The opening salvo of the season by the Blackheath 1st XI was against Old Bordenians (OBs). Wiley old foxes, they proved a tough nut to crack. Blackheath applied some early pressure for the first 15 minutes, maintaining possession well and making the opposition play inside their own half. James Morrison came within a whisker away at the back post, and Chris Harden created some good shooting chances.

However, a defensive error gifted OBs the first goal of the game. Heckles raised, there was an instant reply from Blackheath, with a slick set of passing up the left hand side ended in David Lawrence deflecting the ball into the netting of the OB Goal. The teams went into half time with the score 1 apiece.

10 minutes into the second half, and a breakaway goal against the run of play allowed OBs to score another goal, against the run of a sustained Blackheath attack. After a period of sustained pressure besieging the OBs goal, a diagonal aerial from Alex Manton-Jones picked out Steve Roche, who with his first touch cushioned the ball across his body from the top right of the D, then with his second duly smashed a voracious volley into the side netting, past a stunned keeper. 2-2.

Blackheath, well and truly fired up at this point, pressed home the momentum and took advantage of being on the front foot. Cal Mitchell found himself with some space on the edge of D, and after taking it round a couple of OBs players, fizzed a shot across goal, which with the helpful distraction of Prem Marwaha running across the face of goal, nestled itself in the bottom right hand side of the goal. 10 minutes later, after a few great tackles, Blackheath were unluckily penalised with a short corner against them. The OBs shot from top of the D resulted in an unfortunate deflection which snuck past Keeper James Craigmyle, who was having a fantastic game keeping out some tricky shots. 3-3.

At 3 all, and 10 minutes to go, Blackheath piled on the pressure. OBs, happy with the draw, let Blackheath relentlessly come at them inside their own half, and constrained to playing on the counter. With 3 minutes on the clock, David Lawrence mazed past two defenders and was then fouled in the D, winning a short corner. The resulting flick was stopped on the line by an excellent pick from OBs. Play resumes. 1 minute to go. Blackheath win another corner. The Full time whistle goes, but the resulting short corner must be played out. The Blackheath corner move results in a good save from the keeper, but hits a defender’s foot. Corner number 2. A flick to low left post hits another defenders foot, resulting in corner number three. Up steps Ian Harvey. The ball is injected to the near castle, where Ian Harvey then duly flicks it into the left hand side netting of the goal, bringing a roar from the crowd (a few spectators), and sparking celebrations amongst the team. 4-3. A hard earned, but deserved, victory for the first 3 points of the season for the Blackheath 1st XI.