Quarter Final

Details	Players
Season: Season 2008-2009 Date: 08.03.2009 Time: 13:00 Team: Mens 1st XI Competition: EHA Mens Trophy Location: Away Opponent: Guernsey Our Score: 1 Opponent Score: 7 Result: Lost	Chris Sciandro - 0 Goal(s) Matt Ansell - 0 Goal(s) Andy Williams - 0 Goal(s) James Godber - 0 Goal(s) Jamie Luke - 0 Goal(s) Joel Shepherd - 0 Goal(s) Chris Binns - 0 Goal(s) Dan Ginnaw - 0 Goal(s) John Massie - 0 Goal(s) David Beales - 0 Goal(s) Craig Paterson - 0 Goal(s) Ben Burriss - 1 Goal(s) Grant Sawyer - 0 Goal(s) Cirdec Atkinson - 0 Goal(s) Chris Marr - 0 Goal(s) Alex Warner - 0 Goal(s)

Match Report(s)

3 Flights, 7 Goals Against and Only Mungo Makes It to La Collinnette For Bedtime, As Worthing Crash Out of EHA Trophy To Classy Guernsey

EHA Trophy Quarter Final - 8th March

Guernsey  7  v  1  Worthing 1^st XI

Scorers: Ben from Albury (Ben Allberry scored 4 for Guernsey)

A bizarre weekend kicked off at 12:30pm with everyone arriving almost on time, with Sciandro being amongst the earliest there. Everyone was ready to head to Gatwick, except John Massie who was caught out lying to his team mates, when he suggested he had to wait at Georgia Avenue for his sister to bring his keys down. 10 mins later his passport arrived and off he went to Gatwick. Of course being the slick unit that we are, the other cars had waited, except for Godber who had screeched out of Georgia Avenue doing a massive wheel spin, eager not to be last up the A23. The fact was that Godber was last to the car park at Gatwick, he suggests down to Ted's misinformation on the exit to take, but we all know that he probably had a few pints of gold top to drop back at the Unigate dairy en route.

Eventually the whole squad was united for check in, as Moore-o arrived from base and Pad direct from Horsham. Then the call came through from Beales that he was in arrivals, back from skiing, and with his successful transfer from the later flight onto ours, things were looking very smooth. The only real hiccups at this stage had been Moore-o's lack of change to pay for the free bus, and Ansell trying to wind his watch forward an hour to get onto Guernsey time. The old "have you changed your money up" gags fell on deaf ears, despite Binnsy's attempts to confuse the Aussies by showing them a Jersey pound note. In fact all this did was stir up Ben from Albury's paranoia about the Aussie $1 note that he found in his kit bag several weeks ago.....but that's another story.

So we set off on the flight and Christy and Emily were very attentive, serving beers and spirits to all those sat in rows behind El Capitano Ansell, whilst those within his viewfinder supped their waters. Two and a half hours into our 45 minute hop across the Channel, we found ourselves landing back at Gatwick, due to the fog at Guernsey. A real waste of time, except for the comedy value of Ben from Albury's minor fit, brought about by his fear of flying, where his right arm wiped all the drinks off his tray in a semi conscious state - Christy and Emily weren't impressed, and Sawyer rightly called for a new wing man.

Stuck back at Gatwick, we bumped into Mungo, who had booked himself on the later flight after a few drinks the previous evening. Bizarrely his flight left and he arrived on the island, winging it, hoping to find a spare bed. Lucky for him there were 7 rooms to choose from at La Collinnette as the WHC Squad were stitched up good and proper by Aurigny. They cancelled the flight and offered no compensation, just a reschedule to 7:45am next day. Not even so much as an apology, a real Teflon shoulder, sort yourselves out type of attitude. The moody woman on the Servisair flight agents desk was also typically unhelpful.

So the youngsters checked in to a cheap hotel at LGW, and the older ones went back down the A23 home to bed, to return 5am next day. Suddenly the odds shifted into Guernsey's favour and our thoughts of getting over there the day before and having a nice meal, then relaxing Sunday morning had been dashed.

Luckily the 7:45am was on time, and Christy and Emily were visibly excited to see us all again. Guernsey had been very good about the situation and made sure we were met at the airport and taken to breakfast with the estranged Mungo who had been flying solo and looked relieved to see us.

After a team talk down at the dock and a rigorous warm up we were ready to start the game. With that long winded intro I imagine most people have stopped reading by now, so will try and keep it brief. Ben Allberry, Guersney's new player coach, brought in from National League Havant, opened the scoring after 30 secs. I think that was point 3 or 4 of the team talk about keeping it tight for the first ten and not letting them get the ball to their star forward. We did actually play some ok hockey, but the problem was that Guernsey were happy for us to do that, as they retreated to their half, let us have 3 or 4 nice passes, then pounced on the mistake, and as quick as a flash the ball went into Allberry, with 3, 4 or sometimes 5 runners going beyond him. Our defending was very much the kind that involves 30 metre sprints back towards your own goal and smacked of desperation. We conceded a stroke, then Godber kicked one in for them (presumably so he could just put himself down for a point in his little notebook?), so at 3-0 we looked out the game after 15 mins. Some encouraging shouts from Moore-o and the introduction of Massie in an unfamiliar right wing position, soon saw us grab a lifeline, when pressure in the D, saw the ball fall to Ben from Albury (not to be confused with aforementioned Guernsey player) who struck it confidently home into the empty goal from about 6cm. At 3-1 you felt a classic WHC revival was on the cards. But they quickly went 4, 5 and 6, so by half time, the contest was over. The hailstones at half time didn't help lift the spirits, but we knew we had to keep it respectable in the second half. Despite losing Joel and Alex to yellow cards in quick succession, we managed to keep them at arms length even with 9 men.

A disappointing result, but they were a classy, well drilled side and it just wasn't our day / weekend. Too many passes went astray and we were too open, so they said thanks very much and picked us apart. The main goal was always the league this season, so thoughts now turn to next week's crunch encounter with Eastbourne. Some consolation was restored when Andy Williams, being the youngest legal drinker in the side, bolted a pint quicker than his Guernsey equivalent. What followed was a series of close fought duels, with Joel triumphing in the Commonwealth Category against the weak stomached Canadian (although he needed a play off), Alex missing out in the big one - the Premier Drinker match up, then Ben from Albury seeing off Ben Allberry (obviously this was the 'players with extremely similar names / home towns who scored in the game shield') although Burriss appeared to have got a massive sweat on down the front of his t-shirt. Johnnie lost out in the battle of the gingers, Binnsy lost the oldest player bout to someone older (I told you it was a bizarre weekend), then Scrote lost the captain / vice captain race.  Just to add to the slight randomness of the weekend, the sole umpire remaining in the clubhouse, saw off his pint as well. [switch to sarcastic tone] Well done mate.

Finally we departed from Guernsey on our jester Aurigny prop plane, but not before one last bizarre happening, when Sussex and Zimbabwe star batsman, Murray Goodwin latched onto us in the departure lounge and started talking himself up as a possible Kolpak signing for next season, as had played a bit of hockey in Australia. He had been over for the weekend coaching, although clearly had been tucking into the booze as well. Good lad.

 

 

 

 

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Squad: Binns; Shepherd, Godber; Sciandro, Warner, Beales; Moore, Ansell; Sawyer, Atkinson, Ginnaw. Subs: Burriss, Luke, Massie, Williams, Humphries.

Man of Match: David Beales

WOW: Aurigny Airlines