HARPENDEN II: 2
WEST HERTS III: 1
27.10.2007

Harpenden’s disappointment of being held 2-2 to lowly placed Stevenage 2’s last week was carried over to the visit of West Herts on Saturday, who failed to bring with them their A-list regulars, Monty and Dorigo. Even the paparazzi on the sideline were dumbstruck, with Harps’ local rivals seeming to favour youth over column-inches.

Disappointment aside, Harpenden started the game well with quick, confident passing. The addition of skipper Pete Kneale in the middle of the park, who had been missing the previous week, soon paid dividends. It was a searching pass from Kneale that found Fraser Tant wide on the right. Tant beat his man and put in a cross to fellow forward Nigel Timms. Timms somehow managed to manoeuvre the ball onto his reverse side at the top of the ‘D’ and sent an unstoppable shot into the bottom corner. Harpenden had taken a rightful lead after just ten minutes.

Harpenden continued to play some terrific, flowing hockey, with former West Herts player Ben Turner seemingly inspired by the visit of his old friends. And it wasn’t long before the second goal came. A shot at goal was well saved by the visiting ‘keeper, only for the ball to fall at the feet of Timms. The scorer of the first goal coolly slotted in his second from close range, again from a reverse stick shot. Harpenden went into half-time 2-0 up and looking like the result was almost safe.

The second half started similar to the first with some great play from the whole Harpenden team. A classy dummy from Niall Blackwell allowed the ball to find its way out to the right hand side. The ball was picked up by Paul Nash, who managed to find Timms at the top of the ‘D’. Timms looked like he was going to fire in another reverse stick shot, but having plenty of time he decided to get his feet around the ball for a more conventional strike. The resulting shot went well wide and the rest of the Harpenden team were left wondering what would have happened if Timms had had less time to get his shot away. “Yeh, I was disappointed with the finish”, commented Timms, “but wasn’t that a great dummy from Niall to start the move off. I haven’t seen a dummy with that much class since Kim Cattrall starred in Michael Gottlieb’s magnum opus Mannequin back in 1987”.

With around ten minutes left to play and Harpenden chasing a second-half goal, West Herts began to look dangerous. A well worked move down the right resulted in one of the West Herts forwards receiving the ball in the ‘D’ and unleashing a ferocious shot. Fortunately for Harpenden the ball hit the crossbar and rebounded to safety.

Having not learnt from the previous let-off, Harpenden found themselves outnumbered three against two at the back. The West Herts forwards moved the ball to a player left unmarked at the top of the ‘D’ who slotted the ball under the advancing ‘keeper Ben Brind.

To the relief of the supporters, including Peter Timms from club sponsor Kingston Smith, Harpenden managed to hang on to the lead until the final whistle. “That was one of the best first-half performances of any Harpenden second team”, commented skipper Kneale after the game. When quizzed on the missing West Herts’ A-listers Kneale responded, “You can only beat the team they put out there…that’s all you can do”.

Thanks went to club Fixture Secretary David Waters who spent most of the morning preparing teas back at the clubhouse in the absence of the usual caterers. His efforts were particularly well received by Club Captain Paul Nash. Next week Harpenden face a strong Royston team who are vying with Harpenden for a place at the top of division 3SW.

Report by Graham Smith

Scorers
1) Nigel Timms
2) Nigel Timms