"Better get under cover Sylvester.There's a storm blowin' up - a whopper, to speak in the vernacular of the peasantry."

The glorious sunshine and mild temperature that had greeted the 1st XI’s fine victory earlier in the afternoon rapidly dispersed at the final whistle as ominous dark clouds gathered for the Mighty 3s 4pm start.

The match began under a blanket of menacing gloom before freak 10 mins of severe weather wiped out this crucial and highly charged fixture. Half a dozen cracks of lightning, numerous roars of thunder, a biblical deluge and insanely high winds forced the Umpires to abandon the game just a few mins before half time. The wind was so ferocious it managed to blow the heavy hockey goals right of their marks and into the fence behind. The dugout shelters were doing their best to take flight and if it wasn’t for the concrete set bolts keeping them grounded they’d have been up, up and away. The Meadow seemed to be in the eye of the storm and with the Umpires completely unaware how long this meteorological assault would last and fearing for the players safety as the lightning drew overhead (a fair few metals in some of those sticks serving as potent conductors!) they called it off and we all ran for cover in The Pavilion. The match is to be replayed on Sat 5th April (day of the Annual Club Dinner) @ The Meadow. Should be quite a game.

It was very disappointing as it was 1-1 at the abandonment in a very competitive and well fought match. After 15 mins the worst of it had passed although the driving rain remained. And yes the game was then playable (albeit cold and damply) but that is easy to say with hindsight and we cannot really criticise the Umpires for making the call. Just like in a game they can only judge what they see and at the storms height they had players safety in mind not a ‘let’s give it 10 mins and see what happens’ - no advantage to be played here especially if a Thor like electrostatic discharge had struck one of the players.*
Before the chaos there were many positives. BOE had been playing well and taken the lead via a superbly taken penalty stroke from Mark Ison after his excellent drag flick penalty corner was saved by a belly on the line. Fielding one of the strongest sides they’ve been able to this season with full availabilities and returns from injury the 3s looked up for it. Johanson Edwards made a welcome return to the Club and debuted at CB in his first run out of the season - showing he still has it. Adam Mulvanny played in his second match since returning from injury had a good half and James Goldsmith Snr had some success playing in a higher position as part of the frontline.

Although the ball was still slow coming out of the back at 16s, the transfer often involved one too many passes and BOE sometimes sat a little deep (big things to work on defence!) there were good signs all over the pitch. Last weeks 7-1 loss ‘anomaly’ to T Wells was put behind them and a return to the usual 3s levels of performance was seeping back. Let’s hope they keep it going.

The rest of the days league’s results proved as crazy as the weather as our conquerors last Saturday (T Wells) only managed a 1-1 draw with Holcombe 4s a team we beat 5-1 in December! It shows the league is very unpredictable and nothing can be taken for granted. Next Saturday the BOE 3s play our very own 2s – 4pm at The Meadow. I wouldn’t bet on the result….anybody checked the weather forecast?

(*It must be noted there was no fear on the face of Adam Mulvanny as being ‘struck by Thor like electrostatic discharge’ is a regular Saturday night in Vauxhall occurrence for him.)