Dover College: Disappointment and Delight

Date: Thursday 6 November 2008

Fixtures against Dover College were, in the not too distant past, ones where St Edmund's hoped to gain victories in all the three major sports. Of late, the balance has started to tilt in Dover' s favour, particularly on the football field, where Dover XIs contain considerable international talent.

Today's disappointment therefore was the 1 - 2 defeat which our 1st XI suffered at the Maxton ground. A goal from James Attwood, driven through a melee of players from a corner gave SES a halftime lead, but in the second period an equaliser was followed rapidly by a penalty, whose conversion gave Dover a lead which they never looked likely to lose, as we struggled to create any real chances.

Some delight resulted from the 2nd XI who, with a single second half goal from Thomas Wolters, won their first victory of the campaign. It was an interesting match, made more so by the absence of goal nets, which made the officials' job very difficult! Coach Simon Buckingham declined to nominate a 'man of the match' from a game in which the whole of the squad worked hard, driven from the back by Gus Alder and Kamaal Khatumal.

The real delight was provoked by the girls' 1st XI who, having been beaten by Dover last year, bounced back, a year on, to record a 7 - 0 win. Margot Chatenay in goal did not touch the ball once - given good protection by Grace Johnson and Helen Sabine. In attack, the slick interpassing of Emma Wink and Georgia Gurney created the goals, with four from Gurney, and just the three from Wink! The season starts here!