Croydon 2 lose out in goal fest to Trojans 2Croydon hosted Trojans in their final game of the season for them and the last league game for the club, the hosts would hope to build on their narrow loss to Bec and improve on the past results where on aggregate Trojans held a big lead at 33-10. Croydon started with captain Adam Champion, Pete Lindsay, Hannah Evans and Zoe Shewell in attack, Ben Hale, Edwin Chaney, Karen James and Julia Johnson started in defence. Trojans started brightly, having extended attacks and recycling the ball well. The visitors took the lead after a couple of minutes with a long shot and soon doubled their lead with a short shot. The first exchanges were dominated by Trojans and they etched further ahead with a nice turning shot from the feed. Croydon put themselves under pressure when they started giving away bad passes and after giving away possession one too many times, an undisciplined defence led to a free pass which the visitors converted to make it 4-0. Croydon finally got off the mark after Shewell was fouled feeding Lindsay, Champion stepped up to the spot and converted with ease, the hosts then were awarded another penalty when Lindsay was fouled running in, this time Lindsay wanted to take the penalty himself but sent the ball sailing over. Champion wasn’t going to let the opportunity go and the next attack buried a shot from long distance to half Croydon’s deficit. Trojans continued to attack well and had a running in shot which to everyone was defended, no one from the visiting team were celebrating but the referee missed it and awarded the goal much to everyone’s surprise. The hosts were starting to get going and Hale kept them close when he scored a long shot to make it 5-3. Unfortunately Trojans had their eye in and scored a good drop off shot followed by a turning shot from the feed after Hale overcommitted to restore their 4 goal lead. Johnson got Croydon scoring again with a running in shot but Trojans replied with a short shot from behind the basket after Champion tried too hard to block a shot and was still in the air when the ball dropped through the basket. The half was winding to a close and both teams were still attacking well, Evans’ pace was causing Trojans’ defence all sorts of problems and created extra space for Shewell who scored from mid distance to make it 8-5. The half ended soon after and Croydon were still in the game. The first goal of the second half was always going to be an indication of which way the game would go, if Trojans scored they would be able to dominate the game and dictate the pace, if Croydon scored they would pressure Trojans into making some mistakes. It was the visitors who scored to make it 9-5 with a drop off but it seemed to spur Croydon on as James took a great collect and had the presence of mind to find Johnson who had just burst past her player to score a runner. Johnson continued her good work and rolled back the years in defence, intercepting every pass that wasn’t perfect and marking her player out of the game, she even found herself covering James at times. The attack though didn’t make the most of it and Trojans scored from a short shot and then followed it up with a drop off to give them their biggest lead of the game at 11-6. The hosts though weren’t finished and Evans’ scored a long shot to reduce the deficit, Croydon though suffered a setback when their captain rolled his ankle, with a quick break he hobbled on, Trojans scored a long shot and that signalled the end of Champion’s game, coach Butters replaced him and was on the scoresheet immediately with a long shot. Trojans then went on to score three unanswered goals to make it 16-8 and they had the game wrapped up, the score didn’t reflect the result and both teams were evenly matched, Butters had his shooting boots on (when doesn’t he?) and scored another long shot before Trojans scored again from distance. Johnson got her third of the game with a lovely drop off shot giving her the first hat trick of the season, the visitors though couldn’t be tamed and scored yet another long distance shot to leave the scores at 18-10. Evans continued to terrorise her marker and her pace forced the defender to drop off, Evans punished the tactic by scoring another long shot, following that up by winning a penalty which Butters converted. Croydon looked good in attack and Hale scored a long shot from the side of the basket which was so perfect it didn’t even touch the basket on it’s way through to take Croydon closer at 13-18, it was Trojans though who had the last say of the game with another shot that looked defended to end the game with the scores 19-13 to the visiting side. It was a great way to end the season, the last 2 games Croydon have really improved and work together as a team, there were so many positives to take from the game that it seemed a shame it was overshadowed by the injury to the influential captain. Next season Croydon will be hoping to continue where they left off and start to get some wins under their belt.Match Report by Sicknote Final Score: Croydon 2 13 vs 19 Trojans 2B Hale (2)E Chaney (0)P Lindsey (0)A Champion (2)D Butters (3)J Johnson (3)H Evans (2)Z Shewell (1)K James (0)Submitted by KarenJ on 05 Apr 09Croydon 3 beat West London in season finaleIt was a good end to a good season for the thirds. We've had fun, played some good korfball and built a sound foundation for next season. For our last game Paul Jeanes, Lynda Barker, Kathy Dean and Mark Irving started in attack. With Andy Burnham, Steve Chadd, Leah Palfreyman (back from college and stepping in - thank you) and Stephanie Robinson in defence. We were ref-less though, it was due to be a North Downs ref but that was not to be. Dan Pratt offered to ref the game and both teams were happy with this - thanks Dan. For those of you that have read my match reports you will know that this is where it goes a bit fuzzy - yep, when the game starts! If any of our fantastic and quite vocal supporters have information on the game please feel free to add it here..... The half-time score was 3-2 to West London. And boy was it hot in the hall - we thought it was us being ineffective but actually the heating was on! It's only April after all... Thankfully the doors were open so we had our half-time team talk in the open air - what a luxury. The oxygen and/or the team talk did it's job and we played some good korfball, rattling West London early on in the second half and restricting them to a single goal. Final score 9-4 with all the boys scoring with fab passes from the girls!! It's been a great season, I for one have really enjoyed it. Thanks for captaining us Paul and thanks to everyone who's played throughout the season - same again next year please! Match Report by Steph Final Score: Croydon 3 9 vs 4 West London 1S Chadd (3)M Irving (3)P Jeanes (2)A Burnham (1)L Barker (0)K Bradford (0)L Palfreyman (0)S Robinson (0)Submitted by Sicknote on 05 Apr 09
Croydon 3 beat West London in season finaleIt was a good end to a good season for the thirds. We've had fun, played some good korfball and built a sound foundation for next season. For our last game Paul Jeanes, Lynda Barker, Kathy Dean and Mark Irving started in attack. With Andy Burnham, Steve Chadd, Leah Palfreyman (back from college and stepping in - thank you) and Stephanie Robinson in defence. We were ref-less though, it was due to be a North Downs ref but that was not to be. Dan Pratt offered to ref the game and both teams were happy with this - thanks Dan. For those of you that have read my match reports you will know that this is where it goes a bit fuzzy - yep, when the game starts! If any of our fantastic and quite vocal supporters have information on the game please feel free to add it here..... The half-time score was 3-2 to West London. And boy was it hot in the hall - we thought it was us being ineffective but actually the heating was on! It's only April after all... Thankfully the doors were open so we had our half-time team talk in the open air - what a luxury. The oxygen and/or the team talk did it's job and we played some good korfball, rattling West London early on in the second half and restricting them to a single goal. Final score 9-4 with all the boys scoring with fab passes from the girls!! It's been a great season, I for one have really enjoyed it. Thanks for captaining us Paul and thanks to everyone who's played throughout the season - same again next year please! Match Report by Steph Final Score: Croydon 3 9 vs 4 West London 1S Chadd (3)M Irving (3)P Jeanes (2)A Burnham (1)L Barker (0)K Bradford (0)L Palfreyman (0)S Robinson (0)Submitted by Sicknote on 05 Apr 09
