Men's Masters Over 40s Vs Harborne

On Sunday we entered our first Men's Masters EH competition in over 30 years. In recent decades the club has built a strong foundation of youth players but in recent years and particularly since Covid more adult member's have picked a stick back up which has led to the re-introduction of our Men's 5XI and increased the possibilty of a Men's 6XI in future seasons. With this in mind and a change in the criteria around age and guests a team was entered in the EH Men's O40's Cup with an away draw to Harborne first up.

Almost 50 names made the possibles list and a squad of 16 was assembled. A couple of late drop outs led to an emergency selection meeting in the club on Saturday night which made it's way down the hill to Oakengates. Fair to say the only thing we confirmed is that none of us are any good at Darts and Scotty & TD like a doggy bag at the curry house.

With a squad of 14 we set off for Harborne minus Scotto who had forgot to set his alarm. Fortunately he made it on time arriving at the same time as PJ who had made a detour to his old University digs in central Brum. With 5 of the squad not having picked up a stick for a very long time and Stace in goal not having donned the pads for even longer a 2 minute jog and warm up seemed adequate and prevented anyone being injured in the warm up. In an attempt to make it even harder Moet won the toss and decided to play into the sun first half.

Our hosts started confidently buoyed by the fact most of them still played and had reached the finals of the Plate competition last season. It wasn't long before they had the first chance of the game but Stace was more than up to the task of swatting the ball away from his midrift. In open play we looked surprisingly good and knocked it around the back and through the middle with relative ease but lacked a decent ball to the forwards for the majority of the first half. Harborne scored their first from open play after a turnover in midfield and scored a second from a short corner which was ruled out by their umpire on the halfway line. A few more corners followed but Sunny was up to the task as number 1 runner ably support by Stace in goal. Harborne did manage a second before half time when their forward turned and reversed one in the side netting giving Stace no chance.

The mood at half time was a mixture of relief and a determination not to get thrashed. With our hosts having to contend with the sun second half we'd be able to capitlise but alas as we setup for the second half the sky clouded over. We switched to 3 at the back and had more of the play in their D with Suchy making some useful runs and our half backs getting some joy down the flanks. Harborne pushed their 'younger' players further forward and were dangerous on the break throughout as it turned into a bit of a tennis match we were unable to prevent them scoring three goals in the second half. We did force a few corners, the first of which made it's way to Scotty who's deflected shot fell kindly to Moet who ballooned it over the bar but moments later a strike from PJ was fired home by Moet to give the comeback some legs. Between all this Harborne contrived to miss two flicks and hit the post/bar three times in quick succession with the score ending 5-1.

Special thanks to Pritpal & PJ for making the longer trips to the game and Gwynne for umpiring. The defeat means we now enter the Plate competition with another game scheduled for Sunday 5th December when a straight knockout ensues. By then we'll hopefully all have recoverd. Post game Roger's analyis focused on Seats not providing him a good enough quality grip on his stick and him trying to recruit players to his 4XI promotion push.

Squad:
Gary Stacey,Jon Woodrow,Paul Duncan,Rob Cooper,Sunny Sahota,Paul Bullock,Rajpal Dhanjal,Simon Such,Dave Seaton,Roger Marsh,Chris Nightingale,Pritpal Dhanjal,Scott Marshall,Tom Lauder