Fair to say, it wasn’t the most successful weekend of the season, so far, for Bedford Hockey Club.
Although, there were a few matches of note, the greatest being the Ladies’ 5s 13-1 victory over Hertford 4s.
A score-line which may prove very helpful at the end of the season, if Bedford’s position on the table comes down to goal difference.
Staying with the positives, whilst the Men’s 2s took a while to capitalise on their early goal against Cambridge City, when they finally did, they did so in style, 4-0 to Bedford, the outcome.
The Men’s 6s will, also, be pleased to have secured points from their solid 3-2 victory over St Albans.
The only other two results worthy of celebration, however, were a nil-all draw for the ladies’ 1s away to Chelmsford, which sees the Bedford side nudge its way up the table into 4th place, and the Men’s 5s who held Rickmansworth to a 2-all draw.
Several matches were close-fought battles, the Men’s 3s going 1-0 down to St Alban’s, the Ladies’ 7s suffering the same score-line in their game, away to Letchworth, and the Ladies’ 6s being unlucky with their 2-3 loss to Leighton Buzzard.
The Ladies’ 4s looked stronger in the second half of their match, against Chiltern 1s, preventing Chiltern from scoring.
Sadly, the damage had already been done, Bedford having gone 3-1 down in the first half.
The remaining Ladies’ results were a 3-0 loss for the 2s, against St Albans, and a 2-0 defeat to East London, for the 3s.
The Men’s 1st team will, undoubtedly, have hoped they could have done a replay of their performance last week, when they fought back from 4-1 down to secure a 4-all draw.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be, their final score remaining at 4-1 down away to St Albans.
The final two Men’s games were rather decisive losses for the Bedford teams.
Winchmore Hill & Enfield 1s took full advantage of a number of unforced errors by the Men’s 4s to steal the match by 6 goals to 1, whilst some great saves by the Men’s Vets goalie, Bob Hughes, including blocking a penalty flick, didn’t stop MBDA 1s finding the back of the net on other offensives, to take the game 8 goals to 1.
Whilst not great for the Senior teams, it should be noted that the weekend at the Club finished on a definite high.
Following on from the tournament for the Under 12s and Under 14s, earlier in the month, Sunday was the chance for the Under 8s and Under 10s to shine.
Trish Sawyer, one of Bedford’s coaches, and mother to three of the participants, observed that the occasions ‘saw BHC host our hugely successful annual tournaments across all junior age groups.
Hundreds of young hockey players from neighbouring clubs were welcomed and some fantastic hockey skills and sportsmanship displayed’.
She went on to emphasise that ‘these events could not happen without our dedicated Junior Coordinator and the many volunteer coaches and umpires, not to mention our very supportive parent group’.
Words: Jean Fitch
