Men’s O35C vs Paarl Mixed – 13 April 2024

13 April 2024
Pinelands  Vs Paarl  (5-2 Win)

#Whitelinefever
Having negotiated the WhatsApp intricacies of the Excel team line up as well as the
new team rotation formula, the 13 man squad was bolstered by the addition of
young Nick Perez to do duty against another mixed team, this time from Paarl.
The early exchanges in the 1st chukka seemed to indicate that we were in for a
tougher game with their ladies showing some good hockey skills ala Fish Hoek last
season. Once we started finding our passes and getting our rhythm going things did
get a bit easier resulting in an early scoring opportuning that was well finished by
Trevor slotting in from a neat pass to far post. Our score was soon doubled by
Jarryd finishing with clean strike this time as opposed the last week’s tickle and
poach…
Trevor was on target again in the 2nd chukka with a sweet finish followed by Skid with
a solo effort and cracking shot to put us 4-0 up at the half time break. Somehow
Paarl managed to find their way back into the game with a goal at the start of the 3rd
chukka and soon had another goal only because gentlemanly Derek decided not to
lay in the keeper boot to clear the ball off the line with one of their ladies in close
proximity. The lady in question then took full advantage to poke the ball over the line.
Derek was again in action with a great save intercepting a goal bound shot in the
nick of time…… 4-3 would certainly have made things tighter going into the 4th
chukka.
With the game set up nicely for a potentially competitive final chukka, Trevor did his
absolute best and was very successful at his Hattrick avoidance, with an open goal
beckoning on 2 occasions. Mike too slotted one wide with a clean shot on goal.
Were we going to be denied the bonus point 5th goal again? No not this time! After a
couple of messy short corner routines earlier in the game, it was time to set the
record straight…… Up stepped Luigi to slot one through the keyhole and see us
deservedly finish 5-2 up!

Final match card score: Pinelands 5 – Paarl Mixed 2

Pinelands goal-scorer(s): Trevor x2, Jarryd, Skid and Luigi

Player of the Week
Goes to Trevor for some excellent positional forward play that was rewarded by 2
well taken goals, only slightly spoiled by the hattrick avoidance 
Wally of the Week
A very bizarre incident in the 2nd half saw their main player play the ball so far
outside the far touch line that he was almost on the soccer field. He then proceeded
to play on as if everything was fine as there was not a whistle to be heard.
Fortunately his resulting run into our D came to nothing otherwise DJ might just have
started speaking some fluent Afrikaans of the common garden variety!
KPIs
Match niggle-rating: 8/10 – slightly but of niggle due to incident described above,
as well as some interesting umping calls for Masters hockey made by both umps!
Our Basics: 8/10 – so good positional play and passing mostly to the right blue
shirts saw our levels go up a notch up from last week.

Goal‐scorers Chart – Winter League 2024
Jarryd 3
Callum 2
Trevor 2
Skid 1
Luigi 1