In what was a mixed a mixed week for other top-flight teams around the country with both Harlequin’s Rugby Union and Cambridge United both failing to consolidate solid league positions, Guy’s, King’s and St. Thomas’s recorded a numerically strong win over St. Bartholomew’s and the London “School” of Medicine and Dentistry.
Always well prepared and hydrated, GKT arrived early and, after the tactical team talk, set about the warm up. Despite the comprehensive nature of the cardiovascular, plyometric and static pre-match conditioning GKT found themselves, not for the first time in the season, overprepared. This gave Hassan “Heavyweight” Raja time to achieve lifetime best figures of 3 not out, before he caught a leading edge and was pouched neatly at short extra cover by Jason “Larger-than-life” Gupta.
From the off GKT were keen to show attacking intent, Theo “Thunder-thighs” Muth reclaimed possession from the “Red 7” push back option and instantly troubled the St. Bart’s back four. Throughout the first half, GKT tried to show intent with good use of the wide options provided by Ryo “Ten Tonne” Arimoto and Sachin “Chunky” Sharma, despite a high press from the Bart’s front three. Defensively, it was a strong performance in the first half, thanks in particular to the hard work from Khush “Curvaceous” Shah on the left and Greg “Plumpy” Nussbaum and Matt “Fat” Hope. Credit is particularly due to the latter two who had the unenviable task of man-marking the four time recipient of BUCS’s Spirit of Hockey award, both kept their discipline and effectively marked him out of the game. Bart’s did win three short corners in the first half. One of which, was not in contravention of section 9.2 of the FIH “Rules of Hockey, 2011” regarding a player’s control over his stick(!). None of these set pieces really threatened the back board due, in part, to the imperious presence of Dan “Big Boy” Cromb and also to Greg “Plumpy” Nussbaum’s face-mask.
Going forward, GKT created plenty of opportunities, the Bart’s back line being unable to cope with the pace and beguiling hockey played by the ever-fresh attacking squad who provided near misses and short corners throughout the half. Having run a few options unsuccessfully from the short corner, Alec “Meaty” Dawson eventually managed to force one through the left hand pad of the keeper to provide a lead late on in the half, Joe “it’s glandular” Keighley rightly claiming the assist having called the play from the sideline.
The atmosphere at half time was as flatter than Northern Cambridgeshire, a testament to the team’s expectations of their performances this term. However, following hydration and power snacks kindly provided by Jason “Larger-than-life” Gupta and the hairdryer treatment from skipper Dan “Big Boy” Cromb, the team hit the pitch with a new outlook on the game, northerly (sorry).
“At the end of the day, like, it’s a game of two halves” – Sachin “Chunky” Sharma
During the second half the game proceeded much as it had in the first, errors still blunting the fluent, champagne hockey GKT supporters have become so accustomed to. As the match progressed, GKT’s dominance on the pitch grew. Having realised the impotence of their full press Bart’s backed off, this allowed the midfield engines of Fergus “Jelly-Belly” Catmur and Jason “Larger-than-life” Gupta to transfer the ball with characteristic panache between the back-line and forwards, who enjoyed a greater recompense for their incessant leads. The reward for this hard work was a glut of penalty corners, sadly, GKT were guilty of a poor conversion. A five minute period of sustained pressure yielded two penalty corners, which were upgraded by the medium of drag-flick and GKT found themselves at an unanswered three goal advantage.
Possibly at this point GKT were guilty of allowing Bart’s to play. The result was a run of short corners and finally a scrappy, retaliatory goal, following a fine, reflex stick save by Dan “Big Boy” Cromb. Any thoughts of a fight-back were quickly snuffed out when a quick break from defence up the left wing saw Nock “Lardy” Sharma dominate the backboard.
The win this week puts GKT at the top of the BUCS league, South Eastern 3B, with the University of Essex side six points adrift but with three games in hand. In order to secure promotion this season the side need to build on the performance this week and win their next two games, at which point their frankly unbelievable goal difference of plus twenty nine will carry them into the league above.
GKT: Dan ‘Big boy’ Cromb (c), Sachin ‘Chunky’ Sharma, Alec ‘Meaty’ Dawson, Khush ‘Curvaceous’ Shah, Greg ‘Plumpy’ Nussbaum, Matt ‘Fat’ Hope, Ryo ‘Ten-tonne’ Arimoto, Theo ‘Thunder-thighs’ Muth, Jason ‘Larger-than-life’ Gupta, Fergus ‘Jelly-belly’ Catmur, Hassan ‘Heavyweight’ Raja, Charlie ‘Big boned’ Reeve, Joe ‘It’s-glandular’ Keighley, Harry ‘Roly-poly’ Edwards, Nock ‘Lardy’ Sharma, Jonny ‘Beefy’ Gabriel
Attendance: 67,822
