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Get your tickets for the Casino Royale Night (Sat 11th Feb) right now!

There will be red carpet entrance, bubbly on arrival, clubhouse transformed into a casino with Poker, Blackjack, Craps, Roulette and other fun games to keep you entertained.  And I’m sure everyone will be looking very dapper with black tie, smart suits and fancy frocks dress code, perfect photo opportuninities.

If you missed our first email about the Casino Royale Evening you can see the details byclicking here or visiting the facebook event here - https://www.facebook.com/events/241933629216655/

Mens and Ladies half pitch each, both have profesional coaches, no cost to attend, everyone welcome, specially new players… just turn up

Whitgift School location - http://g.co/maps/e2qdf

Clubhouse location - http://g.co/maps/spk5y

Although the 3s passed the ball about better than the 4s there was not a lot between the teams in the first half with both teams giving the ball away too easily in promising positions. The 4s should have scored first when James Granata was put through on goal but a desperate diving tackle kept him out. The 3s scored near the end of the half when the 4s defence failed to clear the ball cleanly.

The second half saw the 3s pressurizing the 4s defence and although there was some very strong defending especially from Neil Tunbridge and Cieran Pell the 3s increased their hold on the game with further goals including a penalty stroke.

Despite this the 4s threatened to score with some quick breaks with most of these starting with Stefan Winder but unfortunately they came to nothing as we lacked good control in the D.

POM was Cieran Pell playing his first game for the club for his strong work in defence and his willingness to start attacks up.

We held them for long periods of the game with some very stout defending. Their first goal came well into the first half and we always looked dangerous when we broke quickly. It was very unfortunate that near the end of the half a fluky goal put them 2 up when the ball was deflected off a defender’s stick and ballooned up in the air into the goal.

The second half was as hard as the first with a lot of pressure from the Epsom forwards and they breached our defences 3 more times despite some tigerish defending by all our defence and some excellent saves by Maatin. At times it looked as though we would score especially when James G(POM) combined well with Stefan and Dan. Foz worked very hard in midfield to get things moving. Martin from the 3s fitted well into the defence and Bob supported the attack well.

Some promising play by the 4s but we must try to keep the ball longer by doing more short accurate passes. We deserved at least to score a couple of goals.

Some early misses were soon forgotten once Dan beat the goalkeeper with a good shot from the edge of the circle to record his first goal for the team. Old Reigatians soon drew level from a short corner but goals from Jon from a short corner and Chris sent us happy into half time with a comfortable lead.

Reigatians came out strongly in the second half and narrowed the score from another short corner. However as the game went on we got more tenacious in our play and further goals came from Foz – his first for the 4s – with a cracking shot from the edge of the circle and Chris with his second put us in a commanding position. It was very noticeable that as we were ahead everybody was much more determined in their play to keep us in the lead. Our passing was better this week and the midfield tackled back when they lost the ball. More goals could have come near the end especially from Stefan who easily outpaced the opposition’s defence but unfortunately his shots hit the side of the goal.

This was a very good team effort with Jon being made POM for his short corner goal and the way he tackled back in defence this week.

ended up two nil down. Fortunately this was the wake up call we needed and we picked up the pace and eventually after some skillful play up front Becks Young managed to slot a goal past the Horley keeper. After giving ourselves a good talking to at half time we came back onto the pitch a different team, and started to play like our usual selves. Becks soon managed to put another ball in the back of the net to equalise, lifting the mood of the game. Thanks to her perfect positioning and cool head, our youngest player Laura Bullimore scored her first goal for the club, much to the delight of Mum Bullimore in defence. I’m sure this is just the first of many. A Becks Young hatrick sealed the win, and secured us the 3 points we needed to put us up into a much more respectable 7th place.

Seriously, though, this game was both encouraging and frustrating in equal measure.  We lost 3 -1 but were the better side for at least ¾ of the match.  We found ourselves down 2 – 0 after 8 minutes due to some slack defending – if I had to donate a pound for every time the call of ‘don’t dive in’ was ignored.. (mostly by me, worryingly).  This seemed to spur us on though and we began to dominate possession and territory.

The Kennington park sandpit was not the easiest of pitches to dribble or even change direction on but on the occasions that we switched play we really began to open up the oppos defences.  If we could have moved the ball a little quicker – rather than trying to beat that one extra person – we may have been able to have more opportunities on goal.  We were also guilty of not being ruthless enough in the last third of the pitch.  All players were guilty of not looking for a short corner or colleague in the d when we got close.  This meant we didn’t have anywhere near enough shots as our possession indicated we should have.  As it was our goal (rocket?) came more from their keeper seeming to be guarding an imaginary goal to the side of the real one, although he may just have been taken aback by us actually taking a shot!

When we scored it brought it to 2 – 1 and we were very much in the ascendency.  It is times like this where we need to be savvy and keep possession.  Getting hit on the break and conceding a soft goal was not we needed.  Although we then pressed hard we were unable to score the elusive second and push for more.

Some major positives from this week’s game as we are beginning to play to our structure much better and look like a team.  The defence were much tighter and our midfield much more composed than in previous weeks and it was good to see.  Next week we’ll just have to score more goals than them… Another loss for Croydon Hockey.

This Match report was brought to you in part by Trevor Clarke. This report may not reflect the views of Croydon & Old Whitgiftian Hockey Club

After an hour long drive with delays on the M25 and a winless streak sitting at two lingering in our minds, we were looking to get back into the win column and continue the quest of moving up the table. With a bright start, Jim Swift was lead down the right wing with a well-placed pass from Alan Johnston. Swifty picked out the far corner of the goal from just inside the D to make it 1-0 for us. From there, the scoring continued from just inside the D when Jon Gadion made it 2-0 with a bone-crushing strike. Then, Bob Stevenson collected a rebound off the keeper about waist height and smacked it into the goal, but to his dismay it was disallowed. He redeemed himself by scoring moments later. 3-0 Croydon Old Whits at half time.

Shortly into the second half, one of the opposing forwards got around our defence and then dodged goalkeeper Qaz Khoker putting the ball away to make it 3-1. We continued to pressure our opponents and we were rewarded when Akira got the ball past the keeper with some hard goalmouth work. Nick Radford went onto hit the post twice in consecutive moments and others failed to capitalise on the many other chances we had to increase the score margin. Final score: 4-1. POM this week goes to AJ (Alan Johnston)!