Cheam Ladies 3rd XI

Report: Illness had affected our numbers greatly this week and so we were down to 11 with 2 players from the 4's stepping up to help us (thank you Kim and Candy).

We played some good hockey in the first half keeping the score to 0-0. There was some excellent passing up front and some great tackles being made by the defence.
The second half saw a goal from our team first and then about 10 minutes later from the opposition. We were disappointed with their goal as we had played so well but the tiredness kicked in. We hung on until the end. 1-1. They were a very vocal team so we were all pleased when that final whistle blew!
It will be a memorable match though as it was Steph's last as captain. Thank you for all you have done this year. You have been a fab captain! Who will take on the role now????

Report: Well done to the 3's! A win after 2 loses is always exciting, it was a friendly but a win is a win in our book! There was some excellent play up front, with Alison making some superb crosses across the goal which eventually allowed Amy to slot one in the back of the net. Our defense barely let MPL into the circle which was fab and took the pressure off of Biba (our Gk who had stepped in at the last minute and who had never played hockey before.... thank you a million!).
The first half also saw our second goal which looked like a set piece (if only!) with Sinead pretending to shoot but actually passing it to Amy on the left post.

The second half was goal less but not without some excellent on target attempts (and dramatic misses!!!). Sinead's final shot of the game was an undercut which looked superb and really shut up the oppo (something that was particulary hard as they were a loud lot!).

A few thank you's and welcomes need to be made....

Welcome back to Bails who helped us out greatly by playing against her current club.
Welcome to Clare who has joined the 3's and made some fantastic runs along the left hand side.
Finally a massive thank you to Catriona who umpired for us! You are a star!

Report: Wowza's!!! 9-1 what a result!

Ok, so the opposition only had 9 players but all goals were well deserved. Well done to Rachna and Steph D.S for their hatricks with the other goals from Steph W, Mary (even though she claims she is a defender and doesn't score!) and Amy.

There were some excellent passes across the pitch and some great individual skills from Rachna, Liz and Steph D.S. Also a strong defence like last week allowing the forwards and mid fields to feel confident in not running back too much! This game was also a great chance for us to practice our short corners having been awarded at least 10 (its a shame that's Frankie's brilliant hit into the top right hand corner of the goal was disallowed).

A big thank you to Liz Grimes and Steph Williams for playing for us at the very last minute (Steph was on the sidelines watching the one's 10 minutes before we were meant to start!), your help was greatly appreciated. Well done to all...let's try and keep this momentum going!

Report: Playing the top of the league is always scary however the ladies 3's did not show their fear! We were missing a few key players however we played some very good hockey against strong opposition. Excellent defending by our team kept the score to 3-0 which was the same as when we played them last time which shows consistency! Well done to all who played!!! Welcome to Emma who is a new player on our team and thanks to Candy for stepping up and playing for us!Thanks to all the supporters as well for their encouragement.

Report: 0 - 0 doesn't actually look that impressive but considering we were playing second in the league, who have only lost one game, we were delighted with our result. It felt like a win.

All team members played well but special mention must go to the outstanding defence who were solid throughout even under immense pressure from the 7 short corners awarded against us.

Girl of the game went to Mary for her excellent defending and distribution of the ball up the field. Lets look postive to next weeks game against Uni of surrey!

Report: Our second league match back after Xmas and our second win!

We started off a bit sleepy but soon our game picked up with some nice passing amongst the team.

The first goal came within the first 15 minutes with a lovely pass across the goal by Sinead to Amy on the left post who slotted that one away. The second was from an excellent short corner strike by Alison (Welcome back... we've missed you!) and the third was when Mary made a fantastic 'only Mary can do' slap shot from outside the 25 across the goal which managed to find a CM of Amy's stick in the D and went in the back of the net.

Having only 11 players did take it's toll near the end of the game but overall we played well. Well done to all who played. It was an enjoyable match. Let's look forward to more wins in the near future!

Report: Whoop whoop! Another Win!!! We are on a roll.... shame the Xmas holidays are coming up and we will all have lost our match fitness and skill (questionable!?!) for our first game of 2008! But lets finish 2007 with a positive match report.

Everyone played well with some sharp passing and interceptions from the whistle. We earnt ourselves a few short corners with the 4th being rewarded with a fantastic goal by Steph. 1-0 at half time.

In the second half we kept our game sharp and with some excellent movements by little Ruth and a few chances at goal, with 2 minutes to go at the end Steph made a break as sweeper, dribbled all the way up the pitch and scored a superb goal. Well done! However in Rachna's celebration of the goal (jumping on Steph) Rach had to be taken off injured. But with 2 minutes left we held our game well and won 2-0.
Well played girlies. Merry Christmas, see you in the New Year for some more wins!

Report: This week it was wet and windy! It was not the best hockey that we have ever played but at least we scored some goals!

Rachna put us in the lead within the first 20 minutes then 5 minutes later they also scored. Rachna then scored again with a cracking goal (wish we could have seen the replay!) but again, a few minutes later they then scored.

The second half was eventful with our top goal scorer being winded by the big mean goalie from the other team so we had to pick up our game. Sinead moved up to play right forward and did some great forward passes which led her to doing some amazing runs to try and get her own pass!
With about 10 minutes to go, there were some excellent passes across the pitch by the midfield who managed to get it to the forwards which led to a goal by Amy. For the last 10 minutes we managed to keep the score so finally we had a win!!!

We've had a bit of a dry spell but things are on the up! Come on the 3's.

Report: Well, what can we say.... it was dark, very dark. Push back at 4pm is a tough one anyway as we would rather be at home waiting for Strictly/X factor or preparing for frollics in the evening but oh no we played hockey.

We made a great start to the match being awarded 5 short corners in the first 10 minutes however we just couldn't find the back of the net. We had a few more chances throughout the match but unfortunately we just couldn't score. Luckily neither could the opposition! Clean sheet, 0-0.

We were pleased with the result in the end as it was tough playing late, generally we played well but we need to score some goals! Thanks to Spuggie for stepping up as goalie on the day and also to Mad Doggy and Fiona for umpiring in very poor conditions. Come on the 3's!

Report: It was freeeezing, but we went out there keen to play our best! It was an entertaining game with one of the oppo smacking the ball and breaking into two(!); much conferring between umpires; a few injuries and a P-flick. They scored 1 in the first half and we unfortunately conceded a goal right near the end of the game and had to settle for a 2-1 loss.

But it was Anna Dominguez's final game with Cheam before flying back to Oz and she scored a brilliant goal from the P-flick into the right corner of the net! What a great send-off. We will all miss you, Anna.

Report: We definitely held our own against the current leaders of the league. We played with great team spirit and kept going right to the end. Amy kept the oppo on their toes, running into gaps to receive the ball...this great effort earned her the Girl of the Game title. The whole team played a brilliant game and should be proud. Let's aim to score some goals against them next time! Good job 3's!!

Report: We held our own and played with commitment to the end. Some good play by our team, but Old Georgians were stronger and scored some great goals. Lexi, our goalie, played a brilliant game with some swift saves, earning herself title of girl of the game and Amy thankfully managed to get one past their goalie.

More communication is needed on the field and some tight marking...Let's aim to better our scoreline next time we play them!

Report: It was like playing in a sandpit! A lot of vooooma was needed to move that ball (and ourselves!) around the pitch. We started off at a slowish pace, but picked this up and had some good moves and short passes between midfields/forwards. Then Lucy scored a good goal, following through on a quick tap from Frankie.

They stopped/cleared a few hard shots from our attacking shorties, and then they came back at us and scored towards the end of the 2nd half. This goal and the time running out seemed to motivate us to fight back and we were all over them towards the end - unfortunately we didn't get the ball into the goal again!

Huge thanks to Annys, Gill, Emily, Mel and Lucy for helping us out!

Report: What is it about the Surrey leagues that see us in Crystal Palace (London, surely!) one week and leafy Guildford the next?! Anyways, that aside, I'm happy to be able to report that we travelled to the provinces and came back with a glorious win.

For me, this was the best performance of the season so far...everybody got stuck in- the backs were particularly tenacious- passing was beautiful (well, ok, not all the time, but most of it!), short corners were top, all 5 goals were lovely, especially Sinead's and Frankie's! I thought Steff was v unlucky not to score from a couple of short corners, so I look forward to reading about success in this area next week!

Many thanks to Catriona for her wise words and our 3 supporters, Lexi's Mum and Dad and Biba

Report:

probably the less said about this one, the better! onwards!

Report: Now I'm told we don't often score 6 goals in one match, so let us truly make the most of it!

We did concede the first goal (due in no small part to an alarming first touch by our guest goalie, Pellet, but we shall not dwell on that because she was top for the rest of the game - and so was the whole team!

As time passed, passing improved, movement was good and - shock horror! - we started attacking down the right! The short corner routine was much improved and we scored 6 unanswered goals, with Pip getting a hat trick - well done you!

So what's next?!

Report: Well now, gathering in what felt like sub tropical conditions, the glorious 3s took to the pitch with something approaching anticipation. The first half began with some interesting skirmishes and near misses until...oh yes!..we came away with a goal, superbly struck by Amy. Then the defence more than held its own and we arrived at half time 1-0 up. So far so very very good.

Sadly just after half time some (or was that all?!) of us had a power nap during which we conceded a goal. oops. Yet maybe in one way this was a good thing because it inspired us to create a sustained period of pressure where we were completely on top creating many, many chances until at last we scored another goal, Alison this time with a neat reverse stick shot into the goal. Lovely! But then, guess what, we conceded immediately afterwards-double oops!- which left us at 2-2. And there we reamined despite our best efforts to score another.

In all, very many positives to be taken from the game....robust defence, some great interplay,many, many chances...Thanks to Sinead for standing in as captain, to Catriona for her management skills and to our supporters, who may or may not have been watching!