What colour tops are we playing in today?

As we walked onto the pitch, it looked like someone had had a fight with the French flag, but we soon realised it was our opposition warming up for today’s game. Kate S made the strong observation that there were in fact ‘hundreds of them’ - we all knew at that point, that this game was going to be no less than a battle. Low on numbers, Captain Catie was clutching her silver notebook tighter by the minute, as she (and the rest of us) hoped and prayed nobody else cancelled on today’s game. Luckily, more of our team turned up and silver notebook remains in one piece.

As we got ready to enter the battlefield, we all knew this was going to be a tough game. With only two subs and the possibility of seeing some of their private parts (they had chatted about not wearing pants in their warm up). It is safe to say, that we were all preparing ourselves for some dramatic and potentially x-rated scenes.

‘Let’s go girls’, exclaimed Alice. Unfortunately, we were all so focused on what lay ahead, that we missed the opportunity for a team rendition of Shania Twain (we can save that one for the Christmas social).

Tapping our sticks together (on the pitch, not off) we all shouted ‘Freedoom’ and took up our positions ready for play. Oops...I mean.... ‘Watsonians’, that’s what we shouted, not ‘Freedom’ - it wasn’t an actual war... although going by some of the comments made by the oppo you’d have thought it was. Maybe they just needed a really, really, really good...........................win?

The first few minutes saw a lot of running back and forth from both teams (which continued for the entire game) but we pushed back and gained majority possession (which also continued for the entire game, mostly anyway). There were some great runs straight into the D and plenty attempts were had. Kate F was running circles around the player marking her and Hannah was making some strong tackles in the back corner. With several strong set ups, Heather and Jenny put pressure as they kept pushing for a goal, with Julia and Alice on either wing constantly picking up and feeding back in.

The first half felt like it went on forever as everyone gave every ounce of energy into the game. The umpire seemed tough, but fair and we kept pushing forward. Sadly, their speed caught us out at times as they constantly added fresh legs onto the pitch. This saw them have a sneaky run right down the pitch, resulting with a very lucky goal. Our defence were gutted and with that came a few short corners, each we managed to save (this is due to Judith’s strong defence management at the back and Maddie’s confidence in goals). Unfortunately I can’t remember their second goal. But it did happen. Please speak to another member of our team for more information. We fought back and gained another opportunity ourselves, with a sneaky one straight in the goal by Heather, we now found ourselves back in the game. Finally, we had some fresh legs of our own and Neve made an epic appearance, giving us the boost we all needed to keep us fighting.

The second half was upon us and it was becoming more intense by the minute. Luckily a short corner goal by the oppo was disallowed due to one of their players foot being in the D. We didn’t ask any questions. Judith had been asking plenty questions though, which caused great anger and frustration when she used this distraction technique more commonly known as ‘chatting’ on the player she was marking. Before the player had got to the end of her reply to Judith, Judith had stepped away from her and received a pass that was meant for the player, who was blissfully unaware the ball was anywhere near her and was still mid reply to Judith’s question. Note to Ben - sometimes basic skills are the most successful!

It was a miracle we managed to concentrate given that it had quickly become apparent to some of our team members, that there was in fact, a celebrity amongst their team. Sadly, as this match report went to press, we had not had a response from the celeb in questions PR team, meaning we were not legally allowed to use their name in this article. I guess celebs have a right to have a personal life as well right? So you will just have to guess on this one.

The final WHISTLE blew and there was clear disappointment - the final score did not represent the hard work we had all put in as a team. But, in standard 4’s style, we picked ourselves up and headed to the clubhouse for some beverages, snacks and #banter

Well played to everyone. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year - 2019, let’s be having ye!

Thank you to Chris for umpiring.