Mens 4XI (A) Ben Rhydding 23/01/2010

Ben Rhydding 5 – 1 HDHC

Calling this a game of two halves is a cliché, but quite apt for the first HDHC 4XI game of the new decade. A delay for one of the cars reaching Ben Rhydding on time meant that the Dragons started the game with only ten men and no goalkeeper and promotion hunting Ben Rhydding were able to capitalise by scoring from an early short corner despite a sterling effort by Simon Waterhouse on the line. The less said about the remainder of the first half the better as the rushed start and lack of recent pitch time was telling as the Dragons went into the break four nil down.

The dragons dominated the game after the break and played their best half of hockey of the season. Ben Rhydding never sat back and came out the break looking to run up a big score but the boys in purple had organised themselves and began playing some really nice hockey, typified by debutant Ash Cooke who claimed Man of the Match in his debut for the team. At the other end of the age scale was Sean Connell who nearly bagged man of the match himself after another fully committed performance and an excellent goal from a short corner early in the second half.

Fool of the day Chris Parkes truly earnt his title. Upon arriving back at Lockwood he realised he’d picked up the wrong bag. Unfortunately for Chris the bag belonged to one of the Ben Rhydding players, as such Chris and his dad had to make an extra 2 hour+ round trip back to Ilkley to make the exchange.

Man of match – Ash Cooke

Fool of day – Chris Parkes

Goal(s) – Connell