Start time of the game caused some confusion as the ladies 2s were led to believe it was an 11:30 game which made midfielder Darcy turn up late. Rumour has it, she was late because she was scrabbling around on the floor looking for her fines money.

During the Warm up a new song was introduced called ‘Domingo’ which is what the opposition heard every time they ran near us as it’s just so catchy.

In the first 10 minutes of the game brox were struggling to break down winchmoore hills defence. After 7 minutes Lydia and Sue were subbed off which led to 4 goals in 5 minutes. Some lovely team hockey and goals for Darcy, Ella, Vic, and Gem. It’s looking likely that Lydia and Sue will be starting on the bench from now on.

During the second half Lydia was through on goal with a scoring opportunity but decided to fall over instead which landed her the donkey title. And with some more goals for Ella and Gemma and some lovely defensive work from the back line and keeper Lily the team finished with a 8-0 win.

Due to it being half term a lot of our players were on holiday eg. Captain Millie which meant the team had to call on new captain Ali who led us to victory and supplied some fantastic teas.

Player of the match went to Ella for work rate and her goals and donkey unfairly went to Lydia.

In summary:
Ella scored 4 Gem scored 2 Vic 1 Darcy 1
Lydia fell over
Lily clean sheet
Captain on holiday
Vice captain on holiday
Ali is the best captain
Lovely teas

Sunday 27th October

Ladies O35s - Away vs St Albans - 4-0 win

As the first weekend without a league fixture and half term (for all our teacher badgers) approached, this did not stop the action continuing for our Ladies O35 contingent, as they took on St Albans in the first round of the cup.

A strong, talented team, with players from across the ladies section, led by the equally talented management team of Tor ‘all the logistics’ Stacey, Dr Tors ‘brings the sweets’ Bacon and the aptly named Lisa ’left lung’ Banahan at the helm.

The game couldn’t begin without the obligatory stick chant (which evidently thrilled Tara) but this camaraderie proved positive for the badgers, who started the game strongly from the start. The team worked hard to produce a plethora of goal scoring opportunities but were unable to find a way past the St Albans keeper initially. Despite the frustration, Broxbourne maintained control and displayed some wonderful link up play, with a goal finally coming from Jo.

In keeping with the request from Kim to prevent her from having to do very much (there was some mention of selection for the England Masters team or something like that!) the defence very much cut out the St Albans attacks and kept the ball in the attacking half. In the first half of the game, Rachel was so committed to the cause and found herself slipping over in her eagerness to play the ball forward.

Throughout the game Broxbourne showered the St Albans goal but were constantly denied. Eventually after a lot of perseverance, the second goal came from Laura and this was then followed by another for Jo and a cracking strike from Em.

The game ended with the final score 4-0 to Broxbourne.

The win was celebrated afterwards (thank you St Albans for the Peroni and San Pellegrino) and the team look forward to the next match next month.

Mens O35s - Away vs Bishop's Stortford - 5-0 loss

With the mens ‘overs’ now at 35 instead of 40, the team was looking forward to getting some new blood into the team and have a good go in the competition. Sadly for them, this only led to Stu and Ryan joining a depleted team thanks to half-term holidays, the late PB and Arsenal vs Liverpool on at the same time.

The team were certainly not buoyed or up for the fixture, with Digger pre-match already dreaming of entering the Plate, Will asking if we could avoid dropping into the plate all together if we lost and Browny complaining of a nasty case of holiday bum. Meanwhile, BS meant business, with several regular first team players meeting the new age threshold, a team manager in a three-piece suit and the local papers’ photographer invited to capture the expected goal fest. From the off, it certainly looked like that was going to happen in the opening exchanges, with shots on target within seconds and Ryan conceding the first of many short-corners in the first half. Their first came from another early short corner, a whipped in shot that beat Ryan and smacked the back board. Their second came quickly afterwards, with a run into the D that beat several Badgers before cooly being slotting in. Their third caught Digger napping, with their striker running in at the back post and roofing it into the net. However, by this point BS decided to change approach and start running with the ball, which gave Broxbourne the opportunity to intercept and start to test their defence. Good work from Browny, Will and Trevor led to our best chance of the game, with Browny putting in an excellent pass across the D but Simon couldn’t quite put it away at the back post. BS found some rhythm again and finished the half the stronger team, winning another short corner as the whistle blew for half time, but a decent save from Thomas kept the score at 3-0.

It was an interesting team talk at half-time - Shane was in so much shock he struggled to find any words, and Digger was inventing new ways to hit a hockey ball - but overall the feeling was positive and we felt we could get a goal out the game.

Sadly that didn’t happen in the seconf half, however some excellent defending did! Limiting BS to 2 short corners, Brox frustrated the home side who were relentless and peppered the D for goals. However, a goal line clearance from Digger, tactical leaves from Tom (he definitely didn’t miss the ball) and several saves from Ryan limited BS to scoring only 2 goals in the second half and leaving with a respectable 5-0 loss.

A big thanks to MDS for umpiring and Hayden for calling in all the favours to get a team out!

Coming up next weekend...

Saturday 2nd November
Home fixtures
10am - Mens 3s vs Stevenage 2
11.30am - Ladies 2s vs Stevenage 1
1pm - Mens 2s vs WGC 1
2.30pm - No game (Mens 4s opposition withdrawn from league)
4pm - Ladies 4s vs Bedford 6

Away fixtures
11.30am - Ladies 1s vs Upminster 1
1.15pm - Ladies 5s vs Blueharts 7
3pm - Mens 1s vs Pelicans 1
4.30pm - Ladies 3s vs St Albans 5