Strathallan Six-a-Side Tournament

A cold, crisp, sunny day welcomed us at Strathallan for their 29th Tournament. And yes, as you ask, your corespondent has been at all 29 of them!

Once again Strathallan hospitality shone through - but would our squad of 9 stalwart players shine? Sadly, this year, the ailment coachtrippus belhavenitis kicked in for the first three games and our hockey was not up to its potential.

All players tried hard, but it seemed as if all the training of the past few weeks had been cruelly discarded. Play was too left-field dominant and too many passes were made directly to the opposition!

Frustratingly, the Little Coach had a whistle to blow and so suitable comments were unable to be hurled in the players' direction. Having said that the first half of the match against Craigclowan ended 2 - 1 up. But the second half saw a decline in execution of passes and shots at goal and we went down 2 - 4 in the end. All players were feeling frustrated and also realising that with only 5 running players on the field, everyone had to put that extra effort in.

Click here to download the stats - very exciting pdf file!

The second game started much more brightly though Riley A were a talented outfit and we needed to up our game to compete. George Cuthbert scored early on but Riley retaliated to level the score at half time. Far too much play down the left, with acres of space available on the right not being exploited, and all our players crowding the ball led to hockey that did not flow but rather stuttered along. Riley scored a soft goal in the second half to win the game.

Very kindly a Strathallan umpire offered to blow the whistle for our third match, thus giving the chance for Little Coach's lungs to be exercised. With encouraging noises, Belhaven started to move over to the right of the field thus attacking Lathallan's weaker side and, lo and behold, many more opportunities opened up. That George took good advantage twice and scored 2 goals just proved that, by moving the ball into space quickly and taking on the opposition on your strong side, it pays dividends!

Too little too late, though, and we had been demoted into the Plate Competition. Still, a bit of 'silverware was up for grabs and nobody in the squad wanted to go home empty-handed. But an excellent lunch had to be ingested first!

Riley B was our first game and now, understanding the game of 6s much better, the team tore around the pitch with gusto. the ball being moved much more sharply, accurately and with purpose. Players ran off the ball to create space and as a result goals were scored - 4 of them!

One memorable goal was by Archie Rettie who decided that a spell out of defence would be a good idea, dribbled the ball up field round a couple of players and smacked the ball home - brilliant. He then trotted back to his defensive role and stayed there.

Ali Johnston, seeing a fellow back score, decided he should have a go and duly did the same thing. What is it about Plate competitions that bring the best out of players?!?

A 15 minute break before our final game against Ardvreck during which the team were able to show how good a team they really are. Interchange, communication and speed of passing and running with the ball eventually all came together to clock up 6 goals - including a hat-trick by Dougal Forsyth. The plate was ours!

All members of the squad played their part, improved throughout the day and gave their all. Most important was that they enjoyed it, despite not making it into the main competition - and that's what's it's all about after all, enjoyment of this great game! Many thanks to the supporters who were able to huddle together in the 'dug out' to keep warm and shout encouraging remarks and feed the team a few sugar rushes now and then! Well done all.

Back: Little coach (on box), Dougal, Archie (c), George, Ali

Front: Douglas, Caspar/Freddy, Olly, Tom, Freddy/Caspar

Picture courtesy of David Johnston

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