Guildford (3s) 4 – 1 Berrylands

Down to deepest Surrey we all trekked, some after a late night out in Wimbledon and some after an early morning trip to Gatwick, all ready for the final match of the 2016-17 season. The start of the game was delayed slightly waiting for the pitch to be watered and then we were off! As so often seems to happen, Berries were slow off the mark and Guildford, with their nippy young forwards, scored two goals before you could say “Blimey, they’re quick”. However, if you took the first five minutes or so out of the match, the game was extremely evenly balanced and soon Teresa in goal (who was very unlucky not to have saved Guildford’s first goal, having parried the first shot skilfully with her glove) and Hannah, Cairalee, Lins and Emily in defence had worked out the danger players and stuck to them like glue!

Before too long, Grace broke away up the centre of the pitch and dribbled her way into the D; her wide shot at goal (or was it a deliberate pass) was neatly picked up by Sofie and slotted past the keeper. 2-1. Game on!

Guildford, rotating their 16 players at regular intervals, managed to keep up the pressure and scored a 3rd goal just before half-time. Once again, Sharon went above and beyond the call of duty when defending short corners and shot out to cut off any shots at goal and Guildford had to resort to varying their short corner routine by slipping the ball sideways before shooting.

T gave us an encouraging half-time team talk and made us aware of Guildford’s game plan – play the width of the pitch and feed into the centre to score – and we managed to restrict them to a solitary goal in the second half, despite losing Hannah to a bashed finger and Lucia S got a bad whack on the ankle but managed to carry on after a brief respite off the pitch. Grace had another long run down the right of the pitch but failed to capitalise and the match ended 4-1. Upstairs for baked potatoes, a drink and some delicious hockey-themed cake courtesy of Ali. There was also a well-deserved presentation to T – thank you for getting us through another season!

Squad: Teresa (goal), Lins, Ali, Hannah, Emily, Lucia S, Sharon, Cairalee, Sofie D, Emma, Nikki, Helena, Vix, Grace