For the first time in six years Guernsey were not in the hat for an EH Trophy draw yesterday and Chris Harden and his talented band of BOE Brothers are the reason for that.
Having reached five successive finals, the holders were knocked out of the national competition in the third round yesterday as we gained sweet revenge for our disappointing 7-2 defeat last June at Lee Valley.

It was a high octane, pulsating encounter at Footes Lane in Guernsey which saw the home side take the lead before Skipper Chris Harden found his range both with his penalty-corner drag flicks and in open play to score a hat-trick that put his side 3-1 ahead.
A contentious penalty stroke gave Guernsey hope of a come-back, but Chris Harden sealed victory with another successful drag flick in the last minute to end the hosts’ Trophy defence.

‘Last year [in the final] we had not played for a few months and we had a fair few new players in the squad.’ Chris Harden said.
‘Over the last year we have really gelled now and we are playing as a team’.
‘I think last year in the final we worried too much about the opposition because Guernsey have such a good reputation in this competition, but now we just worry about ourselves and our own performance’.
‘We also had a wrong to right today’. added the hat-trick hero.

Not only did The Club head to Guernsey looking for revenge, we also arrived on the island high in confidence after a 5-1 demolition of league leaders Tulse Hill & Dulwich in South Premier Two on the Saturday morning before.

When Guernsey then lost centre back Tristan Cairns within the opening minute of the game to a back injury that saw him barely able to make it to the bench, there were signs that it might not be their day for once.

However, after both sides had failed to convert a penalty-corner chance apiece inside the opening 10 minutes, the home side took the lead in stunning fashion on 13mins, as Steve Waldrom ran onto a loose ball on the edge of the D and hit a thunderous drive into the roof of the net that no goal keeper would have stopped.

Their advantage did not last long though, and while Guernsey Captain Adie Peacegood was sitting out a couple of minutes in the sin bin for receiving a green card, Chris Harden notched the equaliser. The Guernsey defence was unable to snuff out a beautiful long aerial which Harden collected neatly before calmly slipping the ball past GK Adrian Gidney.

The Guernsey keeper then made a fine save at the next penalty-corner to deny Mike Benson, who had briefly taken over drag flick duties while Harden took a breather, before BOE GK Nathen Bullens matched his opposite number Gidney with an excellent stop to repel Morgan Harries’ effort five minutes later.

A couple more green cards came before the interval of a highly competitive – Harden for the visitors and Ben Cormack for the hosts – but no more goals as the sides turned around level.

A emotive and powerful half time team talk with added words of wisdom from Manager Colin Couves sent the boys back out determined to come away winners.

The team had a dream start with two goals in the first seven minutes of the second half as they emphatically took control. The first goal came when Chris Harden deflected in Michael Lawrence’s superbly fierce reverse stick strike from the left side of the D after Lawrence had swivelled past several defenders. Then the Captain completed his hat-trick with a thunderous and unstoppable trademark drag flick.

With 20 minutes left Guernsey were contentiously given the chance to halve the deficit from the penalty spot when a stroke was awarded. Michael Lawrence being harshly penalised for a dangerous tackle.

The Club felt hard done by and the Skipper protested for a while but to no avail. Guernsey's Waldrom kept his cool to convert the stroke. 3-2 with 20 to play.

Harries, who was arguably Guernsey’s best player on the day, came agonisingly close to an equaliser moments later, but Nathan Bullens pulled off another outstanding save to keep him at bay.

Over the final quarter-of-an-hour Guernsey were guilty of impatience and were not heeding the calls of team manager to keep possession and build attacks rather than hitting early long balls. That led to a dearth of genuine chances and eventually frustration started getting the better of them with two players finishing the game in the sin bin having been shown yellow cards.

Chris Harden then stepped up in the final minute to rub salt into the wounds with one of his penalty-corner specials to seal victory.

‘In terms of hockey, it was far from our best day.’ Said Peacegood.

‘We were far too frenetic, there was no composure on the ball and I cannot think of more than four or five passes being strung together.

‘When we play our best hockey, we keep the ball, go down avenues looking for an opening and, if it’s not there, we come out and start again, but today we turned over the ball an awful lot and we turned it over to a very good side.

‘I never thought they had a huge threat individually, but they attacked very well in waves and kept us very busy at the back and in midfield.

‘Games like that in the past we have won by managing to find another gear at the right time, but what happened today was we did not quite get the rub of the green and they punished us and come off the pitch deserved winners.

‘It might be a bit of a reality check to some of our guys who have not felt defeat before and it’s a bitter pill to swallow so everyone should learn from this and what we have got to look forward to now is an inter-insular at home where our performance is going to have to be a lot better to beat the old enemy’. Added the captain

A mention has to go to the umpires as both teams agreed that it was some of the best umpiring that we have had and they both conducted themselves brilliantly.

All the boys enjoyed the weekend, it was a great start beating top of the league on Saturday followed by a great team bonding meal in Urban Kitchen.

Mr Eddy Forshaw decided against eating with us in the Urban Kitchen and he joined us a little after we had ordered. He therefore decided (when most others were going to bed) to go check out what St Peter Port had to offer in the way of Chinese Chicken Balls. He found a lovely establishment called Panda where he purchased said Chicken Balls and whilst waiting had the enjoyment of hearing ‘Hello, Good Evening Panda how can I help?’ he then proceeded to tells us all about this 'ordeal' the next morning along with how the Chicken Balls were making him feel a bit 'morning after the night before'.

To cap a great weekend off the Captains own brother Tom ‘Wooooooooooo’ Harden as he is now to be known (You can see why at the end of the ITV highlights video) managed to leave his hand luggage bag at the carousel whilst waiting for his sticks. Needless to say this made him DOTD maybe even of the weekend! Well done Eddy Forshaw for hanging around and getting him home safely (not sure what else he could of forgotten if left to his own devices).

Michael Lawrence would also like to add that it was not a dangerous tackle that saw the Penalty Stroke awarded against us it was in fact ‘the best tackle I have ever made’. It was an Hockey Trump Alternative Fact. Needless to say if it was not for Tom ‘Wooooooooooo’ Harden forgetting his bag as mentioned above then Michael would definitely be in contention for DOTD for even trying to convince anyone that he can indeed tackle!!

A massive thanks has to go to Colin Couves who other than being one of the faithful spectators at our games over many, many years of Blackheath also accompanied us on this trip to pass on his knowledge and to help guide us on the day.

Click on the links for match photos and videos highlights of goals and game action

ITV News & Video Report
Match photos from Jay Friend
Match Photos from Keenan Butcher

Teams
Guersey: Gidney, Dawson-Ball, Cairns, Peacegood, Cormack, LE Page, Damarell, Whally, Harries, Dawes, Waldrom, Still, Ravenscroft, Kendal, Stokes, Cox.

Blackheath & OE: Bullens, Owen, Logan, Mayfield, Benson, L. Lawrence, Archer, Hughes, Wyatt, C. Harden, M. Lawrence, D. Lawrence, T. Harden, Forshaw, Self, Stafford.

Umpires: R. Turville, L Roffey