Match reports for South Berkshire Men’s and Ladies’ Hockey Teams
South Berkshires Men’s 1st team welcomed Fareham to Cantley Park for the 3rd round of matches in this year’s league programme.
The two fixtures between the teams last season produced 17 goals, so goals were most certainly on the menu for this clash.
South Berkshire had the bad news of losing stalwart goalkeeper David Baines during the week and the late withdrawal of energetic defender Connor Eatwell just before the match.
![South Berkshire Hockey Thriller in the Park 36](https://mywokingham.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Wokingham-Mens-1st-1024x891.jpg)
Second-team keeper, young Sam Moors stepped up to replace Baines.
The game kicked off with two very quick attacks from South Berkshire, both of which came to nothing.
Moors pulled off his first save of the game after just three minutes turning away a shot from the attacking Fareham number 7
On 7 minutes South Berkshire won their first short corner , which led to Paul Kaplanski lifting the ball just wide of the post.
![South Berkshire Hockey Thriller in the Park 37](https://mywokingham.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Wokingham-Mens-1-st-Hockey-1024x750.jpg)
Fareham hit back with their own short corner on 15 minutes with Sam Moors making an outstanding double save to prevent Fareham taking the lead.
More Fareham pressure came on 20 minutes with another short corner which again Sam Moors kept out with another double save
South Berkshire then gained their second short corner on 25 minutes with Kaplanski again driving the ball wide of the goal.
The game looked like it was going to somehow be goalless at the break until within 30 seconds of half time a foul on Ravi Patel in the D gave South Berkshire a chance to break the deadlock.
Captain Ollie Bruce took the corner, Patel did his job of stopping the ball,Tom King then stepped forward with the ball, passing it to Neil Bennett on his right. Bennett then returned the ball to King who spun around and Slid the ball home for his first goal of the season
Half-time South Berkshire 1-0 Fareham.
The start of the second half didn’t quite go to plan for South Berkshire,within 2 minutes of the restart Fareham had drawn level with a goal from a short corner and then again 2 minutes later with another goal from a short corner to give them the lead at 1-2.
![South Berkshire Hockey Thriller in the Park 38](https://mywokingham.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Wokingham-Mens-1-st-action-1024x921.jpg)
Their lead wasn’t to last more than a minute,as Sam Fox-Harvey running from midfield passed a perfect ball for Paul Kaplanski to hit first time at the top of the D and smashed into the Fareham net , 2-2
But trouble wasn’t far away for South Berkshire within a minute later Ravi Patel received a yellow card from the umpire for some unsporting behaviour, South Berkshire now down to 10 men for the next 10 minutes
For the next 5 minutes South Berkshire stood firm with only 10 men from further Fareham attacks ,then with a almost carbon couple of Kaplanski first goal ,he latched onto another Fox-Harvey pass swivelled passed the advancing Fareham keeper and with his trademark finish of being near horizontal on the floor rolled his second goal in ,3-2
![South Berkshire Hockey Thriller in the Park 39](https://mywokingham.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Wokingham-Mens-1-st-1024x852.jpg)
This seemed to knock Fareham for a while as South Berkshire were able to press forward at will. The game should have been made safe at this time but a fine save from the Fareham keeper from Callum Miller and the same player also shooting just wide a minute later ,Fareham were still in the game.
![South Berkshire Hockey Thriller in the Park 40](https://mywokingham.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Wokingham-Mes-1-st-Team-goal-action-1024x865.jpg)
In the 58-minute Berkshire came to regret the misses as Fareham levelled from their 3rd short corner in just a few minutes ,with Moors pulling off a number of saves before a close shot beat him at the post 3-3
The game started to become very heated in the next ten minutes with both Sam Fox-Harvey and a Fareham player being shown yellow cards, which ended their participation for rest of the match.
With the umpires now signalling for just 2 minutes left in the game,the match turned once more.
Skipper Bruce running forward from defence flicked the ball across the midfield to Patel ,his pass then found Kaplanski just outside of the D , Kaplanski rolled the defender close to him , losing his shoe in the process, advanced into the D and arrowed the ball into the back of the Fareham net sending the watching crowd into loud applause 4-3.
The last minute was a nailbiter with Fareham attacking in numbers, but South Berkshire held out for a 4-3 victory.
The rest of South Berkshires Men’s teams returned a mixed bag of results
The 2nd team were unlucky to lose at home 2-3 to Amersham, after being 0-2 at halftime to fight back to 2-2 only to lose the game near the end . Sam Coombes and Joe Hayes, the goal scorers.
The 3rd team travelled to Newbury and came away 1-2 winners,Tom Scott and Chris Badgers with the goals.
The 4th team were at home to Henley,the home team coming out winners 3-0 with Duncan Clarke,David Morgan and David Healy on the score sheet. It’s now 23 games without defeat for the 4ths.
The 5th team had a great 2-4 win at Yateley, Luke Barnard, Robbie Campion, Greig Bertolino and Tom Ellwood netting.
The 6th team lost at home 2-1 to Amersham, James Gibbs with the goal
Photo Gallery
South Berkshire Ladies didn’t have the best of weekends
The Ladies’ first team dropped their first points of the season with a 3-3 draw away at Oxford, Sarah Kelly, Kelly Hancock and Anabella Pio all scoring for the second week running
The 2nd team losing at home 1-2 to Yateley,Edie Harrison scoring
The 3rd team went down 6-0 away at Amersham
The 4th team lost at home 1-2 to Newbury
The 5th team had a 5-0 walkover against Slough
Next week games at home are
Men’s 1st v Amersham
Men’s 2nd v Reading
Men’s 4th v Amersham
Men’s 6th v Henley
Ladies 2nd v Amersham
Ladies 4th v Newbury
The away fixtures are
Men’s 3rd at Oxford
Men’s 5th at Eastcote
Ladies 1st at Reading
Ladies 3rd at Leighton Buzzard
Ladies 5th at Windsor
The Vets play away at Haslemere