Hot Times in Harbados

This report’s milieu is misleading. Harborough’s 1s and 2s were meant to face their equivalent sides from Kettering, but they failed to get enough players to field two teams, so the shape of the day’s hockey altered. We were to battle Harborough, then our 2s, and then our 2s would play Harborough. Each half would be 20 minutes. These drastically shortened games were a relief, for the heat was brutal. Ant adapted his garden furniture into a cool-box, and Grant’s actual cool-box was much appreciated, yet even frequent gulps of water failed to boost an uneven performance. Our scoreline against Harborough perhaps flatters us, but we must never baulk at a win. Our loss to the 2s, however, is embarrassing, and it will hopefully inspire us to improve – especially since our first league match away against Ipswich 2s looms…

We quickly scored against Harborough. Ant put us ahead with one of his classic finishes, and Will Middleton, back at the club after a lengthy absence, scored our second. Grant’s shot from a short-corner hit the post, but his time would come later.

It was up to Will to continue scoring – though it took until the second-half. He waltzed past two defenders and unleashed a reverse-stick, still rising when it hit the roof of the net. We did concede, as Mikey deflected in a Harborough short-corner, but Grant scored with the last touch of the game, from a last-minute short-corner.

Our game against the 2s has little to report. Not because of embarrassment – honestly! – but because so little happened. We were knackered, and the heat continued to swell. Our basics collapsed. Passes either missed their man, or were outrageously bobbly, or often both. The 2s scored the game’s only goal when our passing errors led to a 1v1, with the 2s striker (a Harborough forward who had replaced an injured Sam Tattershall) converting. That’s all there is to it really. A 1-0 loss. I apologise for the lack of detail throughout this report, but there was a lot of hockey to remember this weekend. We didn’t vote for MoM and DoD. Hopefully, we can perform better against Ipswich next week!

#OnYourBikeDom #Will’sDrills #GrantAndAnt:TheCoolerKings