will be kicking off the 2011-2012 season with our club day tournament on Saturday 3rd September. Meeting at 1pm for registration, we’ll be holding a mixed team, mixed ability tournament! Exact team size dependent upon numbers, but usually around 6-7 aside playing on half a pitch…a more gentle reintroduction into the game . Games should start at 1.30pm. Alongside the tournament, we’ll also be hoping for sunshine as we get out the BBQ and to have some social beers. If you are definitely able to make it or are hoping to, please let us know to aid catering. Should you know someone interested in playing hockey for Ashford, this is a great chance to come and meet us…so bring them along! Hope to see you there, Hynes, Lucy, Wendy & Cole’.

The Men’s summer league matches have started with four external teams and Ashford A and B sides taking part. A fixture list is posted on the Notice Board and please contact Peter Greatorex if you are interested in playing.

Men’s weekly fitness training for the 2011/12 season will start on Tuesday 28th June, on the grass at Short Lane at 7.30 pm.

All existing and new members welcome.

Nuggets of good news across the last 2 weeks…the 4′s gave themselves a reasonable chance of staying up by beating Maidenhead Magicians 3 goals to 2,  a late goal by Big Ad gave us the points, believe Shane and Adam got the others. The 5′s won this week beating Amersham & Chalfont 4-1, Jonathan from Luxembourg guested and scored from 1 yard (as ever) from a mis-hit shot by Ram who managed not to get sent off this week – and the 5′s have now won 4 games and sit in the lofty climes of lower middle! The 3′s played the league leaders and almost certain champions, OMT’s, last week and played some really good stuff. We really should have scored to make it 2-1 but didn’t and they got a late goal but a good performance and game. This week, they got a welcome point against City of Oxford who equalised in the last minute, mind you, we went in the lead with 3 mins to go from a MattSam p-flick.  He was going for top left, cocked it up and it dribbled along – fortunately the keeper had dived athletically to his right and could only watch the ball creep over the line! The 2′s had a really good game against Maidenhead 2′s equalising from an overtime short corner at the end of the first half, Gordo playing his first game in the 2′s for 13/14 years deflected it in and got very very excited! When Karan scored from close range, we were in Nirvana but a soft equaliser put the home teams tails up and they eventually won 4-2 but considering we wonly had 4 2nd team players, we should be both pleased with our performance as well as disappointed with the result.

I’m going to concentrate on the positive here covering the last 2 weeks. The 4’s got a very creditable 2-all draw against West Hampstead 6’s, which gives them real hope they could beat the drop (big game against Maidenhead this week), but played poorly this week against Leighton Buzzard. The 5’s won 4-2 against LB 3’s, weapon X getting a hat trick and I believe Kulvir, but lost the previous week 5-1 against WH 8’s. The 3’s finally got back to some decent form this week against league leaders, OMT’s 2’s. We lost 3-0 but really gave them a game and we enjoyed the contest…unlike the previous weekend where we lost 5-1 to LB 2’s, Adam H scoring and 4-1 (Frypot)  to Harrow 1’s on the Sunday to cement 11^th spot in the league!!!

While the 1’s unfortunately suffered heavy defeats, the 2’s have really picked up with another win over basement team Amershame & Chalfont by 4 goals to 1 (mind you, we lost to them the last time), Stewpot got a hat-trick and Chris B the other.

The ones continue to play some decent hockey but need to achieve more from their periods of fluency and pressure. Lewes made us pay and although they deserved to win, 4-1 (our goal from a The Lip drag-flick) was harsh.

The important thing about the 2’s was they won and 3 more points away from the bottom 3, the performance though left a lot to be desired (according to my unnamed Podge-like source) against a 10-man GX side that were deservedly 1-up at the break. Karan and I believe Jas scored the goals.

The 3’s Gordon Bennett if you are squeamish, look away now, I wish I had cos I watched the whole thing as we conspired to hand GX 2’s their first and almost certainly only points this season. I almost hope we were bribed to lose…all we can do is ensure we learn from the game and apply the lessons to this coming week. We are playing Leighton Buzzard who are just above us so I will hopefully be a happier bunny next week.

The 4’s did very well against the top team in the league, Brunel University who are leagues below where they should be. They breezed into a 3-0 lead before a nice move involving Jim B, me and Chris Lunn set up Shane Smith who still had a bit to do but reverse-sticked home. Soon after, a similar nice team move gave Adesh a chance and his zippy flick was clawed away brilliantly by their keeper. 2^nd half we were under a lot of pressure but coped very well with it, Doggers did very well but Dom Hillman had a barnstormer (?)of a game, absolutely fantastic…and it was a real team achievement to keep it at 3-1…

Again 5’s played well against a decent Marlow team and lost 4-0 – good to Mark Bell back in action Ding Dong!!!

Looking for silver linings in cloud this week – nul points for the boys. Sir Alex (2) and Rhino got the goals and we equalised twice but loose defence allowed Tulse Hill to score 5. The 2’s were plucky but lost 3-0 to a useful MK Dons 2’s.

The 3’s oh dear it was going so well…we finished the first half 2-1 up against Phoenix & Ranelagh, just about deserved it with a Big Amit whack and the same with a  Gordo deflection and gratifying to see some creative forward play and pressure with Dave Merchant impressing and great to see Dawson scaring their defenders again! Then did I say oh dear? In 5/6 minutes we conceded 2 goals that are hard to describe without me getting tearful and the guilty need to be protected (well, it must be worth a pint if I do)…anyway 3-2 down and the oppo had their tails up and we were a bit deflated, then we conceded another poor goal and then chased the game and got caught on the break for no 5 and then Carl scored near the end and yes we lost and time to move on, nothing to see, onwards and upwards etc etc

The 4’s were plucky too and really competed against Eastcote and were un-plucky to lose 3-1, goal from ????????? 5’s were up against the Wycombe whippersnappers and it was all a bit too much and we didn’t score any and they scored more than that!

Results for the Men have looked up in the last 2 weeks – even for the 1’s who have lost both games. The 1’s lost 4-3 to Henley (Jimmy Webber scored 2 and my eyesight is going cos I managed to confuse Justin with Rhino and now my memory is going cos I can’t remember which one I mistook for who! Anyway one of ‘em scored) and yesterday they conceded a very late goal to lose to an impressive Eastbourne team 3-1. The things to concentrate on are the performances by the teams and the closeness of the results – the first round of games were not close. We have a lot of new (and a bit rusty) players and it is not surprising that they are tiring towards the end of games. We do have time to turn things round though and need to keep our form and confidence and we will be fine.

The 2’s had one good ‘un and one bad ‘un. They lost 3-1 to Henley with MattE scoring a bobbly equaliser but got what they deserved, nothing…but bounced back in a game they really needed to win beating Slough 3-1 and going above them. Crabhands got 2 and a Darren Adams a shortie straight off the training pitch (sarcasm alert).

Similar for the 3’s – week before we played an MK 3’s team who are more than useful and for a change we did play well in the first half and held them to 1-0 and really competed. 2^nd half we built on this and pushed MK back a bit though Croxster was still very busy in goal and equalised midway through the half. Ryan Dare did some excellent work ferreting his way through the right to cross, Gordo got a deflection, off the keeper and Shaunie was in the right place to put it away. The last 20 mins were great fun but very hard, all the team played their part and Ryan in goal pulled off a spectacular airborne stick save from their lad who could really flick the ball, and we held on for 1-all. Great result and performance and why we play the game and turn up every/most weeks!

This week was disappointing…if we’d played like we had the week before….but we didn’t…and we were up against the best 4^th team in the universe (West Hampstead) and going 3-0 down pretty early didn’t help either!! Lost 4-1 with an Amster shortie.

The fours finally won a game! 2-1 against BA (and Teto again!!). Adamski short put us in the lead before the zippy Shane got the winner. Fantastic and off the bottom! Week before, they did very well to hold MK 4’s (and their ex-National League player) to 4 goals.

The 5’s lost an entertaining game to Staines this week 5-3 (with the not-very-zippy Peter Cottrell getting a hat-trick) (and Ram getting himself sent off cos he needed a rest). Week before, we beat Eastcote (did the double!) 4-0, I know Weapon X got the 4^th but can’t remember the others, sorry

Anyway that is 3 wins and a draw, for us that is a heck of a return!!

Disappointing week generally although one standout result for the 2’s. The 1’s resumed their league campaign against fellow strugglers, Ashford (Kent) and went one-up from a short corner conversion by Phil the Lip – unfortunately the visitors came back strongly and were 3-1 up at half time with the final score 5-1 as we chased the game. The enforced break probably didn’t help us here.

The 2’s had a fantastic result against Eastcote 3’s who are in the top 4 – we didn’t concede early and confidence increased when their defence could not cope with the blistering pace of Podge – his shot was parried and Shaggy did his batty-boy hit to put us 1-up. Although they equalised just before the half time whistle, our boys kept their shape and good form and were rewarded late on when Fry finished from close range. A superb result, which moves us up into mid-table – well done, lads!

The 3’s were a bit disappointing …Eastcote were nippy and inventive and played the ball round us for much of the game, they dominated the first half and we were 4 down and couldn’t complain. The second half we got into the game and played some decent stuff and we drew the half 2 apiece, Rishi finished off a very nice team move and Gordo scored from a short corner rebound. The 3’s and the 4’s who lost 6-0 probably do need a break now and make sure they are refreshed and ready for 8 Jan resumption.

The 5’s did great too beating GX 3’s 5-3, more than doubling their goal tally!!! Weapon Alpha got one, don’t know about the others

The 2’s continued their slow and steady improvement earning a well-deserved 1-all draw with Maidenhead. A win out of their next 2 games will probably put us in to mid-table and set us up for the 2^nd half of the season.

The 3’s were young even by this season’s standards with Robbie being 4^th oldest at 18. We lost 5-2 and made it very difficult for ourselves with a few soft goals – despite this, at times we played some very enterprising and skilful hockey and certainly made COO work for their win – the boys always put the effort in! Rishi G flicked in a shortie to make it 3-1 but their 4^th goal did for us and new player Perm (Rishi’s pop) smacked in our second late on from another shortie – thinking about it Perm shoulda curled it in.

4’s played a useful Bracknell 2’s – good game despite the freezing conditions but they were just a bit too good for us netting 7 goals