Croydon 1 lose out to Nomads 1Croydon took on Nomads on a lovely day in late March at Royal Russell School. Croydon started well and captain Nigel Hudspith beat his man to feed Luke James for a drop-off but Nomads won a free-pass and converted it with ease. Croydon were playing well in the other section with Vernon Ellis making himself 3 good chances including a penalty but he failed to convert any of them. At the other end Croydon were holding Nomads at bay but when Zak Omar missed another chance for Croydon, the flood gates opened and Ian Erwin scored the first of many "running in drop shots" for the game. This was quickly followed by a penalty against Hudspith. Croydon passes started to go astray but Anna Jeanes had a free-pass but wasn't able to convert and when Anna Osbourne turned in the feed for a goal to put Nomads 1-4 up, coach Paul Jeanes called a Croydon time-out. The time-out seemed to make little difference as Erwin scored 2 more before Jeanes scored a running-in shot but this was only a small consolation as Nomads stretched out a decisive 2-10 lead. James converted Hudspith's penalty though and Ellis converted his so at half-time the scores were 4-12. It's not clear what was said at half-time but coach Jeanes may have pointed out that Croydon had had their chances but failed to put the ball in the basket, but whatever was said Croydon started the 2nd half with more belief and the goals started flowing. Hudspith scored from distance, Grace Stimpson scored a runner and in a well-worked free-pass Susan Baker did likewise, so after 10 minutes the score was a much more respectable 7-12. However Coach Dave Butters called a much needed time-out for the visitors and this pause seemed to have the desired effect as Emma Cole scored in between 2 more goals from the agile Erwin. Omar scored from range to halt the run but this was a temporary blip as Nomads banged in the next 5 goals. The final say went to Jeanes with a long shot but this was paltry compensation after a final score of 9-21. All in all, a reasonable performance from Croydon but to win this game they needed to be at the top of their game for the full 60 minutes - no team can sustain that though and in reality they only managed it for 15 minutes against a solid Nomads team that shot well throughout the game Match Report by Andy Previous photo Next photo1 of 3 Final Score: Croydon 1 9 vs 21 Nomads 1Unknown(2)Nigel(1)Zak(1)Vernon(1)Anna(2)Susan(1)Grace(1)Hannah(0)
Bec 2 batter Croydon 2 in more ways than one Final Score: Croydon 2 7 vs 21 Bec 2Peter(3)Ed(1)Andy(1)Adam(0)Sarah(1)Becky(1)Susan(0)Julia(0)
Croydon 3's team play gave them the win against Bec 4On paper it might have been expected that Bec 4 would have won this fixture as they had a strong showing of players who were more than capable of scoring plenty of goals. Croydon 3 obviously hadn't read that game plan though. They started slowly and Bec 4 were in the lead, but then the Croydon players started to play together, and work for each other, and boy did it have the desired effect. Croydon's passing was good, their movement was excellent and they all worked very, very, very hard to create chances, as a team and for the team. Goals started dropping, but Croydon just didn't stop. Defensively Croydon were on top of their opposition players for much of the game, and forced them to take shots under pressure, many of which were blown as defended. It helped both teams that the standard of reffing during the match was simply outstanding, which enabled the players to concentrate on their game and nothing else. With a strong coach on the sidelines, and team spirit in bucket-loads, this was a fantastic effort for the Blues. Match Report by Anna Final Score: Croydon 3 14 vs 9 Bec 4Dom(5)Steve(4)Ian(3)Mark(1)Victoria(1)Lynda(0)Amanda(0)Lorna(0)
