What better way to kick the Christmas party hangover than by a mixed game over in Teddington against NPL? Hmmm.... can think of a few! However, 10 rather more stupid members of the club agreed and so the meeting time was arranged for 11.30 at the club (or 11 if you spoke to Warren!). Good start to the day, with Helen Johnston, Chris Paine, Fay and Sara all turning up about half an hour late although we did eventually make it to NPL just in time. Looking at the pale green colour on most of the faces of the team, NPL decided this was definitely going to be their game - probably helped by the fact that they only had two women in their team and extra men to sub! As soon as NPL diplayed their formation, it emerged Catherine Watson and HJ were both fighting to play a left attack role, as the NPL right back (number 2 on his shirt) was as fit as you like - or could this just have been the beer goggles?! Tall, dark and very handsome, Wotto was often seen 'accidentally' clashing into him.

The first half flew by in a haze for most, with three goals going to the home team....although without Painey's superb efforts in goal it could well have been 10 - not bad for a guy that was throwing up at the club before leaving! The A&C guys, who had all been ordered into defensive positions at the beginning of the match (with the exception of Ian McCurry who was centre mid) began to rebel at half time and the second half saw several surging runs from defence that Wotto, Fay and HJ could only dream of. Some miracle occurred, what with it being Christmas, that saw Geoff, McFlurry and HJ all score! Final score 3-3..... a very impressive performance from all!

Following on from the league that they have been playing in, the Ladies Indoor team are taking part in the South Indoor Tournament on the first weekend in January. They have been drawn in the large group of seven teams that include the likes of Teddington, Havant, Eastcote and Purley. The tournament stretches over the whole weekend obviously cummulating in the semis and finals on the Sunday afternoon.

The tournament will be taking place in Haslemere in Surrey, so let's start trying to get some interest in taking a large support base to cheer on the team. If you are interested in supporting the team then can you please contact me before the tournament weekend (John.Spicer@gbr.xerox.com) on Sat 3rd and Sun 4th of January.

TRAINING

Okay boys and girls, just to let you know that you can start to work off those Christmas pies and chocolates by going to the relevant training nights which start immediately after the holiday - Men at Beaconsfield (start at 7:45) on Monday the 5th with the Ladies at Newlands Park on Tuesday the 6th.