Despite taking an early lead which they maintained for most of the match Chalfont had to settle for a share of the points on the resumption of the Nastro Azzurro South League at Cressex on Saturday.
Peter Colwill provided the cross for Simon Shipley to open the scoring at Chalfont’s first penalty corner in the fifth minute. It was a just reward for Shipley who had been denied a goal when he turned in Mark Pearce’s free hit only to find the defence penalised for not retreating five yards.
With Pearce and Andrew Earnshaw dominant , Chalfont continued to press and Giles Payne was perhaps unfortunate not to win a penalty stroke when illegally tackled in the act of shooting.
Valley, whose captain Ian Gadd had an outstanding match, equalised with seventeen minutes left, Richard Hall’s penalty corner shot deceiving Mike Burge who had an otherwise match on his return.
Chalfont M Burge, G Payne, A Earnshaw, D Dunford, P Stewart, M McCree, M Pearce (Capt) S Shipley, N Turner, D Galletly, A Wertheim, Sub P Colwill
Two goals by both Ian Kelly and Chris Scudamore secured victory for the Bedfordshire side in a fluent friendly match at Cressex on Saturday. Chalfont started brightly with Mark McCree making several penetrative inroads into the Leighton defence and might have taken an early lead when Neil Turner turned Guy Stallard’s left wing cross just the wrong side of the far goal post. Leighton went ahead in the twenty second minute, Kelly’s well angled shot beating Clive Bearman. Five minutes later, Scudamore’s ferocious first time shot finished an opening created by Paul Plummer. There was little respite for Chalfont in the second half and despite some excellent defending by Robert Machin and Andrew Earnshaw, Leighton struck again twice. Kelly beat Bearman at the near post in the forty-ninth minute and eight minutes later Scudamore capped an impressive display with his second.
Chalfont C. Bearman, R Machin, P Colwill, A Earnshaw, C Blamey, G Mander, M McCree, G Bullock, N Turner, S Shipley (capt), G Stallard
Windsor 10 Chalfont St. Peter 0
Stuart Shephard, Windsor’s veteran left wing, collected 5 goals as Chalfont succumbed to their worst defeat of the winter at Windsor Boys School on Saturday. Leading by 2 goals at the interval, both scored by Shephard following long clecarances from defence by Omar Maqsood and Richard Payne, Windsor ran riot in the second half, scoring 7 goals in an astonishing 12 minute spell. Former Slough forward Maqsood Ahmed bagged two with the others coming from Roger Davis and the captain Martin Davis before Ian Workma added a late tenth.
Chalfont’s closest effort came when they were four goals adrift with Alastair Wertheim hitting the post.
Chalfont: C Bearman, G Payne, C Blamey, A Earnshaw, G Bullock, G Mander, R Machin, S Shipley (Capt), N Turner, D Galletly, A Wertheim.
Aylesbury 8 Chalfont St. Peter 3
Chalfont’s men resume their Nastro Azzurro league programme this week with the confidence that at least their penalty corner routine is firing on all cylinders, producing three goals from four attempts. Unfortunately Aylesbury, who play two divisions above Chalfont exposed several weaknesses in the visitors’ defence in a fluent and entertaining match at RAF Halton on Saturday.
Martin Cartledge, with the first of his three goals, fired Aylesbury into a second minute lead but Chalfont equalised within minutes, Giles Payne converting a penalty stroke after his penalty corner shot had been illegally saved by Kevin Bignell. Aylesbury pushed on to lead 4-1 at the interval through 2 further goals by Cartledge and a penalty corner scored by Andrew Hughes, although Chalfont appeared unfortunate to have a goal by Simon Shipley disallowed.
Within an minute of the start of the second half Shipley swept in the rebound from a well flicked corner by Payne. Aylesbury replied with Chris Binnie scoring from a corner but Mark McCree brought the score back to 5-3 following up a well struck shot by Mike Lawson. The final quarter slipped away from Chalfont as Aylesbury added further goals through Rob Meechan and two by Hughes to add to his first half effort.
Chalfont: A Wertheim, G Payne, A Earnshaw, D Dunford, Gareth Bullock, M McCree, M Pearce (Capt), S Shipley, M Lawson, P Stewart, P Colwill