KEW Hockey Club

Sunday Morning 11:00am. The only two other factors that made this match and timeslot better was the torrential downpour that imposed itself over Essendon Hockey Ground and the fact that the Kew HC Trivia Night was scheduled for the night before. Only drinking milk and cordial together makes for a worse combination.

Essendon must have caught word that the Kew team was to be having a latish evening the night before the match, as was evidenced when a formal request was received from Essendon to move the game its eventual 11:00am slot from its original time 5:00pm.  Somebody might have wanted to tell Alex Tan and Andrew Wingrove with both men arriving 5 minutes into the first half. Alex Tan didn’t even have time to eat a pie – something that might explain what was about to happen.

History will tell us that Essendon’s plan worked marvelously turning a 5-1 loss to Kew in the first half of the season into a 3-1 victory. What will not be apparent in 50 years time is that a) Lachlan Walmsley is slower than Simon Cleave and b) this game was played at a particularly high standard by two teams both marching towards September. Essendon had now beaten the top ranked side two weeks in a row. What do you think about that Mike Sheahan???

Kew’s performance was valiant and despite being down on the scoreboard all day, there was no shortage of effort and endeavour. Without a few questionable umpiring decisions, such as disallowing an amazing goal by Nick Reid on an 88 degree angle in the second half, things could have turned out very differently.

In summary, strong performances throughout the team under trying conditions. Great corner goal from Ben Johnston. Three players to come back into the line up over the next few weeks mean there is encouraging signs however a win this week against Doncaster is necessary to secure a top two finish.

Next Match @ Elgar Park 2:00pm Sunday 23 August 2009.