Epsom Tournament

A Sunday 1000 start was always going to be challenging but was made even more so by some sore heads from Saturday day/night celebrations. The ladies contingent were as a result of being victorious in their plate match - we are semi finalists, in case you hadn't heard :) - and the men's section Christmas parties. With this in mind some surprisingly steady and sprightly adventurers arrived at East Croydon to await their lift. The clock ticked on from the 0900 meet...0910...where is Jade?....0915...still nothing, apart from panicked what's app messages....Jade's what's app last on line 0621....0920 call Ross for back up ride...nothing from Robbo - El Capitano - either....push back getting ever closer and only Lydia at the pitch. Result - Ross, Mike, Nicky W and Vicky racing across the back roads (within speed limit) and Lydia charming Kenley into filling in for us. Apparently El Capitano had made the fatal error of not reading the team sheet properly - something that NEVER occurs in the L2s - and woke up at the time we were due to start. Oops!

Falling out of Ross' car with a minute to spare before first push back and getting ready whilst running to the pitch, shinnys and sticks flying everywhere (think 4 Weddings style...for those old enough to get the reference!), the speedy contingent were delighted to see Mulley and AJ alongside Lyds and the Kenley players. Thankfully we also seemed to be missing most of the opposition. Confidently we decided to play our joker - after all 7 could beat 2 right?...and then the oppo showed. And they were fairly nifty. 2-2 in the end.

Riverside were next and despite bribing the umpire we still lost 2-0. Ah well at least Jade and Robbo had now arrived safely, if somewhat shame faced. We also got an official cheerleader in the shape of Joe - cheers!

We decided to up our game at that point and to actually demonstrate some Cowstick presence clawing our way back to win the rest of our matches (I think...we might have drawn one, meh details!). Noted highlights include:
* Robbo's hat trick - her stupendous goal in the plate match had clearly given her a taste for the back of the net
* Mulley in goal - never has a keeper so nimbly moved around a D, thrown themselves with such dedication or taken out the opposition with such force. It was a sight to behold and he certainly kept us in some of the games.
* A pass by [redacted] straight to the opposition which may have led to a goal against us...whoops!
*Lydia and Jade managing to execute some classy short passes despite the somewhat bouncy pitch
* Some strong runs up the pitch from Mike and Ollie and spanking passes from Ross and AJ. Not too many divots!
*Vicky's goal hanging resulting in her first competitive goal.

Somewhere in the middle of these events we started drinking - I am ignoring Lydia's early morning port shot as the starting gun. Match facts therefore become a little blurry. Things improved after some members decided to have a mid afternoon nap - who knew they were so restorative?!

Sadly we were unable to repeat the L2s semi achievement narrowly missing out by 1 point on moving out of the group stage. And so to the Skylark for the brave/foolish amongst us: a tale for another time.