College Cup Hockey: Group 1 Round 2

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Photos: Adam Green

After the resoundng success of the first week’s matches, it was back to business again this weekend, as the Cup continued, and Halifax made it two wins out of two. There were strong displays from Alcuin and Derwent as well, in what is hotting up to be a strongly contested group.

Alcuin cruised to a 7-1 victory over a Goodricke 1sts side, who had hit double figures last week. However Alcuin were a much tougher nut to crack, and were indebted to a truly outstanding display by debutant Alex Wilson. Wilson, who is a regular for Alcuin’s rugby team, was making his first appearance on the hockey pitch for the college, but put in a stellar display, scoring a first half hatrick to give Alcuin a 3-0 half time lead. Goodricke were battling hard, but Alcuin continued to dominate after the interval, stroking the ball around comfortably.

For a long time it looked as if they would claim the first clean sheet of the tournament, mainly due to the defensive efforts of Wilson and Dave Washington, but a breakaway saw Lissie Baxter reduce the arrears for Goodricke. After this the men from Heslington East embarked on their best period of the game, looking to stage a remarkable comeback. Jamie Randall though scored a fourth for Alcuin, and after that the floodgates opened in the final minutes, as Catherine O-Mahony, Lucinda Cowling, and a fourth from Wilson helped Alcuin to significantly boost their goal difference.

Derwent 1sts impressed with a thumping 13-1 demolition of James 2nds, to show that they could be one to watch in the coming weeks. Derwent fielded a very strong side, and with James a man down, it promised to be a one sided game. Exactly that happened, as Derwent passed the ball fantastically and took advantage of their numerical superiority, continually overloading the James defence. Several early goals, followed by 3 penalty goals meant Derwent were well ahead within 10 minutes. James managed to pull one back when Chris Butterworth took a quick free hit, drove the ball down the line and scored, although Derwent soon added several more goals to their tally with their forwards making some great runs.

James tried many tactics to shore up the defence but this was often in vain, as great distribution by the Derwent centre back allowed the wingers to get behind the James defence time and again, and only some great tackling from Becky Hall, as well as some fantastic work by defensive partner Sophie Nichols stopped the score from resembling a cricket score. James relied on the counter attack, with Ashley Collinson making some great runs, but only Derwent added to their total and the game ended 13-1 to Derwent.

In the third game, Halifax were once more in excellent form, after defeating James last week. This time around it was Langwith 2nds, and the team in yellow suffered a heavy defeat for the second week running. Halifax demonstrated their superior skills, totally dominating the match, and eventually running out 11-1 winners, despite the gutsy efforts. Once more though the illustrious clean sheet was denied, as Langwith managed to get their name on the scoresheet.

Vision Player of the Group: Alex Wilson