PRESS RELEASE

 

Men’s Hockey

National Veterans Cup

 

 

Solihull Blossomfield: 9  -  2  Charnwood Mountsorrel

 

 

Charnwood Mountsorrel men’s veterans were given a hockey lesson as they crashed out of the National Cup at Solihull Blossomfield on Nov 12^th.

 

As a men’s ‘occasional’ side drawing its squad from many of the top Leicestershire mixed clubs, this was the first competitive game Charnwood had played since January. Despite this they travelled to the West Midland full of confidence and hoping to progress further in this year’s competition.

 

From the first whistle, however, it was clear that Charnwood had met a tough challenge in the shape of a well-drilled and hard-working Blossomfield unit.  Skipper Chris Waterfield’s pre-match talk called for Charnwood to keep possession, work in triangles and play fast, flowing hockey.  Maybe the home team overheard this strategy and adopted it themselves, because it was Solihull who displayed superb basics from the outset, and combined it with superior speed, awareness and teamwork.  By contrast Charnwood appeared slow, alongside their hosts, gave away far too much ball and struggled to string many passes together.

 

Not surprisingly Blossomfield went 1-0 up after just 5 minutes.  Their midfield won possession and quickly linked up with their skilful and mobile forward line to slice open the Charnwood defence.  The next 10 minutes saw the visitors stung into some sort of action. Mark Weaver had two good first time strikes saved after latching on to crosses from the right.

 

But it was Solihull who inevitably regained the upper hand, and by half time were comfortable 4-0 leaders.

 

The second half was largely a repeat performance. Charnwood could only admire the quality of Solihull’s hockey as, time and time again, they one-two’d through a bemused back-line with short passes, impressive stick skills and unflagging speed.

 

A half-time formation change had given Charnwood marginally more edge up front in the second period.  A string of short corners finally led to a goal; Gary Mason stabbed home from close range after good work from Tony Kirk and Chris Waterfield.

 

A few minutes later and Russ Seton converted well from the top of the ‘D’ after capitalising on a rare loose ball in the Solihull defence.  That took the score to 5-2, but any brief flicker of hope for Charnwood was immediately snuffed out.  Straight from the restart the Blossomfield centre forward dribbled through the Charnwood ranks to the top of the ‘D’. He laid the ball off perfectly to the left winger who hammered home past the despairing dive of keeper Wayne Henderson.

 

The only other Charnwood attack of any consequence was a short corner which saw a Seton drag flick well saved by a diving keeper on its way to the top corner.  From there it was all one-way traffic and Charnwood were lucky to keep their hosts down to just 9 by the final whistle!

 

Charnwood now have the consolation of the National Plate competition to fall back on, but will look for some additional training and match practice before they try and regain some pride.

 

Squad: Mick Barlow, Wayne Henderson, Paul Carter, Tony Kirk, Tony McKee, Ed Allen, Dave Allen, Gary Mason, Chris Waterfield, Kevin Stanton-King, Mark Taylor, Mark Weaver, Russ Seton.