HOCKEY: Rugby & East Warwickshire round-up

Pictures of the Men's 1st XI v Birmingham University 2nd XI by Mike Baker
Hockey action from Hart Field - Rugby & East Warwickshire Men's 1st v Birmingham University 2ndsHockey action from Hart Field - Rugby & East Warwickshire Men's 1st v Birmingham University 2nds
Hockey action from Hart Field - Rugby & East Warwickshire Men's 1st v Birmingham University 2nds

Rugby & East Warwickshire Men’s 1st XI 2 Birmingham University 2nd XI 3

The first half was an even affair and only the heroics of the Uni keeper kept it at 0-0 half time.

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Rugby kept their same structure in the second half and looked to win ball on half way to attack at speed. However stronger pressing by Birmingham and turnover ball by the 1sts led to three very quick goals. A change to the front three and continuous no fear led to REWHC dominating the final 15 minutes, with goals from Adam Hewitt and Tom Robson.

REWHC 2nd XI 2 Leek 2nd XI 5

After a slow start Liam Brown won a short corner which Gareth Unett converted. Leek replied with two goals in ten minutes. Ryan Hibberd levelled but Rugby were 3-2 down at half time. A stellar effort from the opposition goalie kept out more chances and as Rugby were getting back into the game they started to pick up some cards from which Leek capitalised. Man of the Match Connor Robson then saved a penalty stroke to keep Rugby in the game but they couldn’t convert further opportunities. Leek continued their pressure and poor marking led to a tap in for 5-2.

REWHC 3rd XI 0 Loughborough Students 3rd XI 4

In the 70 minutes defensive drill Rugby made sure all 16 students had to work for the game. Another try at the 4-5-1 formation saw strong defensive play with tight marking throughout the first half. Despite this Loughborough scored three times. Toby managed to break in the D and fire a reverse well wide.

The second half brought great play with the ball from Rugby, holding onto possession and narrowly missed chances from debutant Henry and Josh. Good transfers from Foz, Russ, Lumby and Matt M kept the students running to maintain the press throughout the half. Unfortunately a missed man on the back post allowed Loughborough to score one more.

Man of the Match: Matt for some solid saves throughout.

REWHC 4th XI 7 Ashby 2nd XI 4

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The 4s continued their ascent up the table. In a tight first half, where arguably Ashby had the better chances, they went behind via a deflection. But Ashby scored an own goal themselves after good play from Harry. He then popped up in a scrap from a saved short corner to give REWHC the lead at half time. Two dazzling back post deflections put the game out of reach. Fancy footwork led to a third back post tap in and Harry also slotted home a third goal after neat passing. Isaac rounded the game off with an outrageous lob over Jake for a third own goal of the game.

Man of the match went to Alfie who had a great game, bombing forward at every opportunity.

Ashby 3rd XI 1 REWHC 5th XI 2

An important win away at Ashby to end a run of three straight defeats. Harry was shown a green card for persistent stick tackling, only to come back on and get a yellow almost immediately. Ashby won a couple of penalty corners, one of which they converted. However, Rugby managed to equalise from a penalty corner when Dave played it back to injector Keith, who scored for the third time in four games.

REWHC started to dominate in the second half, with Adam and Harry combining well down the right. Harry managed to redeem himself with a brilliant reverse into the bottom right corner to win the game.

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Man of the match went to Iain for doing an excellent job in defence.

REWHC 6th XI 3 Leamington 3rd XI 2

In a frustrating match the 6ths somehow managed to win ugly against a well organised side. Rugby opened the scoring early on and then went two up through joint man of the match George Spraget, and DT. But Leamington were never out of the game and it was 2-1 at the break.

At the start of the second half, several passes started to be rather wayward or, if not, mis-controlled by the intended recipients. This culminated in a virtually unstoppable Leamington penalty corner past Charlie Bell.

The other joint Man of the Match Charlie Morrison led the revival by tirelessly chasing the Leamington defence until they started to make mistakes. Penalty corners came and went but with minutes to go up stepped Guy Smith for the winner.

REWHC Ladies 1st XI 3 Cannock 2nd XI 1

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The game started in flurries of snow and Rugby went 1-0 down after sloppy defending. Emma Olifent stopped some great shots and well worked defence from the backs, Sally, Belinda Mary and Kelly kept Cannock at bay, allowing attackers, especially Nicki, to build opportunities. Charlie was robbed by the half time whistle as the ball was about to cross the line.

Rugby kept up the pressure. The mids (Stacey, and Iz) worked tirelessly to create feeds and leads, with some impressive battling from Sarah.

The first goal was scored by Emma A who battled through from an early ball up the pitch. The second came through some dedicated perseverance from Lil at the goal mouth. After a couple more attacking short corners, a one touch feed into Man of the Match Kirby was beautifully finished as a tomahawk. With six minutes left Rugby kept their heads and sensible play from Katie, Belinda kept the opposition at bay.

Fixtures for Saturday, November 3:

Men’s 1s v Warwick Uni away

Men’s 2s v Khalsa - Hart field 1400

Men’s 3s v Boots - Rugby School 1200

Men’s 4s v Atherstone away

Men’s 5s v Northampton - Rugby School 1200

Men’s 6s v Rugby 7s away

Men’s 7s v Rugby 6s - Hart field 1530

Ladies 1s v Birmingham Uni - Hart Field 1200

Ladies 2s v Sutton - Rugby College 1230

Ladies 3s v Warwick - Rugby College 1030

Ladies 4s v Warwick - Rugby College 1430.