Hockey's winning streak continues

Having trekked from one end of London to what seemed like the Far East, IC ladies 2s arrived at Redbridge Sports Centre in Essex ready to take on St Bart’s, only to find out that the hockey astro had been taken over by some hockey players of the miniature variety, who were playing a nice little tournament.

After various phone calls back to the union and some heated discussions with the other captain and the sports centre staff about the mix-up, the IC ladies reluctantly decided to stay and wait for the match to go ahead when the pitch became available. So, after a one hour delay, it was game on.

IC got off to a steady start. With the help of Caroline, Carina and Rabiya in the midfield, the forwards Hilary, Soraya and Annabel were seeing a lot of the ball in the opposition’s D.

Our reliable defence were also always there to halt any counter attacks made by the opposition, who really struggled to penetrate our D. Before long, Annabel opened the score line with a simple tap in and IC were ahead.

Soon afterwards, Maddie, Ann Marie and Amanda, who had been cheering from the sidelines and bantering with the friendly umpire subbed on. Within a few minutes, thanks to some beautiful passing by IC, Amanda added to the tally with a superb strike that flew past the keeper’s right shoulder.

IC dominated the rest of the first half, and with three more strikes from Amanda smashing the back of the net, we were feeling quite content with the comfortable lead going into the break.

IC came out fiercely in the second half and continued with their ferocious attack. Some excellent interceptions and wonderful hockey saw more Imperial goals fly past the keeper into the net courtesy of Annabel, Soraya and Amanda (who went on a slightly mad goal spree).

Even our captain Carina couldn’t resist a cheeky goal when the ball made it through to her in the middle of the D. As IC steamed ahead, the weather decided to play bad cop and for the last ten minutes, Imperial were exposed to sleet and snow in blizzard conditions. The pitch was swiftly being coated by a thick white blanket of snow and a momentary lapse meant that IC had to hold their breath in the last few minutes of the match as St Bart’s won a string of short corners. While the team struggled to make out the lines on the pitch, our goalie Gemma was called into action.

Thanks to some marvellous defending by Alice, Kathryn, Izzy, Fi (who took a little knock in the shoulder when one of their players tried to take her down with a hockey ball), and of course Gemma, IC secured another clean sheet and their 10th victory in a row, wreaking havoc upon their opponents with an awesome final score of 14-0.