This fixture had all the hallmarks: half-term week-end, a struggle to get a 12-man squad together, the usual welcoming microclimate associated with the Thames or Medway towns (i.e. rain, wind and more rain) and the infamous Gravesham pitch. In daylight the hosts’ astroturf looked no better than under the customary winter floodlights, its interesting contours in places rather reminiscent of a links golf course and the ninth hole at St. Andrews. The patchwork nature of the pitch is more Mary Shelley, however, resembling something cobbled together from the remains of other playing surfaces and occasionally acting like Frankenstein’s monster too. The Gravesend venue has become a bit of literal “graveyard” for BOEHC in recent times, with the Vets losing here 2-5 last season after nearly coming back from the dead, and the Dynamos losing on the same ground 0-2 just a week ago. Alas, history repeated itself yet again on Saturday, as the visitors succumbed to only their third league defeat of the season.

Added to the patchwork quilt of a pitch, the Club’s rather unbalanced line-up was also a selection of spare parts built around the usual hard core of midfield maestro Richard Cleall, captain Stephen Gilbert and the mercurial talents of Ravi Wickramasuriya, but no-one watching the game would have noticed, as the visitors got off the slab, jerked into action and played some great hockey in a match that was an excellent spectacle played in a good spirit by both sides. If Gravesham could have considered themselves a tad unlucky to lose the reverse fixture by 0-2 back in November, then fortunes evened themselves up a bit in February, as one of the home defenders remarked “How the hell did we end up winning?” as he left the pitch after a communal cheer from the home team at the final whistle which smacked more of relief than celebration.

The welcome return of Lee Sandy for the first time since Christmas gave the Club great attacking options on the right as, together with erstwhile right-back and midfielder Peter Robinson, the visitors tore into the home team. Clear scoring opportunities were at a premium at both ends, however, as defences dominated proceedings with man-of-the-match Ross Higginson having a great game at the centre of a back four, reduced to three after Chris Barnard was forced to make an early exit with a calf muscle pull. The deadlock was eventually broken when Gravesham scored a freakish opener after the BOEHC Vets conceded a long corner from a dangling stick some 60 yards away. A couple of deflections and a neat reverse-stick finish later and the puzzled-looking men in white suddenly found themselves 0-1 down after having had the better of the first 20 minutes’ play. Despite playing some highly enterprising hockey themselves, this was actually Gravesham’s first worthwhile effort on target, and as far as the statisticians are concerned they only had one other, whilst the half closed out with their solitary short corner of the whole 70 minutes.

The BOEHC Vets, on the other hand, won their usual high quota of penalty corners, and were – unfortunately – as profligate as ever, due to a mixture of good goalkeeping, too many touches and occasionally faulty radar. But the whole team contributed to keep the "monster" moving, with Dowse “the Younger” and Sammy Chana plugging the midfield gaps, and keeper Tom Conway being relatively untroubled for much of the game. The second goal was a bit of a body-blow, however, as the Club had been threatening to equalise when a break down the hosts’ right ended up with a far post tap-in after the ball had finished a pinball trajectory via post, stick, leg and just about everything else in its path across the visitors’ D.

But still the men in white shirts pressed forward, urged on by Richard Cleall, who once again had a fine game, and both Lee Sandy and Pat Gainey came oh-so-close to scoring on several occasions, before Sammy Chana eventually did the home keeper for pace following a scramble in the D, the shot travelling at such velocity that according to NASA scientists it may actually reach the backboard sometime in early spring 2019.

Try valiantly as they might, the equaliser just would not come for the visitors, and at the final whistle the BOEHC monster trudged slowly off the pitch, beaten, but never bowed in what was a cracking game between two evenly-matched sides, and wondering whether to donate the interesting green deposits clinging to the soles of the hockey trainers to either medical or military science. The good news is that three of the Club’s remaining four matches this season are at home, the bad news being that the team cannot really afford to lose any of these to be sure of holding on to second spot, with a point against Folkestone and three against Burnt Ash now being almost minimum requirements to achieve this goal.

The best news of all is that the Club will not have to visit the “graveyard” again, at least not for a few months, that is.

Team:
Tom Conway (GK), Chris Barnard, Ross Higginson, Tim Walters, Peter Robinson, Ravi Wickramasuriya, Sammy Chana, Richard Cleall, Dowse “the Younger”, Lee Sandy, Pat Gainey and Stephen Gilbert (C).

Man-of-the-match:
Ross Higginson … just shaded the vote in the battle of the “R’s” (no, I said “R’s”, not “arse”!) against Ravi. Both had great games, although it was a fine, if at times a bit subdued, performance by the whole team across the whole park – Gravesend has that kind of soporifically depressive affect on people!

Umpires:
Michael Thorns plus one from Gravesham, both of whom whistled brilliantly.