LATEST match reports from Thame’s thriving hockey club which aims to run a number of competitive, but fun hockey teams in local leagues, and to ensure that all members have the opportunity to play at their chosen level of ability:
SOUTH Bucks Ladies 2nd – Thame Ladies 2nd; Score 0 – 12
A successful trip to Slough on November 22, to face South Bucks 2s resulted in the team knocking in an impressive 12 goals.
A slow-ish start to the match soon gained momentum and Thame took several goals in the first half, courtesy of some great finishing and rebound shots from the forwards after specific practice in training (thanks Jaypee). The half-time talk enabled some discussion of the improvements to be made, and Thame went out seemingly a different side in the second half, fully playing ‘their game’ with some lovely short triangle passing around the opposition, and passing across the widths where possible.
The second half saw the majority of the goals scored, several in the first ten minutes, and Man of the Match Emma was deserved of her votes with some super-skilled work in the D and tight-angled shots on goal. Alex did a great job at hassling the goal keeper who was subject to her close-range firing line, and there were some great runs down the wings from Amy, Cathryn and Sally W.
Defensively the team was solid, and whilst not under constant pressure, was strong when the South Bucks breaks came. Helen did us proud in goal by not conceding a single goal and keeping a clean sheet (thanks for stepping in Helen).
There were learnings for the future of course, but all in all a great day’s work for the 2nds at substantially increasing their goal difference in the league.. The double-figured goal score line was racked up by Amy x 3; sisters Millie and Emma x 3 each; Alex x 2 and Ninx 1. Well done ladies!
THAME Ladies 3rd – Slough Ladies 3rd 5 – 0; First win and clean sheet for Ladies 3rd !
Thame Ladies’ 3s won their first league match in a convincing style on November 22, beating Slough’s Ladies’ 3s with 5-0. From the start, Thame played an attacking game taking control and playing some good possession hockey. Their hard work played off when they opened the scoring with a goal from open-play by Lynne within the first 20 mins of the game.
Slough reacted strongly with some solid defensive play needed to keep a clean sheet. However Thame eased the pressure with two more goals scored by Clare Seed and Henny after some fine counter-attacking play from Gee and Emily.
Slough’s trategy after half-time meant the channels in the centre and left wing were closed down and Hatti broke down a number of attacks down the Slough right wing. Julie ensured Thame Ladies’ 3rd first clean sheet of the season by clearing a shot off the line after numerous saves by Anneliese.
The stars of the second half were Gee and Henny as they capitalised on the space on the right wing with some fine flowing moves resulting in two more goals scored by Henny in quick succession. This gave Henny her first hat-trick in her first season of hockey, securing her the player of the match. Roll on the next match!
THAME Men’s 2nd – Aylesbury 4th – Score: 1 – 1 – Another 2 points dropped in tense draw
Thame were visited this week, November 22, by an Aylesbury side rooted to the bottom of MBBO division 8, for what ended up becoming a very hard-fought draw.
The first half provided little action for either goalkeeper as both sides struggled to maintain any level of meaningful possession or convert chances into shots on goal. In fact, it wasn’t until the last 30 seconds of the half that the Aylesbury keeper was called to make a save, after some great play and an accurate shot on the reverse by Alex Church almost found the corner.
With neither side able to get off the mark in the first half, the second immediately showed promise with chances and short corners won by both teams. It was, however, Aylesbury who stuck first as a neat short corner routine allowed a 62-year-old goal-scoring assassin to slot home past John Gott. This was not a situation Thame had expected to find themselves in, but the team rallied well to put the away goal under some pressure.
David Mordant first hit a lightning-bolt strike straight into the keeper before absolutely creaming another shot square into the base of the post minutes later. The attacking play from the home side gradually started to pick up as time went on and eventually an equaliser was scored thanks to a superb strike from returning front man Matthew Cook.
By this point, Thame were once again confident of a win but the crucial goal simply wouldn’t come – a brilliant run and strike by left wing Josh Lilley was deflected high into the air before agonisingly landing on the top of the bar.
Overall both teams would’ve felt like they deserved something out of the game, so a draw was perhaps a fair result, and one which surprisingly saw Thame move up into the top half of the table!
THAME Men’s 3rd – Newbury and Thatcham Men’s 5th – Score: 4 – 1; Thirds Back To Winning Ways
The game started off well on Saturday, November 22, with good passing around the pitch. The match was very even. Great attacking from Thame led to their first goal by Harvey Allen on the post to slip it in. Many minutes later Newbury equalised due to slip in the defensive structure.
Many up and down attacks, but they led to nothing. The second half was great for Thame and constant attacking led to another goal from Harvey Allen. 2-1 to Thame. However the attacking didn’t stop there. On the edge of the D Cameron Skea took a shot and it went in.
Another attack from Thame led to a wonder shot from Dan Gibney. Another shot that was disallowed because there was no touch to the ball.
SOURCE: Contributed
The National Heritage Garden was created by Raymond Blanc OBE in June 2014, to showcase rare, heritage vegetables and to gather information about organic gardening methods and heritage foods. It is run in partnership with Garden Organic and their Heritage Seed Library (HSL), which conserves vegetable varieties from across Northern Europe that would otherwise have disappeared. The new garden features over 70 varieties from the Garden Organic Heritage Seed Library, which were chosen for their flavour.
