The weather on the opening day of the league season somewhat mirrored the results across Bedford Hockey Club’s senior teams – bright sunshine, scattered showers, torrential rain, and thunder and lightning, all in equal measures.
It was the Ladies’ 1st team who saw the first action of the day on a sun-drenched pitch at Chester Road, in front of a large home crowd, launching the start of their 2024-25 National Hockey League run.
There were a few tense moments in the first quarter of the match, Bedford’s attacking runs curtailed by the clinical tackling of their Beeston opponents, with quick layoffs also being promptly intercepted, and newly signed keeper, Bex Howitt, being called on to prevent Beeston taking an early lead.
A quick evaluation at the first interval, by coach Christian Howard, saw Bedford return to the pitch looking more confident, the rest of the game playing out with end-to-end action.
Despite shots on goal by both teams, a stalemate held until the final period of play when the 1-0 victory was clinched by Bedford’s Kelly Bingham, firing the ball across goal from a tight angle, beating the keeper and planting the ball in the far-side netting.
The Men’s first XI had a recurring theme last season of falling behind before staging late comebacks, leading to thrilling, high-scoring matches, and it seems they may have picked up from where they left off.
Sitting 2-0 down against Saffron Walden at the halfway point, Bedford upped their tempo in the second half.
Had Saffron Walden been held to their two first-half goals, Bedford’s subsequent three would have secured a win. Sadly, Saffron Walden, again, managed to find the back of the net, the game ending in a 5-3 victory for the opponents.
Plenty of goals
There was plenty of goal-scoring action across the club’s other matches, with a tally of 40 goals scored off Bedford sticks in total.
That with two teams, the Men’s and Ladies’ 7th XI’s, losing out on action; the Men receiving a walk-over after their Letchworth opposition failed to gather a team, and the Ladies having a bye in their first league weekend.
Matches of note were a 10-0 annihilation of Letchworth 2nd’s by Bedford Men’s 2nd’s, whilst the Ladies’ 5th’s fell just short of double figures, taking West Herts 4th XI with an 8-0 triumph.
Not far behind, were the Men’s 6th XI, with their 6 goals to Letchworth’s nil, and the Men’s 3rd XI, defeating Shefford & Sandy 6-1, whilst the Ladies’ 4th’s beat Luton Town, 2-0.
The Ladies’ 6th’s returned home from Hertford with a solid 1-all draw, getting the season off to a promising start.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t a clean sweep for Bedford, the Ladies’ 2nd team going 3-1 down, away to Chelmsford’s first team and the Ladies’ 3rd XI losing out to Broxbourne, 2-0.
The Men’s 3rd’s suffered a painful 7-0 loss away to Hertford 2nd’s and the Men’s 5th’s were unfortunate in going 2-4 down to Hertford 5th XI.
Next Saturday will see all 14 senior squads in action, with six home and seven away fixtures, there being the awkward situation of the Men’s 2nd’s and 3rd’s being in the same Division this season and having to play each other at the weekend.
On the Junior side of the club, miraculously in view of the weather, the Under 8’s, 10’s and 12’s all travelled to Shefford & Sandy for their annual tournament on Sunday.
Sandeep, the Junior Lead, praised the coaches, parents, children and the hosts, Shefford & Sandy, for making it such a wonderful day.
The Under 8’s played 3 matches, with a win, a draw and a loss, while the Under 10’s took both Silver and Bronze.
The Under 12’s saw 3 of the 4 Bedford teams go on to take Gold, Silver and Bronze.
New players are always welcome, across all ages of the club. Further details on the club website: www.bedfordhockeyclub.com.
Words by Jean Fitch
