This year Jess Hoskings took control and organised 2 teams to go down to Basingstoke to take part in their annual festival. What a weekend it was!! We welcome quite a few new-comers into the teams (either for through their unknown love of hockey….or upon the insistence of their better halfs)…we will never know.
During the summer months we weren’t all taking it easy. A mob of 30 of us descended on Basingstoke for their Annual Mixed Festival.
We split ourselves into 2 teams and had some great results. With neither team losing a game over the weekend. Day 1 ended with both teams unbeaten with 3 wins and 2 draws.
This meant that the “Responsible consumption of alcoholic beverages” could now commence. And commence it did…(what happens on tour….stays on tour).
Day 2 was another successful day for both teams, unfortunately one of our teams missed out on a play-off position by virtue of 1 too many draws (but Merton HC was still unbeaten on tour!!).
The other team however won a tense semi-final on the grass pitch with shots from the centre spot on the empty goal (this was on grass so it was not as easy as it may seem).
The final was a tense affair with both teams (Merton and a Wapping team) not giving an inch. At full time and the scores were still nil all.
So Eurohockey style, it went down to shuttle runs to find the victors.
The Merton team won 2-0 on shuttle runs with Stan andMike both scoring, while Neil kept a clean sheet and rebutted any attempt from the attackers.
All in all a great weekend away, helped by mother nature placing nice – maybe a little too nice with Merton having adopted some red faced racoons over the course of the weekend. Basingstoke is definitely on the cards for next year again!
Be sure to check out the Gallery on the website for the pictures.
