Women's 1s -vs- Taunton Vale 1s
28th January 2012
Taunton 4 - Cheltenham 3
On Saturday 28th January, Cheltenham Ladies 1s travelled to Taunton to take on the league leaders. After a competitive warm up...to say the least...Cheltenham were ready to impose themselves on the game. They started the stronger team and created opportunities, however Taunton were strong and fought back, converting their short corners to take the lead. 2-0 to Taunton at half time. The sides were ready for a dramatic 2nd half. Coach Will Pearce asked for Cheltenham to press harder and utilise the space available, which they did. Defending from the front, Cheltenham got back into the game with Hannah Sanderson deflecting home Chelt's first. 2-1 Taunton. Although on the back foot for the majority of the 2nd half, Taunton were still able to convert their chances, and scored two more goals after some break away opportunities. 4-1 Taunton. However Cheltenham's "never say die" attitude shone through, as two goals in the remianing minutes of the game set up a nail biting last 5 minutes.
Player of the match was awarded to Gayle Ashby for her tireless defensive work, great awareness and crisp distribution skills. Although Taunton won the match 4-3, Cheltenham can come away from it knowing that they offered resilient opposition.
Goal Scorers: Hannah Sanderson, Gayle Ashby, Emma "Dangerous" Jones
Player of the Match: Gayle Ashby
Women's 1s -vs- Lansdown 1s
29th January 2012
Cheltenham 4 - Lansdown 0
Cheltenham geared up for their second game of the weekend against local rivals Lansdown. Cheltenham set the high tempo from the start. Within minutes Cheltenham's player of the match, Hannah Sanderson secured a lead after a short corner routine saw Sanderson deflect it into the goal. Cheltenham continued to put pressure on the Lansdown defence and consequently were awarded another short corner. The straight strike was saved but Amy Owen was there to ensure the ball went into the back of the net.
Into the second half Cheltenham maintained the fast pace. They played the ball around the pitch well not allowing Lansdown a touch. Cheltenham found themselves with another short corner which again was finshed by Owen. Cheltenham were once again on the attack with ball from Gayle Ashby into the top of the D saw Fran Low reverse strike towards goal, unfortunatley for Lansdown a player stopped it with her foot on the line giving Cheltenham a penalty flick. Rachel Chicken stepped up to take the flick and calmly slotted it past the keeper. Cheltenham were pleased with the result and currently find themselves third in the table.
Goal Scorers: Hannah Sanderson, Amy Owen - 2, Rachel Chicken
Player of the Match: Hannah Sanderson
Men's 2s -vs- Hereford
28th January 2012
Cheltenham 3 - Hereford 1
We are now in to 2012, and the Olympics are just around the corner. Athletes are busy honing their training schedules to try and give themselves the best possible chance of glory and achieving the highest possible accolade in their chosen sports. One recent addition to the roster of Olympic sports is Rugby 7s. Not many of you may know that the sport was conceived back in 1883 in Scotland, when Ned Haig and David Sanderson, local butchers in the Melrose area tried it as part of a fundraising event for Melrose RFC. Sevens is now a globally recognised sport, and some of the full 15-a-side greats have cut their teeth on the international 7s circuit before going on to dominate the world game. It is a game that is very tactically different from the 15 man game, and requires an understanding of how to manage the extra space on the field to achieve victory.
There are certain parallels could be drawn between Melrose in 1883 and Cheltenham in 2012. Admittedly it was not a fundraising event that prompted an experiment on playing hockey with smaller numbers of players but on a full size pitch, but this is a detail that will soon fade in to the mists of time once "Hockey 8s" has become an Olympic sport in its own right. It was also not an ideal experiment as only Cheltenham got to play with 8 players at one point in the match rather than Hereford as well, who only went down to 10 men at one point themselves, but these are the sorts of teething troubles that any new sport must go through before it can truly be brought in to the mainstream. The fact that Cheltenham were down to 8 being because of a succession of yellow cards is also something that I think everyone involved would be keen to gloss over.
Given the fact that the game was very much more of a sporting experiment than league match, the result seems rather academic. But in the interests of completeness, Cheltenham won the game 3-1. It was a rather scrappy encounter, with both sides struggling to settle. The result puts Cheltenham back in to promotion contention again after a run of poor results. Next weekend's double-header against Marlborough and PGSOB will most likely prove very significant.
And as for the sporting experiment, will the shortened form of the game really take off? Will it assume the same level of prominence as sports such as Rugby 7s, beach volleyball and synchronised swimming? I'm afraid history will have to be the judge of that, but yesterday certainly served as a highly enlightening trial.
Second Team Director of Hockey Johnny Bryan said in his post-match press conference, "I'm really looking forward to the Olympics coming to London, I think it's going to be a magnificent sporting spectacle. I've got tickets for the handball."
