Upon arrival, the team were immediately entertained by 70-minute hero Tara Haddock, who firstly turned up in the wrong colour (despite playing BLUEharts) and for informing us after an intense training regime, that she now only dislikes mango rather than hates it!

Anyway, back to the actual game of hockey. The team displayed a new ethos and completed a full warm up, which pleased Coach Matt immensely.

The game intensity started high and Broxbourne were keen to show their slick passes. They were able to get the ball to the attacking D and were quick to build the play. Despite some chances early on, the Blueharts keeper proved impossible to get through.

A sudden burst from Blueharts saw them score twice in quick succession, but this only spurred on a response from Brox. Again with Broxbourne having several chances but being unable to beat the keeper, unfortunately Blueharts found the back of the goal once again. Brox finally responded with a goal courtesy of Laura, who struck the ball with such ferocity that it deflected off a defenders stick and flew over the Blueharts keeper to end the first half 1-3. At half time, a rousing speech from Coach Matt and some promising statistics encouraged the team not to give up and that their performance showed they could get something from the game.

The second half saw Brox dominate and defensively hold the ball away from the D. A strong performance and some great round the back passing, then superb play in the mid saw a short corner being won and a quick goal from Laura to bring it to a goal difference of one.

Cerys managed to grab the equaliser after a deflection miss from Hannah, energising the team and mentally giving them the upper hand. As we entered the final 5 minutes, Broxbourne were continuing to dominate, pressing the ball fantastically. A fortuitous break from which Grace fed the ball perfectly for Hannah to take on the keeper one on one and finish it beautifully, meant that Broxbourne took the lead and held up the play to take the win.

An emphatic coach, a buzzing team and a win for the first match started the season positively for the Ladies 3XI.

Player of the match this week went to Alice for great running throughout and hard work on and off the ball.

Though Donkey this week could have gone to Captain Hannah for having a brief lie down on the pitch 2 minutes before the end of the game, it did of course go to Tara for turning up in the wrong kit.

Next week the Ladies 3XI are away to West Herts.

Ladies 1s vs City of Peterborough 1 - 3-1 loss

After what felt like a decade’s worth of preseason, the badgers returned to home turf to commence the 24/25 season, and ready to put new formation and press into action.

Starting off strong, all players seemed to be successful in arriving on time, even Skipp waltzing into the changing room to claim back her beloved corner. Furthermore, Tor came up with the brilliant idea where we no longer need to blunt our Astros warming up on the road, but instead get to jog round the cricket field. This may have to be reconsidered come the winter mud however star of the team Otis definitely seemed to give his approval of this change while having the best time of his life.

After a solid warm up, the badgers took the pitch and went 1-0 up after an insane straight strike from Em after a clean stop from Martha.

Unfortunately after many attempts on goal, many short corners, and most of the possession the badgers could not come away with a win. City of Peterborough managed to steal the 3 points with a 3-1 win, each goal made hugely dramatic by their fan club in the stands.

Player was awarded to Em for her silky skills, communication and powerful shots on goal.
Donkey was inevitably given to Lara for being carded.

Mens 1s vs City of Peterborough 1 - 3-0 loss

As the first game of the season rolled around again, Broxbourne men’s first eleven were keen to get themselves back into the swing of things. In true Saturday morning fashion half the team showed up late, however the euro hardcore legend scooter really rallied the troops into turning things around.

The heat made for a sweaty warm up, intensity pulsing through the team kept the focus on the task at hand. A firm team talk before the game set the badgers up for a strong start. The game started well for Broxbourne as the intensity followed through from the warm up into the game with Toby house squandering the chance to put Broxbourne ahead with a 1 v 1 with the keeper early on. As the chance was missed Peterborough put the pedal to the metal with their attacking and pressing, forcing Broxbourne to struggle to find a way out from defence. First goal came soon after with a crisp shot that went in the corner goal. The next goal came soon after with Broxbourne goalkeeper Ryan getting beaten on the far post. The third goal was and unfortunate deflection wrong footing the defence and goalkeeper too. Broxbourne didn’t seemed phased by the 3 goals, still pressing and probing the closed chance came as Henry skimmed a ball across the D with the ball taking an unfortunate bobble just before Sam could deflect into the back of the net. The second half heat didn’t ease as the hard work continued, the later half was a much more even affair as Peterborough appeared to be rattled with their own players. Broxbourne had a couple of short corners however the quick defence shut it down quickly. The game closed at 3-0 with the badgers heads held high with hope the rest of the season.

The night included some bingo, space hoppers and plenty of other fun… George had the new jacket to wear for the evening, suiting him down to the ground. It must’ve been a long night for Toby and the bingo took it out of the poor boy. Running out of steam late in the evening and having no clothes to come back to on Sunday, the real DOD.

Away fixtures

Ladies 4s vs Blueharts 5 - 7-0 loss

First game of the 24/25 season saw Broxbourne Ladies 4s travel to Blueharts. With a few traffic jams and a dad going the wrong way the team finally made it into the changing room for a quick introduction of some new players to the team/club.

Once introductions were done there was still time for a quick team talk. With everyone ready to go the team headed out to the pitch only to realise it was going to be a tough game as there was lots of new young faces on the Blueharts team and also the blazing sun as there was no shade anywhere on the pitch! A quick team warm up and some short corner practice the 4s were ready for action.

The 4s started of great and managed to hold Blueharts of for the first 20 minutes, but then all of a sudden Blueharts broke and overloaded the defenders and the score was 1-0. Unfortunately this was not the only time this happened the heat and pressure started to get to L4s and at half time it was 4-0 to Blueharts.

With a positive team talk, lots of sweets and plenty of water the L4s headed back onto the pitch with lots of determination to try and get some goals back.

But it wasn't to be and Blueharts came out strong, but with some amazing footwork from our returning keeper Emma they still managed to overload the defence and score another 2 goals and then unfortunately a goal off one of the defenders left the final score 7-0 to Blueharts.

A big thank you to our supporters this weekend Jo, Hannah and to the captains for shuffling things around to help get all teams out.

Onwards and upwards for the rest of the season—there's always a lot to learn from these early games!

Mens 3s vs Vauxhall 1 - 4-1 win

Badgers rock Vauxhall

A new season, bring a new captain and a new team line up.
Mellors mighty 3s travelled to the sunny Luton 6th form college to face an old foe in Vauxhall.
Upon arrival the lads where eager to get those campaign started, ball moving between the youngsters and the veterans eager to succefully put there shoes on.
Pre-game preps where basic, play basic hockey!

At the whistle the pressure was on to control the game, with broxbourne moving the ball round with conviction. 15 minutes in this paid off with a Wyatt scoring! Mullet playing the ball for super Jake, to enter the D, wrong foot the keeper and supply Wyatt with the finish.
As the game went on brox became open in the play whilst withstanding a barrage of corners. KP finding the stride in his legs picked the ball up in the opposing half, beating not only 2 defenders, had the audacity to score whilst looking away from the keeper. 2-0 brox.
6 minutes later Thomas Hopson on his debut league game, turned over play winning a foul. Quick thing played the ball through to Scotty, who shipped it out to Rich Mellor l, who had space to move forward and place a ball into the D for KP to stretch on the first touch and beat the keeper. 3-0 at half time.

The second half was a daunting affair for brox, Vauxhall knew they were needing to dig deep and pull one back, a lack of concentration from brox.
A break down in play lead to a Mullet Yellow, apparently for chat and 2 mins later a Green for Russel.
With brox back against the wall they persisted until the end, winning a penalty corner in the dying minutes. Injection, dodgy stop, a twist, and a flick, KP finds the bottom corner to complete the Hatrick..

Final result 4-1 Broxbourne.

Next week sees mellors might 3s at Badger field hosting Luton.

Mens 2s vs Stevenage 1 - 3-2 win

Match report pending.

Mens 4s vs Bishop’s Stortford 7 - 2-1 win

Match report pending.

Ladies 2s vs Bedford 3 - 2-0 win

The 2s were off to Bedford this week for the start of their league winning campaign. The long journey was eased by entertainment provided by Jess, wondering who really is Matt Manear and will he be in her Fantasy?

It was looking to be a gloomy start after they were somewhat sabotaged by Hannah Baker’s false weather report. However, the team got off to a strong start with lots of attacking play and goal scoring opportunities combined with disciplined defending. A clinical tackle outside the D, which some saw as ‘too severe’, saw Lauren take a green card before half time, but kept the score at 0-0.

The second half saw Broxbourne come back even stronger with a smooth short corner routine from Lydia enabling Lauren to put the badgers ahead. Bedford responded with several attacks of their own, but Broxbourne’s goalkeeper Lily made some crucial saves to maintain the lead.

As Bedford committed more players forward, Broxbourne capitalised on the space left behind. With 10 minutes remaining, Broxbourne doubled their lead with a well deserved goal from Ella after taking on several of the Bedford defence and slotting the ball safely past the keeper.

Bedford continued to press in the final minutes, but Broxbourne’s disciplined back line ensured there was no way back into the game for the home team. The match ended 2-0, with Broxbourne celebrating a well-earned victory.

Congratulations to Ella and Lily for winning joint players of the match and letting Lauren take the donkey vote for taking a card for the team.

The post match debrief saw the new addition of fines, hosted by new recruit Lisa including her official fines till and log book. The team then headed off to the first club social Bingo, with some questionable fashion choices from Lisa after a shock revelation that skinny jeans are no longer on trend. However the outfit was perfectly on theme for the dress code of ‘hot galz’ with her t-shirt feat. ‘Some hot gals’ courtesy of Ruby Room, Hertford.

Badger Bongo Bingo Social
We had a greta turn out to the bingo social, with players from teams across the club. Congratulations to all the winners on the night!

Coming up next weekend...

Saturday 28th September
Home fixtures
10am - Ladies 2s vs Hertford 1
11.30am - Mens 3s vs Luton Town 2
1pm - Mens 2s vs Luton Town 1
2.30pm - Mens 4s vs Bedford 7
4pm - Ladies 4s vs Hertford 3

Away fixtures
1.30pm - Ladies 5s vs Hertford 4
2.30pm - Ladies 1s vs Norwich City 1
3.30pm - Ladies 3s vs West Herts 4
3.30pm - Mens 1s vs Saffron Walden 1