PROUD DRAW AS HOLCS DRAFT IN THE BIG BOYS

An away trip to the 'Man City' of the hockey world met the 1st team last Saturday: a gentle canter down to Holcombe. And despite a very good performance from the BOE Boys with some terrific hockey from both sides it also represented the unscrupulous and disappointing side of the sport.
They're always interesting affairs with the Holcs 1a XI as you never know what sort of team they will put together (why can't they just call them the 2nd XI like everybody else does!?) Unfortunately for BOE the EH National League have finished their fixtures until January so clubs can prepare for the Indoor season and fixtures. This means some clubs often put regular 1st team players into their other teams on these dates. So BOE got the 'pleasure' of playing against a number of these influential players.

Guest appearances aside - League positions and Holcs 1a's indifferent form would suggest that an achievable 3 points were up for grabs. The early encounters backed this up with BOE taking an early lead through this season's most improved player so far - our 15yr old starlet Josh Self. 1-0.

BOE continued to press for a second but Holcombe won a penalty corner, which was convincingly dispatched. Nonetheless, BOE piled on the pressure and shortly won their own penalty corner which Skipper Chris Harden rifled home emphatically. 2-1

It was to and fro with Holcs playing a lot of dangerous offensive hockey. The team were more than holding their own against a very strong opposition with passages of play highlighting the BOE squad's immense potential. Unfortunately Blackheath couldn't capitalise on a number of further scoring chances they created on the counter attack and with the Holcs Special Guests demonstrating why they play in the 1st Team regularly beginning to pull the strings the lads found themselves 3 - 2 down at half time.

A rousing and energised team talk saw the lads come out fighting. With the words ringing in their ears they applied themselves superbly and quickly found themselves 4 - 3 up thanks to a brace of excellent goals from the Lawrence brothers. As deadly a strike force as there is when both are on form. BOE worked hard to close out the game but Holcs had quality and remained dangerous.

And so it was that that in their hour of need up stepped Holcombe's star man of the day to complete his hatrick late on and rescue a point. Holcombe then pressed extremely hard in the final moments and the lads did well themselves to hang on for a point away from home when 3 had looked achievable.

An acceptable result given the circumstances with BOE looking very impressive throughout. The team were more disappointed that they didn't have the opportunity for a fair fight against the regular team that plays in this league. However, you can only play what's in front of you and as joint top scorers in the league but conceding goals on a regular basis there's plenty of areas where the team needs to improve. A home match against Trojans awaits the team next week. A good win would helps us go into the mid season winter break on the tails of the leading pack.