Drew 1-1
Scorers: Simon Hurlow
MoM: Archie Barnes
With thanks to team sponsor MMil http://www.batchelorcoop.co.uk
It was a cold, wet Saturday in London for the Batchelor-Coop Millers, as they faced New Becc’s at the HSBC ground. Skipper Sharratt usually has a steady hand on the tiller but, for once, local traffic conditions dampened his ‘fleet-footed’ spirit, a feeling further compounded when he arrived and realised the team shirts were still in Canterbury!
Luckily, the New Becc’s ‘away’ shirts were available to borrow, and so the game commenced. Surprisingly, given the quality of their extensive preparation, the visitors were definitely the brighter of the two sides, with Archie and Reef relentless in attack and defence. The opening came ten minutes in from a lovely pass by Ollie Neal, which found ‘quick-hands’ Hurlow in the D who, in his own words, ‘totally skilled-up the opposition’ and popped the ball in the net. 1-0. Archie was unlucky not to double the lead within minutes with a well-struck reverse effort.
Chances came and went, but the visitors were constrained to just a single-goal lead. A more even battle followed in the 2nd half. Canterbury still created more numerous and better quality chances and were probably most unlucky when Sharratt’s penalty corner strike was saved off the line by a defender. Despite having fewer chances overall, New Becc’s eventually equalised from a short corner, in the dying minutes, and the game ended a disappointing, and moist, 1-1.
However, in an upturn to events, Sharratt was delighted to find that HSBC had recently installed ‘Wim Hof – freeze-the-fear’ showers, taking him back to his army days: resistance-to-interrogation training, apparently. Most early partakers emerged bright red and mildly hypothermic. Tardier members of the team allegedly found a small number of ‘mythical’ warm ones, which contributed some noticeable tension in the clubhouse afterwards and proved that the early bird doesn’t always get the worm!