Sefton 2 - Bowdon Killer Bee's 6

A fine and warm autumnal afternoon saw a resurgent 'Bees' overwhelm a plucky, but out-classed, Sefton side on the legendary greensward at Aigburth cricket club. The unfortunate reverses of the last few weeks were swept aside in a flowing display of grass hockey, the like of which has not been seen since - well since the last time hockey was actually played on real grass !

Inspirational captain, Olly 'The Quiffster' Hawkins, motivated his finely-honed troops with that clarion call to arms: "well, we're here then". The game started with the leviathans of Bowdon assuming immediate control of the vital midfield areas through the tireless running of Ian 'The Whippet' Murdie, and the tired running of everybody else. Much of Bowdon's fine approach play was channelled through the wily (almost) veteran Brian 'Skippy' Thompson, and his workhorse partner Jonathon 'Pon' Bloomer.

However it was the scousers who nicked the opening goal with a well taken free-hit and first-time deflection. But this was but a short respite for the beleaguered Sefton defence who came under almost continuous pressure, but the final killer ball was just eluding the strike force of Karl 'no right hand' Gorse, and David 'Yokker' Swarbrick. But, with the inevitability of sunshine after the rain, an equaliser was forged in the white-hot maelstrom of the 'Bees' attacking crucible, and equality was restored with a 'Yokker' mis-hit (the first of many during the afternoon), which crawled past the home side's debutant keeper - perhaps the taffeta ball gown was ill-advised.

More half-time peals of wisdom dripped from the honeyed lips of our leader, most notably "do we get any oranges", which particularly inspired the ravening Cheshire hordes.

The second half saw all the pieces of the jig-saw drop into place as the 'Bees' sprayed the ball about the park with glorious abandon - and it would have been even more magnificent if they had actually sprayed it to each other ! Five goals were notched in in a frenzy of goal-scoring, mostly by 'Yokker' who also indulged in an even larger frenzy of missing. Pon, with a penalty, and Karl with a cheeky chip (which he spent most of the afternoon perfecting) also inked their names onto the score sheet. But the cameo moment of the afternoon was Nick 'The Enforcer' West's pass to the opposition directly from a 16 yard hit which lead to the second goal for Sefton, and not even the legendary speed of Jay 'Legs' Burns could cover in time to avoid the debacle - not so much a hospital pass as a hospice pass !

And so the mighty machine slips into gear, and the troops earned their post-gladatorial refreshement, courtesy of Mr. Joshua Tetley and his fine amalagm of hops and barley. Surely destiny awaits, the legend lives on - until next week at least.

Skippy