DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER

Maidstone Men’s 5s 0 BOEHC Highwaymen 5

What a different a week makes! After last week’s stuttering start to the season the Highwaymen delivered one of their best league performances of the past two years against a spirited, talented and competent Maidstone development team, comprising a neat blend of youth and experience. But in true James Bond style the visitors from South-East London were not shaken, but certainly stirred into action, lining up with a rather unfamiliar “uncut” diamond formation, borne in part of selection necessity, but implemented with razor sharp precision by a highly motivated, mobile and menacing BOEHC side. Ultimately it was the hosts who found themselves on the rocks, however, in an eminently watchable match that was a great credit to Kent Open Division 3.

The two headline performers in the match and the toast of the team at full-time were the Double Diamond Duo of Oli Payne and Josh Clark, both of whom bagged a brace of goals and played brilliantly. The former put the visitors ahead after 15 minutes, following up smartly with a view to a kill to smack the ball into the bottom left-hand corner after an initial effort had been blocked. Thereafter Oli was rather starved of possession till the half-time break when a slight formation tweak unleashed his full potential in a second half where he terrorised the home defence, scored a brilliant second, and could easily have bagged a hat-trick. It was only a split decision which ultimately meant that he got the man-of-the-match plaudits rather than Josh Clark, who deservedly gets the picture billing (see above) instead, but his performance was no less remarkable, capping an energetic and disciplined performance with two very well-taken goals, the first of which was laid on courtesy of a nice cross-field ball in the D from the returning Steve Garth, who in truth looked like he had never been away. Greg Dowse too put in his best performance to date in the famous red shirt, and seems able to fill a variety of team roles, making him a very valuable asset to the squad.

And all this took place against an unpromising background where the away dug-out at times resembled more of a field hospital. Keeper Tom Conway looked like he had had the living daylights knocked out of him before a ball was even hit, pulling up with muscle spasms in his back and then faced with the spectre of the team’s travelling physio somehow getting him on the pitch. Then he goes and keeps a clean sheet! Greg Dowse too had a can or two of Deep Heat applied to his overworked thighs, before Josh Clark then found his wrist being strapped up by “Dr. No” in the overworked BOEHC medical team (check out the photo again) before returning to the fray.

The defence put in a sterling shift as well, with the usual ingredients much in evidence: Phil Kinch memorably pulling down an aerial pass from the hosts, Peter Robinson overlapping and crossing with gusto on the right, and Chris Bernard performing admirably for 62½ minutes before succumbing to his weekly match-ending injury.

The foundation for the victory, however, was provided by the magnificent midfield, with Mssrs. Clark and Mark Ainley out wide, and the three wise men in between. Richard Cleall remains the on-field spiritual leader of the team and was as ever superb, whilst David Leverton got through an awful lot of early grunt work before the game opened up in the second half and he was able to offer great support to the constant attacking thrusts of his cohorts. And the trusty No. 82, Ravi Wickramasuriya capped another wonderful performance with a thunderball of a shot following a short-corner routine which only the most optimistic of coaches could ever claim came from the training pitch, as the path of the ball resembled more of a TfL alternative route map when the Central Line is not working.

To their immense credit Maidstone attacked more in the last 15 minutes than in the previous 55 and threw everything at the red wall in front of them, but on this occasion to no avail. And so it ended 5-0, the stand-in captain for the day ruefully musing that on the only other occasion he had enjoyed the honour - exactly 52 weeks ago to the day - the result had actually been the same. All of which means that nobody actually believes that the results were anything other than no-show game awards!

Second in the table is great start, but that is all it is. The team has now set a standard to aspire to and seems to have found a blend that works whilst relieving the goal-scoring constipation it has generally suffered throughout 2016. Best of all, however, the whole squad were a credit to the game, themselves and the Club on Saturday.

Team:
Tom Conway (GK), Peter Robinson, Phil Kinch, Chris Bernard, Ravi Wickramasuriya, David Leverton, Richard Cleall, Mark Ainley, Josh Clark, Oli Payne, Greg Dowse, Steve Garth and Tim Walters (C).

Man-of-the-match:
Oli Payne – pretty much a master-class on how to lead the line in hockey match, particularly away from home and at times in a solo role. He took both goals brilliantly and deserved even more on the day.

Umpires:
Rhys Edwards from BOEHC plus one of Maidstone’s. One could argue that it was an easy game to officiate, played in a brilliant attitude by both teams … but that may have been down to the very good, fair and balanced officiating by both umpires who as a result deserve great credit.