On Sunday 17th September, a seasoned cadre of Old Cats travelled up to Haileybury School for the annual 6 a side hockey tournament. Long before first push back, disaster struck. The 7 man squad soon became 6 as Mark Chatfield’s clutch gave in – an inevitable fate following years of older brother Ed’s erratic driving.

Elsewhere, the ensemble ascending from London were stalled in unrelenting traffic; made more insufferable only by Cam Lagerberg’s hastily volunteered London dating anecdotes as onboard entertainment. This left us 15 minutes before kick off with a squad of two and one stick between them…

Fortunately the traffic eventually dissipated and we were ready to go. With the flavour of tea still fresh in Adam Morley’s unconventionally moulded gumshield, we found ourselves celebrating a comfortable 1-0 win against Aldenham. A hard fought loss against Bishop’s Stortford was followed by two draws and a win against Cheltenham, Haileybury and St Albans respectively. Highlights from the group stage included Charlie Hammond’s glorious reverse hit into the top corner and Harvey New’s deadly finishing into our own net defending a short corner. As a result, we headed into lunch having qualified for the semi-finals.

The afternoon’s hockey unfortunately suffered at the hands of the poorly timed lunch and fatigue from a lack of substitutes. So beset with weariness was Charlie Hammond over lunch that he piled food directly onto his lunch tray; foregoing the customary plate. Despite heroic performances from Cam Lagerberg (enlarged by a double lunch portion), we found ourselves bowing out in a respectable fourth place. Special mention must go also to Fraser Hart for making up the numbers last minute and James Foggin for proving his class throughout.

Overall, a cracking day and one we will return to next year. If anyone is interested in playing, please reach out to Mr Patterson or Adam Morley.