FIXTURE CARD

The Hockey Fixture Card is now available from your Captain or the stand behind the bar. Compiling the fixture card and getting the sponsorship from local companies to cover the cost of the printing is a big job. Feedback this year from our sponsors is that they are not getting many enquiries out of this sponsorship.

There are a variety of adverts for all sorts of companies and we would ask our membership to look to our sponsors to see if they can fulfil your needs before going elsewhere.

As usual, if you think your company would be interested in advertising in the fixture card, or taking up an advertising board on the picket fence please contact Zoë on 07779 617411 or Caroline on 07887 675310.

Team: Fyffe; Watson; Brothwell, Parker, Ferguson; Cartledge, Ruxton, Fermor, Durkin; Coates, Patterson; Sub. Shaw, Hagan, R. Dunning

A&C's opening match upon their return to the top division of the Trysports Three Counties League was a fruitful one as they overcame Marlow in the heat at Bisham Abbey.

Marlow started strongly, pinning the visitors back in their half during the first quarter of the game. Despite initially being unable to make any significant territorial advantage, A&C did not panic and passed the ball well between their defence and midfield which caused the Marlow forwards to work hard to close them down.

Erin Ruxton and Ruth Fermor then managed to take control of the centre of the pitch and help A&C to make some advances into the opposition's half before they took the lead after 18 minutes. Sarah Cartledge slipped the ball in to Laura Patterson who swivelled to score past the keeper. Shortly afterwards, Fermor had a reverse stick shot saved.

Patterson made it 2-0 after 25 minutes latching on to Annie Brothwell's goal-bound shot from a penalty corner. Patterson went close with a couple more chances following good work by Ruxton and Caroline Coates as A&C enjoyed a good spell before the half-time break.

The second-half started as the first-half had finished before Marlow then began to create some chances and pressure themselves. Tanya Fyffe produced a couple of diving saves and Helen Ferguson cleared the ball in front of her goal.

With Catherine Watson organising the defensive line A&C's goal remained intact and it was they that still looked the more likely to score again than their hosts.

After last weekends false start to the season (Leighton Buzzard 1st XI crying off in favour of playing our 2nd XI), this week saw the A&C 1's face a double header with a friendly against fellow league promotion hopefuls Marlow and a Sunday game in the EHA Cup away to a strong Woking side from the Surrey/Hants Premier League.


17/09/2005 - Amersham & Chalfont 4 (3) - (1) 4 Marlow

Following a prolific season in front of goal last year Cartledge was the odds on favourite to open the 1st XI account this year however bookies all over the country breathed a sigh of relief when 13,983,817/1 shot Wardman stepped up for his debut goal within 5 minutes of the start. A well worked penalty corner saw a Cartledge shot hit the post only to rebound to Wardman who carefully lifted the ball over the advancing keeper. The knowledgeable amongst you will note that there is indeed more chance of winning the lottery!

Following such a good start one might have expected the A&C side, buoyed by their strong showing last season, to go on and double their advantage but with mistakes a plenty Marlow found themselves back in the game with a close range strike to level the scores. A&C continued to demonstrate their lack of match practice with passes going astray and tackles being missed eventually culminating in two further goals that saw Marlow heading for their goal at half time slightly surprised to be 3-1 to the good.

A revitalised A&C took the pitch for the second half and almost scored direct from the restart following a brief moment of champagne hockey. The home side did work their way back into the game courtesy of van Eestren, the oldest and arguably the fittest member of the squad (punters who missed picking the opening scorer might like to cast an eye at the decent odds on offer of seeing Lau compete in the athletics events for Holland in the 2012 Olympics!). Van Eestren first picked Childs out at the back post for a simple tap in (2-3) and followed this with a meandering run through the Marlow defence before off loading to Scott for a sharp reverse stick finish (3-3).

The A&C come back was complete following a quickly taken free hit by Crossman that picked out Cartledge who deflected into the roof of the Marlow net (4-3). Unfortunately A&C were destined not to hang on to their advantage. With minutes remaining and nameless individuals from the A&C midfield last seen flagging in the opposition half, Marlow attacked down the right flank resulting in a sharp turn and shot to halve the honours.

Scorers: Scott, Wardman, Cartlege, Childs
Assists: Crossman, van Eestren (2)
DOM: Darryl Childs
MOM: Andy Watts/Andy Carruthers

Team: Lovelace, Archer, van Eestren, Ottaway, Wardman, Crossman, Childs, Wolfenden, Carruthers (Andy), Cartledge, Scott, Powell, Watts.



18/09/2005 - Woking 4 (3) - (0) 2 Amersham & Chalfont

A day full of surprises..... captains surprise that he had 11 players given much unavailability, surprise that most of the team appeared sober, surprise that Geoff Brown turned out to play in goal, surprise that he is one half of A&C's latest Hollywood couple (and no one told me!) and finally surprise that after such a poor performance on Saturday we could play so well on Sunday!

A&C made a positive start to the game against a superior opposition and were unlucky not to lead following a crisp move that saw Crossman in lots of space at the top of the D but whose shot, destined for the top corner, was well saved by the Woking keeper. After continued resistance to wave after wave of Woking pressure the deadlock was broken, first by a topped shot that ricocheted over a diving Brown and then followed in quick succession by a well worked team goal. Insult was heaped upon a good A&C 1st half performance with the award of a dubious penalty corner that was dispatched into the bottom corner.

A resilient A&C started with the ball from the pushback and once again almost scored direct following some sharp interchanges down the right wing (see report above). A&C's persistence was finally rewarded with an acute finish by Cartledge following a penalty corner (1-3). With renewed optimism a second goal followed some determined tackling by Scott who after performing a manoeuvre more suited to ice hockey (!) passed square to Cartledge for a 'diving' tap in (2-3). A&C should have levelled the game with Carruthers (Alan) squaring the ball across the flailing keeper to Cartledge with an open goal. However an over zealous Woking tackle went unpunished that another day would have seen a yellow card and a penalty flick. Woking went on to score a fourth but A&C did win the 2nd half 2-1.

Special mention should be made to Geoff Brown who not only turned out at the last minute to play in goal but pulled off a series of outstanding saves that kept the score 'sensible'. Be it drag flicks to the top corners or fiercely struck shots to the bottom corners he was equal to most things Woking could send in his direction and he deserved his MOM award. Sadly this this could not be said about the award for Donkey of the Match!

Scorers: Cartledge (2)
Assists: Scott
MOM: Geoff Brown
DOM: David Crossman

Team: Brown, Archer, Childs, Yoxall, Powell, Carruthers (Alan), Martin, Wolfenden, Crossman, Cartledge, Scott.