Drew 4-4
Scorers: S. Stroud, O. Neal, R. Upton (2)
MoM: Reef Upton – simply majestic!
DoD: Ben Lawford (for ‘unauthorised’ absence)
With thanks to team sponsor MMil http://www.batchelorcoop.co.uk
The Batchelor-Coop Millers entered pub-quiz territory this week, being the very last Canterbury hockey team to play at the HSBC ground, before the facilities transfer to Crystal Palace F.C.
A boisterous home crowd was in situ, hoping for one final, landslide home victory. In the opening 10minutes, it looked like this may very well be the case; consisting of an awful lot of defending for the visitors. The home side eventually converted a short corner to take the lead. 0-1. So often though, this is exactly the ‘jump-start’ the Millers need, and so it was no surprise (to themselves at least) that they equalised three minutes later. Sam Stroud finishing off after some nice work by Ollie Neal. 1-1.
Undeterred, the home side managed to capitalise again, before the break, with a shot from the top of the D. 1-2. Half time and their erudite captain found some positive words to marshal confidence: “we’re doing well to restrict them to 2-1, it could be a lot worse….”
Early in the second Ollie Neal despatched from a short corner to bring parity. 2-2. A couple of potential penalty stroke incidents, highlighted the visitor’s growing momentum. And then Reef, having earlier hit the post with a narrow angle reverse strike, broke from midfield to score with a belter! 3-2. He then doubled his tally with a low short-corner drag flick, just minutes later. 4-2. Time to shut up shop (or, leave the door ajar)?
With five minutes to go, the old adage “play to the whistle” proved true (and costly) for the Millers as they stopped (twice) for decisions that never came. As always, the captain found his silver-lining; in having managed to survive a ‘near-decapitation’ swing-and-a-miss attempted cross, which the umpire had deemed “not close-enough to blow”. The drive back to Polo provided ample time for discussion on the accuracy of the Micrometer used in arriving at this decision. The match ended 4-4 and provided a very fitting spectacle as a final farewell to the HSBC pitch.