Results w/b 20/2/12 February 28, 2012

Wednesday

GKT 2s 1, UCL 2s 2

GKT 3s 0, ICSM 3s 3

Sunday

GKT 1s 1, RUMS 1s 0

With a narrow defeat before the Christmas holiday, GKT Men’s 1s were pretty keen to put a victory away against a closely matched RUMs team. It was a glorious day, almost too glorious, when we assembled for an inspirational prematch talk. We looked the part, prepared with more subs than the opposition, a necessity in the kind of heat that would make a grown man cry…

With a creeping tendency (especially on a lazy Sunday afternoon) to start with the handbreak accidentally still down, we looked to make an early impact (I say ‘we’, I started on the bench, thanks Dan. But I guess I meant the proverbial ‘We’: team unity etc… Anyway I digress). After a titillating opening quarter, the pressure subsided and we settled into a firm but fair state of play, linking together some controlling passes and providing good support. The half-time came, the score 0-0.

Second half started slower, quickly conceding a shortie. No real threat and we settled back into our game. The midfield ran their tits off, with Fergus ‘3 day hangover’ Catmur linking up with the defence and attack to pose a real threat down the right. Hass ‘forward drive’ Raja and Jason ‘de bloody’ Gupta ran endlessly, and our teams almost unique plasticity was shown as subs came and went, fitting into role seamlessly.

Sachin ‘right back/attacking winger’ Sharma marred a sterling performance, and went and got our first yellow card of the season. Apparently the 5-yard rule will be our downfall for discipline this year… It might be unfair to suggest that Sharma Junior was feeling outshined Sharma Senior’s 1st green of the season… Who knows?

A goal came from Harry ‘had to make sure’ Rotter, when a short corner routine fell kindly to me, Theo, and a ‘loose ball’ allowed Harry to secure the advantage. The goal spurred the opposition to pick up the pace, demanding some great saves from Dan ‘Google’ Cromb, and some cracking tackles from Greg ‘iNassbaum’ and Khush ‘can play anywhere well’ Shah to keep the insurgents at bay. With quick releases out to our wunder-strikers our counter attack looked lethal. Joe ‘question reality’ Keighley made opportunities from nothing and threatening runs whilst feeding the ball to Nock ‘virginmedia broadband superfast’ Sharma who by virtue of his nickname ran circles around their defenders.

血まみれの地獄ああ！Were probably the words that Ryo ‘oki’ Arimoto issued as the ball made a clean connection with his thigh towards, but he walked it off and was back to dominate the left hand side for the dying moments of the game.

MOMs deservedly rewarded to Jay Pach, and Jason de Gupta for surplus to requirement performances.

This was a fantastic win, and we look forward to the next round of the ULU cup, the smell of silverware lurking…

Tldr; Good match, We won 1-0.

GKT 3s 0, Royal Holloway 2s 0 (Royal Holloway won 2 – 1 on penalty flicks)

Results w/b 13/2/12 February 18, 2012

Wednesday

GKT 1s 4, Kent 2s 1

On the back of a bitter defeat to St Georges GKT headed to Honour Oak Park eager to bounce back and continue their promotion challenge against Kent 2’s. A guest appearance by none other than the Mayor himself, Boris Johnson, on route meant that the team arrived at the pitch in high spirits if a little star struck.

With Boris’ blessing GKT set about their business, team captain and tactical tinkerer Dan Cromb tweaked the formation accordingly before delivering a rousing pep talk. However, rocked by yet another toss loss and adjusting to their new formation, GKT took their time to feel their way into the game. Kent seized upon this in the opening minutes, a defensive error presenting them with a scoring opportunity which they duly converted. Incensed by this early goal GKT pushed deeper into the opposition half. The defensive trio of Shah, Pachchigar and Sharma looked extremely comfortable on the ball, shipping it around with aplomb. With Arimoto and Muth pulling the strings in midfield it was now only a matter of time until GKT equalised. Following a period of intense pressure GKT worked the ball into the opposition D where the irrepressible Gupta was on hand to provide a clinical finish that left the Kent keeper floundering on the floor. Having drawn level GKT now had the momentum and continued to pour forward, a second goal appeared inevitable. This second goal was duly delivered by midfield playmaker Catmur who weaved his way into a shooting position before calmly dispatching the ball into the top corner of the goal on the reverse stick.

Revitalised by halftime refreshments that were a vast improvement on the shambolic offering at St Georges, GKT were eager to convert their superior possession into goals. After a handful of spurned chances, the third goal arrived as Muth kept a cool head to provide the finishing touch to a move that was straight from the training ground. GKT could smell blood and were finally able to kill off the game when Catmur turned provider to supply a killer delivery into the D, the ball was then dubiously assisted into the path of Keighley who slotted home. Events during the match were marred in the latter stages of the game when Sharma Snr was unfortunately disciplined by the umpire, picking up GKTs first card of the season.

With 2 BUCs league games left and promotion within their own hands GKT have set themselves up an exciting finish to the season with this gritty win hopefully the start of an unstoppable streak.

MoM: Fergus Catmur

GKT 2s 2, Royal Vet’s 3

The mighty GKT 2^nd XI embarked on the long trip to the middle of nowhere to face the Royal Vets 1^st XI. Propping up the top of the league following our recent humbling of Canterbury Christ Church, we were confident that there would only be one outcome.

Following the opening whistle, GKT dominated the early exchanges. We were camped on the edge of their area and earned a couple of early short corners. However, we weren’t able to capitalise on this advantage and we were hit by a sucker punch at the other end.  A swift counter attack was followed by a huge slice of misfortune, in which a poor piece of control by the opposition striker inadvertently wrong-footed the imperious GKT keeper to gift the Vets an early lead.

Not long after, we were able to rally and found an equaliser, thanks to a superb individual effort from Charlie Reeve. However, over the remainder of the half, despite controlling possession and momentum, we were hit twice again on the counter attack. We were dumfounded going into halftime at 3-1 down.

As the second half started, GKT upped their gear. We were now not only in control of the possession, but we were creating a lot more chances.  Fresher Rich and Say dominated the midfield, whilst Janan was making numerous damaging runs into the opposition area. We missed open goals, hit posts and had shots saved. A particular highlight was a powerful yet silky run by Oscar, easing past three of the animal-loving defenders. We finally broke through as Shimmings made a sharp tackle high up the pitch before feeding Charlie Reeve to dribble and smash in at the near post for his second. Unfortunately this came a little too late and despite our chances we were unable to draw the game level.

We knew that we had been unfortunate to lose this match, which has seen us drop into 2^nd place in the league. However, this has served to fire us up for the crucial match against KCL 2s (new but temporary league leaders) in just over a week’s time. Man of the match was awarded to Charlie for a stunning and tireless performance throughout, including 2 goals. Tosser was awarded to Dom for voiding any chance of Valentine’s coitus with explosive diarrhoea.

GKT 3s 2, RUMS 3s 0

On a gloriously sunlit Wednesday afternoon the GKT 3rd XI travelled to Barnes Bridge in search of something which was lost their previous game: winning ways. After some slight confusion the changing rooms and pitch of RUMS were located and everyone on the team donned their kit in the usual manner, with no one getting trapped or otherwise caught in their garments. A quick warm-up session was held, after which the match got under way.

The men of GKT started strongly and looked on the front foot, but then mistakes began to creep into their game. Some bizarre decision making by different players led to two strong RUMS chances, created solely by GKT ineptitude rather than any good play on the opposition behalf. However, the overall advantage was easily GKT’s, until Matt ‘yellow card’ Francis decided it would be an excellent idea to smash down an aerial with the stick held so high it could have poked a giant’s arse, and promptly received an enforced resting period. More mistakes followed, with the ball being pushed into the D from free hits within 5 yards over and over again. Given the length of time some of these players have had on a hockey pitch it was actually quite staggering. Then, within a short period of time the GKT boys had two goals disallowed. One supposedly because the ball didn’t go out of the D on a short corner, the other one a mystery. Both extremely harsh.

Thus, despite some clear cut chances and a number of short corners for the Guy’s players, at half time, the score stood as 0 – 0. This caused Vice Captain Hagson to lapse into a minor psychotic state and, in a careful manner, explain that if a man isn’t willing to give their all for the team, they should ‘politely leave’. Captain DK remained calmer and reassessed the strategy for the second half.

As the second half got under way, you could see that the half time chat had invigorated the team, and despite still making mistakes the overall play from GKT was much improved. A barrage of short corners were given GKT’s way and twice the post was hit, once by Tom ‘game of his life’ Keeley and the other by Saarth ‘miserable dick’ Shiralkar. It must be noted here though that the stopping of short corners was managed in such a comically bad way by Mani ‘unsteady hands’ Matharu that the corners were often completely useless in the end. The deadlock was eventually broken by captain DK when he, after some scrappy play in the D, completely on purpose lobbed the RUMS keeper, thus scoring his first goal for the club. It only took a couple of years. Sumeet ‘Bengal tiger’ Oberai followed up with a second goal close after, beyond which the match was almost a formality, bar some further silly mistakes which could have been costly. As such, despite some shocking mistakes and strange refereeing, the boys from GKT could travel back to London Bridge on the back of a win and clean sheet, having had a well earned pint in the club house bar first.

MoM: Tom Keeley

Tosser: Hannes Hagson

Sunday

GKT 1s 2, Royal Holloway 1s 4

On a wonderful afternoon one Sunday, GKT 1s ventured to the only beach in the country that also houses a hockey pitch a.k.a. Royal Holloway. Prior coordination and planning of transport matched Operation Dynamo in scale, as the fleet of cars eagerly left central London to compete in the ULU leagues.

Due to forces out of our control, the late start meant that the sun was in clear recession making visibility markedly poor at one end. However, against the run of the season GKT won the toss, surely bringing a good omen for the match. An intense first ten minutes saw the ball reaching both ends of the pitch but Holloway struck first with a mediocre effort in a short corner, spurning us on in the game. 1-0. Unfortunately, a successive goal was scored against us after an unlucky deflection off the pads saw the ball rocket straight to “Pidgeon but 10 times uglier” who buried it. 2-0.

Half time nibbles presented themselves in the form of Jelly Babies and the debut of Strawbs. We were clearly still in this game. Composure was needed as the sun disappeared over the horizon.

Hard work was in order and GKT soon got the goal they deserved, drawing blood through a well thought out short corner routine…designed in a car on the way to the match, gifting a goal for Theo “juggler” Muth. The sheer abstractness of the routine, and the pre match practise of it, meant that Holloway had no answer to such slick operations. 2-1.

In fact, GKT soon struck again which would have equalised the game. Much to our dismay the goal was disallowed, possibly for some football like antics in the face of goal.

GKT pushed hard for goals and flooded the oppositions half, despite the increased risk of counter attacks. The teams confidence in Dan “stick save” Cromb left a Holloway striker confused as to how he was going to score after it was retorted “you can’t hit the ball though me”. The Holloway man saw this as a challenge, but he really should have listened to this piece of advice.

Frustration was clearly showing on both sides and the match started turning ugly. The umpire would have struggled to discipline a child so trying to control 22 players was a preposterous idea. Discipline was not his forte. A flick was given against GKT for a foot on the line. “Pidgeon but 10 times uglier” stepped up and promptly delivered a wet flick which Dan “stick save” Cromb didnt actually stick save, instead batting the ball away with a pad.

Another short corner routine by the home side saw a straight strike hit the backboards. 3-1. GKT did not stop fighting and the attack surged forwards.

A little later, the coming together of GKT keeper and Holloway attacker saw the latter wiped out in spectacular fashion to have a controversial second flick awarded. Despite a Holloway player playing after the whistle was blown, there were no repercussions, sparking some angry words. A fresh flicker arrived and this time he hit the top corner. Dan threw himself in the defence of his goal but sadly there was too much pace. 4-1.

Despite passing a lot to the opposition, GKT were linking up and constantly threatening the other ‘D”. Determined to see the back of the net, Joe Keighley struck superbly on his reverse. Judging the reaction from Shin Woo Kim, it was goal time. The yelps of delight from the Korean were agonisingly cut short as the ball soared over the goal. This match had plenty left in it.

Joe “open goal” Keighley must have thought the game was going to pick up for GKT. Rather than add to his already impressive tally of goals this season, he decided to beat the keeper and for reasons unknown hit the ball over the base line, missing what is typically described as an open goal. A true gentleman.

Plenty of counter attacks followed from Holloway with Sachin “wannabe midfielder” Sharma bellowing “he’s got nothing, he’s got nothing” to the delight of the sturdy defence. After some stirling build up play, Ryoki “broken stick” Arimoto pushed the ball into the depths of the ‘D’ for Jason “de” Gupta to deflect the ball in to the goal at lightning pace. 4-2. This was the last score in the match and not an ideal one at that. This isn’t the result we need in ULU Premiership. Future games against ICSM and RUMS are must win matches. With the strength and skills we have in the squad we can go into these with confidence and the fact that we were still scoring at the end of this match shows the character that we have as a team.

MoM: Dan Cromb

Results w/b 6/2/12 February 12, 2012

Wednesday

GKT 1s 1, St George’s 1s 2

After a week of no hockey due to the adverse weather conditions, GKT travelled to Surbiton to face their bogey team in the league, St George’s. The cold weather and the ever present threat of snow kept the crowds away producing one of the lowest attendances of the season but this did not put off our big time players, who all seemed pumped up for a tough game which was a definite six pointer.

Having changed into our fabulous new kit (which is now on sale at the megastore with free name printing of your favourite GKT player), we talked through tactics with player-manager Cromb. We had a set game plan and knew if we kept to it, then the 3 points would be in the bag. It was going to be a game of two halves and we had to score more goals than them, and with this in our heads we strode onto the hallowed turf with confidence.

Due to the weather and threat of injuries, GKT went through a thorough warm up led by 1^st team coach/chief scout Sharma S and game faces were well and truly on.

The game kicked off with a slow tempo, like two heavyweights sizing each other up in the ring, with both sides desperate to grab the game by the scruff of the neck and dominate. GKT started to pick up the pace with some lovely, flowing hockey but were unable to create that clear cut chance with the George’s keeper having to be sharp and pulling of some smart saves. With the 1^st half drifting, GKT were struck by a sucker punch from a short corner leaving them one goal behind. All this did was motivate the mighty GKT, and like a wounded lion, we started to push forward but yet again without luck in front of the posts. The half time whistle came at the wrong time for us when George’s were on the back foot but we knew we had 35 minutes to turn this match around.

Half time was unfortunately and surprisingly not as well organised. Due to no hydration station, players were forced to find their own drinks and we ended up with way too many jelly babies yet Jaffa Cakes and bananas were not to be found. But like true professionals we refused to moan about it, and another powerful speech by Cromb made us believe that this game was there for the taking.

The second half was one filled with controversy. Again after dominating the start of the half with our midfield combo of Arimoto, Muth, Raja, Gupta (who is also assistant scout) and Catmur running the game without forgetting to mention Nussbaum who excelled in the Makélélé role and ran the George’s playmaker out the game, we were again caught out by another boring short corner routine.

Previous GKT teams would have used this as a reason to fall on their swords, but under the new management regime this was the complete opposite. We carried on fighting and George’s decided to park the bus. We thought we were back in the game when after some gorgeous play; we had the ball in the back of the net. Gupta had managed to find a way into the net. However our joy was short lived when the umpire called for a foot and the goal was disallowed. It was a terrible decision and has reignited the debate for the need of goal line technology. The sight of Gupta getting riled by one of George’s players just highlighted how bad the decision was yet there was nothing we could do but accept the horrendous decision.

This setback could have signalled the end of the game, but heroically we kept battling away. We eventually got the ball into the net through a powerful strike from Raja from the top of the ‘D’. However time was not on our side and unfortunately we couldn’t find that second goal that our honest work deserved. We created chance after chance yet were unable to put them away, but that’s how this funny old game works, on another day we could have easily had 6 or 7. The less said about the umpiring in the second half the better, but it did sometimes feel that we were up against 12 men (which just isn’t fair).

A mention must go to the defenders Pachchigar and Shah who were yet again solid at the back and our four strikers Chang, Sharma N, Keighley and Edwards who put in the donkey work up front and ran tirelessly for the team. 

So we were defeated 2-1 but it’s the not the end of the world for our promotion push. It is still in our hands but we have to take one game at a time. If we perform to our capabilities then we will definitely be up there come the end of the season

MoM – Greg Nussbaum

GKT 2s vs Hertfordshire 2s (A) rescheduled

GKT 3s 0, Bart’s 2s 1

On the back of a run of 5 clean sheets we turned up to a freezing HOP full of confidence. This was our first competitive game of 2012, and we wanted to start with a win. Our pre-match preparations were cut short following a SNAFU by KCLSU (our pitch was double booked) and we were forced to start the match early and with only 10 players on the pitch to make it fair for Bart’s, as half of their players had yet to arrive.

We started the game well, defending strongly and controlling much of the posession. However, Bart’s always had lots of men behind the ball and our impotent attacks were unable to penetrate the opposition defence. Disaster struck mid-way through through the first half; Bart’s launched a counter attack off our free hit and, for once, the defence and stand-in ‘keeper, Oscar, failed to deal with it and Bart’s had the lead.

Having finally conceded a goal, we were determined not to end our unbeated streak as well and started the second half with guns blazing. Unfortunately, our rustiness showed and we were unable to create any meaningful attacks or take advantage of the short corners. Despite all our efforts, we were unable to score and ultimately lost 1-0. However, as this was a BUCS game, our main aim of ULU league promotion remains alive.

Man of the Match went to Akshay Gulati for his fine defensive performance. Tosser went to DK for getting his left nipple pierced on RAG Raid.