HIGHWAYMAN STAND AND DELIVER

BOEHC Highwaymen 2 Canterbury Friars 0

After allaying one of their perennial curses against Folkestone last week-end the Highwaymen were faced by another of their bogey teams on Saturday at College Meadow, and not merely by virtue of their green club colours. It was a question of first versus third and winner goes top, so neither team was lacking incentive on the day when Andy Murray also went to number 1 in the world tennis rankings. This was indeed a much better performance than the previous home match against Gillingham, but in tennis terms there was a real sense of 40:30 ... closer than it should have been, only one mistake away from parity, and a performance which embraced both 40 minutes of free-flowing inventive hockey and 30 minutes of shapeless chaos.

In truth, the Club could have cantered past Canterbury in this fixture, but not for the first time the home side found themselves faced with an excellent visiting keeper who stopped pretty much everything that was thrown at him. And again, the hosts were equally guilty of not converting a number of presentable chances to make the game safe, although the Friars are notoriously parsimonious in their games against BOEHC, where they had only let in only one goal in three of the last four encounters between the two teams. In the event, it was indeed the front two, the returning Andy Cook and the excellent Tom Davies, who scored the goals that mattered, albeit with about 45 minutes between the two. Neither would rate too highly in a goal-of-the-season contest, even if the result was highly important, but the match in general was an excellent spectacle played in a great spirit by two teams playing very watchable hockey.

The usual midfield stalwarts of [/b]Ravi Wickramasuriya[/b] and the team’s spiritual leader Richard Cleall were ably supplemented by the returning Mark Ainley, Highwayman regular David Leverton, plus the two form players of the season to date, Sammy Chana and Greg Dowse, alongside one of last week’s scorers, Peter Robinson. With such an abundance of talent in midfield it was perhaps no surprise that the home side dominated possession in the first half, often stringing together double-figure passing sequences, switching flanks and even playing round the back at will. Were the team guilty of over-elaboration at times? Maybe they were, but the general play was very easy on the eye, and it was simply a question of when, not if, the Highwayman would score, wasn’t it? The guests from Canterbury were third in the table before play for good reason, however, and defended well, whilst adopting a direct approach to their front two.

For once the hosts were able to field an unchanged defence, with Phil Kinch slotting in at right back and Joni Coleman again anchoring the central defensive berth. Tom Conway returned from injury in goal too, and the sense of familiarity seemed to reap dividends, as the home keeper did not have a single direct shot to save and the guests did not force a solitary penalty corner over the full 70 minutes. However, the team were indebted to the casual brilliance of Richard Cleall and a smart goal-line clearance late on when Canterbury did for once work the ball round the defence and keeper. But instead of 1-1, it was the home side that settled matters 5 minutes later to make it 2-0 and game, set and match to the men in red.

It was good too to see captain Stephen Gilbert returning to competitive action, as his nose for a fine Chablis and a near-post half-chance have both been missed in equal measure ... in his case, definitely a large one, one suspects. The only puzzling thing on a day of so many positives was the disintegration into mayhem of the home side’s disciplined first-half display which offered Canterbury an unlikely lifeline for far too long after the break. The team will not be able to keep clean sheets every week either, so the Highwaymen will need to keep their powder dry and their muskets primed to greater accuracy in the opposition D going forward.

And so on to Sittingbourne and Old Bordenians next week, a fixture which is inevitably a “lively” affair on all fronts, and one which ended 4-4 on the Club’s last visit back in January.

Team:
Tom Conway (GK), Tim Walters, Phil Kinch, Joni Coleman, Peter Robinson, Ravi Wickramasuriya, David Leverton, Richard Cleall, Mark Ainley, Sammy Chana, Greg Dowse, Tom Davies, Andy Cook and Stephen Gilbert (C).

Man-of-the-match:
Richard Cleall – the vintage Club player just gets better with age, and led by example all over the pitch.

Umpires:
Karen Stevenson umpired the whole game and was great, despite the apparent early onset of hypothermia at half-time, whilst Ders Baillie and Mark Ainley each put in equally sterling performances for a half each. A big vote of thanks is also due to the not inconsiderable and loyal support that turned out on a cold November afternoon at College Meadow to cheer the home team on.