St Bede's Saturday

Date: Friday 4 December 2009

The toughest block of fixtures on our calendar comes almost at the end of the season when we either travel to Hailsham, or the boys from St Bede's come to Canterbury. This year we had the benefit of home advantage, and the afternoon ended with two draws, and two defeats - for the home side.

The junior teams were up against it, and both played really well, belieing the final scores of 1 - 5 and 1 - 4 respectively for the Under 14s and 15s. Spectating parents all agreed that the 14s performed excellently, but moves broke down on the edge of the opposition box; the only goal came from Theron Tickridge, as an injury to George Gibbons reduced his effectiveness up front. Lawrence King's goal was all the 15s had to show for another fighting display in which they were thwarted by the brilliance of the St Bede's' keeper, and his shot-stopping skills.

The 2nd XI came up against a side who had scored 41 goals in their eight matches before today, but Will Hollis and his defence kept a clean sheet for the first time in the season. Though we created a number of chances at the other end, powder puff finishing, and tidy defending kept the final score at 0 - 0, the best 2nds' result of the term so far.

The 1sts, missing Attwood from the attack, took an early lead as Ben Kemp headed in Ben Pape's left-wing corner, and controlled the game for the next twenty minutes, before St Bede's equalised from a slick left wing move, cross, and decisive finish. Will Marsh was in outstanding form, dominating the area, and making a series of fine saves as St Bede's upped the tempo in the second half. 1 - 1 it remained, and a fair result, as both sides tried to play football in unhelpful conditions. Nick Keliris ran himself into the ground as the sole target man, but the physically stronger St Bede's midfield managed to contain Rafi Stone and Shohei Sekiguchi, and put Kemp and Robbie Vile under some concerted pressure. No-one worked harder than Ben Pape in putting the shackles on the St Bede's playmaker, No 8.

Next Saturday the season will end with four sides travelling to Dulwich to play Alleyn's; I hope those for whom it will be their last School football match will be 'up for it', and finish an excellent season on a real high.

In the meantime, the girls hockey 1st XI went to Sutton Valence for their last game of the term, but, again depleted in strength, they went down disappointingly, scoring just the once through top scorer for the season Olivia Thrush. The SV scoreline varies from 4 to 7, depending on whom you ask! Enough to win comfortably, though!