HARPENDEN IV: 2
BROXBOURNE VI: 8
29.09.2007

Harpenden were welcomed to Division 7 this season with a big wake up call. It was apparent celebrations from being Division 8 Champions had only just finished and cobwebs were still being blown away from a wet summer, as the fourth team stepped out to play a very competent Broxbourne side.

Harpenden started brightly and for 10 minutes looked strong. Neil Berry still the midfield general and with new side kick, young, Alex Beggs alongside him Harpenden dominated and played some very good quick passing hockey. Dan Michalik supporting the front line with some great solo runs and eventually linking up well with Alex Beggs who in turn crossed perfectly for Berry to sweep home.

Things were about to change however and Broxbourne showed they too could play some swift hockey and interlinked very well. This pushed Harpenden onto their back foot and after a period of pressure they finally capitalised and broke the strong Harpenden defence to score. Broxbourne didn’t stop there and the pressure for Harpenden continued. With some very good players in the oppositions line up the experienced Ian Beggs, Nick Crane and Simon Bates new things may be a lot harder this season, but were confident team spirit would pull them through to turn things round. Especially with the likes of Alex Beggs, Ali Barrett, and Dan Michalik showing great potential at a young stage of their hockey careers.

New captain Graham Dean rallied his troops and started to ring the changes with the introduction of Ryan Ely and Richard Harle, however, Broxbourne proved too strong and went on to score 2 more goals. The half time whistle could not have come quicker for the Harpenden side as they saw themselves 3-1 down at the break.

An inspirational talk from Captain Dean at half time saw Harpenden start the second half as strong as they had the first and gave themselves hope as Malcolm Jones picked up a pass from Taza and drove towards the edge of the D. Mike Edmund had been working hard for the team all match and managed to drag two defenders with him to create some space. Young Beggs (Alex) capitalised on this and Jones pushed the ball onto him as he slotted home. 3-2 and Harpenden back in the game.

This seemed to kick Broxbourne into action as they stepped up a few gears and started to tear through Harpenden and in the second ten minutes of the half went on to score 2 more goals. At 5-2 Harpenden were down and beaten. Even with 15 minutes to go the running had stopped and players were looking despondent. Thinking it couldn’t get worse, young goalkeeper Matthew Beggs, who could do nothing about the 5 goals previous, dived well to stop a sixth however found himself hit square on the knee behind the pads.

With Beggs unable to continue Edmund volunteered and donned the keeping pads. The opposition saw this as an opportunity and shouts of shoot whenever you can rang out amongst their ranks. Edmund stood fast and saved many chances proving their instructions wrong until finally, with only 5 minutes to go, Harpenden could do no more as Broxbourne racked up 3 more goals.

The final whistle blew and Harpenden had been given the worst welcome to a new division they could have wanted. An 8-2 loss to a strong Broxbourne side, but heads were still surprisingly up as they realised that things couldn’t get much worse from here on in and they looked forward to bouncing back against Berkhamsted 4s.
Captain Dean said he saw a lot of good things on the pitch and if we take these into next week with a bit of improvement on passing we could again become the strong force we were last season.

Man of the match – Alex Beggs

Team - Matthew Beggs, Ali Barrett, Ian Beggs, Nick Crane, Simon Bates, Neil Berry, Graham Dean (c), Richard Harle, Ryan Ely, Malcolm Jones, Mike Edmund, Taza, Dan Michalik, Alex Beggs

Match Report by Simon ‘Beasty’ Bates

Scorers
1) Neil Berry
2) Alex Beggs