The Highly Dramatic One!

After two mentally tiring games against the uni’s, it was onto the local clubs. Alnwick’s recent form hasn’t been good however, we have learnt over the years to never underestimate them. We arrived with good focus and chat especially in the changing rooms where we had the pleasure of catching up with Lisa (her newly qualified position and life) and Claire (her boyfriend’s first visit to the family farm). This wasn’t the only farmer chat as Hodge displayed her snobbiness to everyone over what constitutes a ‘proper’ farmer. After Hodge had been shushed by the team it was over to Hannah to explain her new ‘Make Up’ look for hockey!

We made our way through the warm up and got ready to start the match. Well… we thought we had however Brian seemed to have other thoughts about our performance in the first 5mins. Not to worry though as Brian used his inspirational words and bellowed out across the pitch ‘COME ON… you are all still on the minibus!’

With this uplifting statement we quickly moved up the gears and started to build our passing and movement all the way down the pitch into the attacking 23m. Alnwick were allowing us a lot more time on the ball and our forwards were taking full advantage of creating space up front. We pushed to create chances at goal and we were rewarded with a penalty corner for our troubles. A beautiful ball out and sublime teamwork in the D created an opportunity for Hodge to be calm on the ball and slot it away. We still pressed Alnwick and were keen to get the ball back quick. When Alnwick had the ball they broke at pace however our defence we strong and Bossman Amy made some key saves in the game. With these shot at our goal we were keen to extend our lead.

A great ball into the D was demanding that someone got on the end of it and popped it into the goal. This was going to be up to our princesses up front. Nicky began to become highly dramatic and took to the floor in order to try and score. This over the top diving in the D wasn’t effective and in fact it was Bobilina who managed to score the goal whilst still on two feet.
We continued to creat opportunities by passing quicker and dribbling at pace going forwards. A flurry of goals continued with Bobi’s second coming from a lovely deflected goal, Megan finishing off a superb pass from ‘The Highly Dramatic’ Nicky with a one on one with the keeper, Megan’s second coming from a reverse stick shot, and Helen scoring yet again from a short corner.
All these goals came from patience, team work and a solid defensive platform to build on. Julia completed operation C on their key player in the second half to break down the Alnwick’s creative play in the middle. Not only were minds on hockey during the game but several team members had realized something was up with Claire. Whilst Hodge was snorting her drink, Claire was putting snot all over the pitch. In the second half ‘The highly Dramatic’ Nicky thought she’d start testing out the forwards ability to control her off the ground missile passes. Call it trials for the next game!
Towards the end of the game Baz was green card for her dangerous tackling or using her body when she shouldn’t be, then doing the same thing she managed to get away with it very close to the end of the game. However, their umpire was potentially trying to yellow card Bazi. Rachel F was still reliving the game from the previous week and started doing some very good faffing in the corner at one point.
After scoring 6 goals and playing well as a team, it wasn’t over yet. Nicky ‘The Highly Dramatic one’ was going to have the last say… As Alnwick hit the ball out a dramatic fall followed by Nicky along with a huge cry … ‘there’s no way that’s a free hit against me it hit my knee’ Now this links back to Nicky’s very dramatic bruise half way up her thigh from the previous game. However, this time the above the knee statement wasn’t quite supported by the physical evidence afterward.

A huge well done to the girls providing a super cake sale for Chlidren in Need. Thank you for all the kind donations from everyone on the day. The sugar had obviously taken its toll on the team as Claire had to sit in the corner to recover from the extreme chocolate overload and Hodge had turned into a giggly mess who was continuing to make inappropriate comments about what Kev calls Baz! With everyone suffering from the sugar high it was still ‘The Highly Dramatic’ Nicky who leg was swelling well from the hit that overreacted the most as Lou Lou poured herself a cuppa and the teapot lid fell off on to the table!

As the Dalai Lama famously said “We often add to our lives by being overly sensitive, OVER-REACTING TO MINOR THINGS!” So I think we will let Nicky off this once!

Well done team. A good day on the pitch and another step closer to Christmas break! (Lisa’s phone is already in December!)