After a season of elusive wins the Fab Four’s came together for their final game from the comfort of their own homes…… this is the story of the game that changed it all!
The dream team for the final match of the season included; Captain Coops, Ferocious Farquarhson, Wiley Widdowson, Fantastic French (S/J), Brilliant Berendsen’s (S/J), Feisty Field, Outstanding O’Hara, Lippy Lu, Marvellous Marino (J), Maverick Manners, Awesome Andrews, Practical Procter’s (J/S), Rapid Ryan, Adams Family, Judicious Jones, Fast Frost, Reliable Roberts and Bold Budge. All supported with surprise appearances from the Fantastic Free’s including Magic Mason, Clever Cox, Wiley Wisey, Heroic Herbie, Wonderful Woods, Crafty Crate and Perfect Pugh.
Pre-match team was fierce and talk focused on hard, fast passes and man marking (like superglue) and achieving those unicorn moments, goal scoring. The wine and cider (and soft drinks for the juniors) flowed freely as the team got ready to take on top of the league Poole. Daunted by their last encounter with the fearsome Fours, Poole sneaked in a couple of top flight players. With pre-match drinks downed the Fours were ready to take on anything…… a potential strategy for next season’s games as goal scoring tactic!
With ends chosen and Fours on pitch the game got off to a flying start. Captain Coops played three forwards (Ferocious Farquarhson, Wiley Widdowson and Fantastic French (S), a mixed attack/defensive midfield (Brilliant Berendsen’s (S/J), Feisty Field, Captain Coops and Judicious Jones) and three defensive stalwarts (Outstanding O’Hara, Lippy Lu and Fantastic French (J)). Poole won the toss and elected to start – sending the ball deep into their defence. From no-where Outstanding O’Hara flew up the pitch stealing the ball in a daring raid and with outrageous style scored the first of 10 goals. O’Hara was immediately swamped by jubilant team mates, performing football stylie tops over heads, with not a roll in site those extra fitness sessions had clearly paid off.
Poole were visibly unnerved their prowess rocked by a previously only beaten team. Reset and ready to go they launched the ball with a fearsome slap only to be intercepted by the flight footed Field, who tapped it onto Widdowson, sending it wide to French who ran onto the ball, deftly picking it up passing it onto Manners and a waiting Proctor – patiently goal hanging. Within minutes the 2nd goal was in the bag. The wine was clearly helping!
In need of a break, the side quickly rotated to allow for Rapid Ryan, Adams Family, Fast Frost, Bold Budge, Magic Mason, Clever Cox, Wiley Wisey, Heroic Herbie, Wonderful Woods, Crafty Crate and Perfect Pugh – giving Poole time to recover their composure. Poole suddenly started to look dangerous with fast play outstripping the Romsey side. They had a clever dummy pass allowing them to get into the D and finish with a resounding goal – slipping past the normally Perfect Pugh. Unfazed Romsey recovered composure and within minutes had scored another goal – arising from a brilliant partnership of Herbie, Mason,
Adams and Frost. Pugh got an opportunity to show her brilliance when a dispute provided Poole a penalty flick. Pugh stood large and looked dangerous – the Poole player tried hard, but lost to this golden glove and athletic antics from the best goalie in town.
In need of a top up…the team rotated again….bringing Ferocious Farquarhson, Wiley Widdowson, Practical Proctors, Brilliant Berendsen’s (S/J), Captain Coops, Judicious Jones, Lippy Lu, French (J) and Marvellous Marino (J) and Awesome Andrews. Prior to the Poole match Marvellous Marino’s new stick has been causing some jip with unexpected aerials being blown up. Added to which Lippy Lu was never quite 5m away from the ball! Lessons learnt – the duo had an unexpected success, with an intercept by Lippy Lu – a cheeky back ball to Marvellous Marino who with unexpected grace and style launched an aerial so far down the pitch than Berendsen (S) was able to bat it down and tap it onwards for Berendsen Junior to receive, who deftly flicked it to Farquarhson and a waiting Widdowson – who somehow managed to smash it into the goal whilst pivoting from running backwards. Coach Edwards would have been beyond proud.
All of a sudden Poole found some inner strength and dug deep to return with fire, barrelling down towards a waiting Andrews, who suddenly was alone defending the D. Undeterred, with pre-match courage keeping her company – she fought off the Poole attack with outstanding ferocity and skill.
From that point on Poole were broken and the Fab Four’s went onto score a further 6 goals…..a herd of unicorns could be seen trotting by as the final whistle blew. Celebrations abounded and match teas were a deserved carbohydrate fest of hot chips and luscious sandwiches. With new assertion the Fab Four’s realised their strength was each other and that the fun awaited them in next season games – and pre-match drinks may be the way to go!
RHC Response to Coronavirus
U14 Girls Edge Past Resilient Isle Of Wight
U10s show great team spirit at Trojans Festival
A depleted but motivated U10s squad arrived at Trojans ready to do battle in the cold winds. With players short both Romsey teams had to share a goalkeeper. A massive well done to Sophie and her caddy (mum) who had to shuffle from pitch to pitch with no respite! Romsey 2 even had to scroungeplayers from Romsey 1 just to keep the show on the road. On the bright side, with no substitutes everybody was able to fully participate and keep warm!
Adaptability and team spirit were the themes of the day with everyone showing the ability to play across the park from defence to attack. Despite the constant rotation of positions and players, Romsey 2 delivered a very creditable 16 goals scored to just 4 conceded. 4 wins, 2 draws and just 1 (shockingly contentious) loss.
Special thanks to Zach, Oscar, Caitlin and Elsie for all coming across from Romsey 1 to make great contributions and score vital goals. From Romsey 2s own team Henry and Camilla proved to be the most clinical in front of goal, netting 4 goals each and being part of some great link up play. Imogen and Maya were stalwarts throughout, always tenacious in the tackle and showing great desire to be first to the ball while Anna S really found her mojo in this tournament.
Romsey 1 played excellent hockey comfortably winning all seven matches scoring twenty goals and not conceding any! Caitlin was top striker followed by Oscar with Zach and Elsie also adding to the goal tally. Most of the play took place in the opposition’s half so children were rotated around positions to ensure they all got a piece of the action. Bournemouth 1 was our strongest competition but Romsey 1 managed to win this 2-0. Well done to Evie, Anna, Elsie, Zach, Caitlin and Oscar.
Well done to all. A great team performance!
Romsey (2) Results
Romsey (2) 5- Salisbury 0
Romsey (2) 1-Bournmouth 0
Romsey (2) 1-Trojans (1) 1
Romsey (2) 1-Andover (3) 2
Romsey (2) 5-Bournmouth (2) 0
Romsey (2) 2-Winchester (2) 0
Romsey (2) 1- Southampton (2) 1
In2Hockey Success for the U10s
Romsey Hockey Club under 10s success at Hampshire In2Hockey tournament!
On Sunday 7th March Romsey Hockey Club took two under 10 teams to compete in the Hampshire In2Hockey tournament at Haslemere.
There were two competitions; a mixed competition in the morning and a girl’s competition in the afternoon. Both teams had been working extremely hard in training since January learning new skills like short corners and penalty flicks and all their hard work paid off and was evident for all to see on the day with what can only be described as amazing results for both teams!
Romsey U10 mixed team went undefeated in their three pool games with their most challenging game being against Basingstoke who put up a tough fight but in the end qualified for the quarter finals where Romsey played Haslemere winning 2-0. The semi final match saw Romsey face Fleet and Ebshot which they won 1-0. The final was a rematch against Basingstoke that they met in their pool game so Romsey knew that this would be a tough contest. The match was extremely close with both sides have opportunities in front of goal. Romsey defended heroically and in the end it was Oscar who showed determination in front of goal to score securing Romsey a well deserved 1-0 win and see Romsey taking the gold medal. Romsey’s mixed team also did not concede any goals in the whole tournament. Romsey may only be a small hockey club but they showed that they had what was needed on the pitch today. Well done Sophie, Camilla, Charlie, Oscar, Joe, Zach, Henry and Hamish.
In the afternoon it was the girl’s competition and unfortunately the weather took a turn for the worse with heavy hail storms which resulted in one of their pool matches being abandoned. Their first match was against Haslemere who had a very strong record in this competition and they narrowly lost 1-0. There were five further pool matches with some very tough competition from both Havant and Fleet and Ewshot. The girls were not disheartened at all from their first loss and went on to secure all 5 wins in the remainder of their pool games with some impressive wins scoring 5 goals in one game. Their semi final was against Alton and despite some slick passing and use of the full width of the pitch they lost 1-0 but did not stop trying for an equaliser right until the final whistle. They then went into the play off for 3rd/4th place and this ended 1-1 at the end of full time going to penalty flicks which finished 3-3. This then went to sudden death ending in a narrow 3-4 loss resulting in Romsey taking a well deserved 4th place. Well done to Daisy, Clara, Anna, Maya, Caitlin, Elsie, Sabine and Grace.
The In2Hockey tournament showcased some fantastic hockey from both teams and how much all children has developed this season. The mixed team will now go on to the Regional finals on 3rd May in Surbiton.
U12 Girls nearly go all the In2Hockey way!
Sunday 1st March , a fantastic u12 in2 Hockey girls tournament!
Hosted by Haslemere Hockey club, the best clubs from Hampshire pitted their skills to see who could make it to the regional round in London.
Romsey’s squad consisted of 10 girls , Zoe P, Imogen A , Harriet F, Hannah T, Isobel L, Ellie E, Eliza H, Lucy W, Alisa S, and Tilly D.
The girls played a total of 7 pool games only losing one to the eventual winners Haselmere 1-0.
Their hard effort and great team play through the pool stage got them into the semi final against Fareham where they battled out a tense 0-0 draw which meant penalty flicks to decide the match.
The Fareham keeper made one fine save which was enough to see them through to the final. The tournament was not over though, Romsey now had to play the 3rd /4th play off match against New Forest.
This again was a tense affair with great play all round plus super goal keeping from Ellie, another 0-0 , more penalties!
Some parents could not watch!
A super save from Ellie gave Romsey the advantage and despite having to re take her penalty Harriet held her nerve to score giving Romsey 3rd place.
A fantastic day of Hockey and a great team performance from a great group of girls.
Thanks to all parents for their support plus Julia, Elaine and Sally for their hard work.
Well done all!
U12 boys battling performances against strong In2Hockey field
Last weekends In2 hockey tournament showcased some brilliant hockey in the sun.
The competition was massively strong and unfortunately too much for Romsey u12 boys.
The lads played only two pool matches after “winning” on walk over against Portsmouth followed by two defeats, 2-1 against Petersfield and 2-0 against Alton.
Henry scored our only goal -a very nice one though😀.
In playoff we were against first New Forest, 3-0 and then Yateley, 0-0 withut them winning on penalty flicks.
Thanks to everyone that came along and for keeping your heads up boys in a strong field.
England Hockey Player Survey – Complete it and win a prize!!
There is still time to complete the survey, we have had a great response so far but would love to hear from more of you!
England Hockey carry out a survey every 2 years which helps provide us with an insight into your views about Romsey Hockey Club and the wider hockey world.
If you complete the survey you can be entered into a prize draw to win International Tickets. If more than 20 members complete the survey the Club will also get a detailed report based on your replies.
Please help us to shape the future of Romsey Hockey Club in a way that works for our members.
Follow this link to complete the survey:
https://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/5406871/Player-Survey-2020
Thank you
Easter Hockey Camp
We are running another pf our popular camps this Easter. See below for more details:
M4s beat Portsmouth 3-2
In a tense clash at the bottom of the table it was Romsey who eventually ran out winners, but only just.
The game started well for Romsey, there was no rain, but Romsey had a Noah at right back just in case. He combined with Mike Pooley early on to set up Dan Blackman, but the final shooting chance was blocked.
Jim East at the back combined with Gordon F and Ben Butcher to first play in Ellison B down the left and then Freddie O, but again no final result.
Romsey took the lead from a penalty corner move, the ball went when outside the circle but was played back in and a half clearance fell to a Colin Harwood whose shot was going wide, and need Ben Butcher the corner taker to nudge it inside the post and over the line.
Butcher then had a shot wide but Romsey couldn’t add to their lead.
As the second half started Butcher played some passes from the back with Pete O’Hara and Gordon F before heading to the circle and calling for a player on the back post. His inch perfect cross was touched by Harwood and deflected in for 2 0.
Portsmouth upped their game, and pulled one back soon after with a good move that gave Ollie O no chance with a shot from the top of the circle, and now Romsey wobbled, Pete O saves them with a couple of fine tackles ably supported by Nick Cooper, but eventually pressure told and after a miracle save by Ollie O in goal, the equaliser came.
Gordon F stepped up, and duly won Man of the match for some great interceptions and Ollie O again saved the day as it looked like Romsey would crack, but with East and OHara solid, Romsey started to gain momentum back. Cameron Shepherd couldn’t quite make the most of an attacking move, Ellison B was tackled by the last defender before he could shoot and It looked like the game was heading for a draw.
That was until Romsey won a penalty comer with five minutes to go, Butcher pushed out to Gordon F, who cleverly drew the defenders before slipping the ball left for Harwood to score his second and the winner.