Written By – Tinny Oliver

It was a grey and wet morning – much to the disapproval of Kingers.  Bristol Uni were all quickly being dropped off by friends and parents and BAC assembled the full squad, back together.  After some stretching, rolling and a chat we raced the Uni to the pitch and the warm up started.  One team in fabulous matching kit and one in a mix match, including denim jackets, the youth of today!  

On the starting whistle BAC started just as we discussed, leading to an early attack and a short corner.  Tinny, Liz, Tinny, Bish….GOAL TIME!!!!!  1-0.  Neither team really settled into the game with end to end play and soon after it was 1-1, the final touch was by Maz!!  Not to be disheartened, BAC kept their heads up and with about 8 minutes on the clock, step onto the pitch Kingers. Coming on as sub, with a high 5 to the departing Brownie, a shot on goal was deflected to Bish whose strike was saved by the keeper, it was out loose to Kingers, who with her FIRST touch sent the ball into the back of the goal. GOAL TIME.  2-1 BAC.

Some sublime passing play then followed, BAC moved the ball, at times, from left to right, and back again.  Leaving the Uni wondering how the old folk were able to keep it up for so long.  Well we didn’t!!  The Uni won a short and with a well worked fake to the left, they sent to the BAC defence left, the ball to the right, which hit Chers foot, onto the post and was buried in the goal by an attaker.  2-2.  Open play then ensued.  The midfield were running their socks off and Bish was running the show.  Creating space and piviots to Cher, Sally, WP, Sledger, Red and Liz.  But the Uni were having none of it and several good plays from them were keeping Dave and Maz on their toes and we even saw them completing the recently re-trained block tackle.  Bex made sure the goal was safe, clearing some cracking shots which the Uni were restricted to the top of the D to having.

A BAC attack outside the D saw the ball worked up the line and into Brownie, who was tackled by a Uni defender, the ball popped up and hit her on the eyebrow.  A very calm Brownie said “Tinny is it bleeding?  I think I’ll go off now”  With a very slow walk, she went off to the dugout to find the ice packs.  The resulting free hit was cleared by the Uni who themselves went on the attack, but rolled the ball off the back of the pitch.  With about 30 seconds until half time, BAC were on the attack, Cher to Red, back to Cher, in to Tinny who took the ball round the keeper and then…noooo, the keeper took Tinny down and with a crash to the floor, the umpire blew the whistle, flick.  The stop watch was paused, with 2 seconds of the half remaining.  A very apologetic keeper took to the goal, Tinny stepped up and the ball was slotted home, 3-2.

Half time.

BAC got the 2^nd half under way and it went a little something like this:  Tinny to Bish, to Red, to Tinny who on the baseline took on a few defenders and flicked the ball into the left of the keeper¦. GOAL TIME!!!!!  3-2.

The rest of the second half continued in the same vain as the first, end to end, a hard and fair fight.  There were some beautiful 1-2’s throughout the pitch, the forwards mixing the runs, the midfield offering numerous options and the defence holding strong.  The score remained 4-2 and as the final whistle went, celebrations could be heard all around Abbeywood as there were numerous things to celebrate and observe:  BAC have done the double on Bristol Uni, Hammy admitted wanting to cheer the BAC goals, Kingers taking half of the Uni contingent back to teas as they don’t drive, another shiner of an eye this time sported by Brownie and of course WP worked out that she is on course for Hockey Position Bingo, can’t wait until she achieves 11 out of 11!!

It was a fantastic BAC performance, summed up by this text received after the game:  Just wanted to say that game today was a privilege to umpire, you guys were awesome!!

MOTM:

1^st Bish

MOTM – B.I.S.H

2^nd Dave

3^rd Tinny

4^th WP, Sledger & Red