North Somerset Men’s 1s hosted PGSOB at Gordano school on Saturday and came away with a narrow but vital win and 3 points in a game littered with injuries and cards

The early rain had subsided by push back leaving a very quick playing surface and both sides went at each other from the start with the majority of the play taking place in an error strewn midfield battle.
With North struggling to get a foothold in the game they conceded a penalty corner and although the initial drag flick was saved by keeper Steve Proctor the visitors were first to the react, firing home from 6 yards out to go 1 up. First into the sin bin was left back Brad Krone with green card midway through the first half but North weathered the storm while down to 10 men. The equaliser came for North once they were back up to 11 men, a well worked move culminating in an easy 1 yard tap in for Charlie Mott at the back post. After getting back on level terms, the North now had their tails up and pushed forward. The second goal come courtesy of the hard working Scott Voisey firing home at the end of a good team move, 2-1 to the home side at the end of the first half, game on.

The second half was a scrappy affair as both teams pressed to try and gain the upper hand.
Working their way upfield, North won a short corner and as is becoming the norm, up stepped Darshane Theara to fire low towards the bottom corner, skipper Lewis Francuz touching home past a despairing keeper to put North into a 3-1 lead.
A defensive slip by North then saw the away side presented with a free chance on goal, a first time strike was again saved by Steve Proctor, in the resulting melee in the D, he was then kicked in the head by the recovering Scott Voisey who’s combined efforts with the brave Daniel ball couldn’t stop PGSOB scoring a second.
A break in play for Proctor to receive treatment from the multi talented Darshane Theara for the head injury left North with 15 mins left to see out the game.
PGSOB now seeing a comeback was on the cards ramped up the pressure on the home side and it was now all hands to the pumps as north threw sticks and bodies on the line for the victory, Scott Voisey also receiving a blow to the head for his defensive endeavours.
With 10 minutes remaining captain Lewis Francuz received a yellow card effectively ending his afternoon work and now the homeside were clinging on to the slender advantage they held in the game, a green card to Patt Tanner reduced North down to 9 men. Once he returned to the fray it was the turn of Darshane Theara to head to the bin for a 2 min sit down, North Somerset never do things the easy way!!!
On the full time whistle a penalty corner was conceded by North and as North lined up to defend it Daniel Ball was given his marching orders, North Somerset’s 4th card within 10 minutes.
The penalty corner was taken and a combination of Steve Proctor, Lee Chambers, Patt Tanner, Brad Krone and George Priestner kept the ball and opposition at bay and cleared the ball for North Somerset to win a tough battle 3-2.
Plenty to work on Tuesday night at training for Coach MacBlain
Hughes carpentry Man of the Match. Steve Proctor

Men’s 2s lost 4-0 away to 2nd in the table Old Bristolians

The Ladies 1st XI finished the first half of the season with a commanding 4-2 victory away at Shepton Mallett. North took a while to settle into the game but once they did they enjoyed the majority of possession and could have easily taken the lead sooner if not for some excellent goalkeeping and baffling umpiring decisions. Becks Ford-Urch eventually hit the backboard to give North a 1-0 lead at half time. In the second half North’s dominance grew with player of the match Charlotte Millington reaking havoc on the Shepton left back and teeing up Helen Graham for an easy finish to score North’s second. Shepton did play some nice counter attacking hockey to score two goals themselves but the result was never in doubt as Michelle Harold smashed in two trademark goals to give North the much deserved victory! The game was Alex Port's final game for the club before she moves to Swindon, so thank you for all your support and dedication to the team and club, we wish you success in your new adventures.
Men’s 3s had two games this weekend, following the postponement of the Bridgwater game3 weeks ago. Both games at home, on Saturday it was against Weston Super Mare A and was a really good game. North started really strongly with lots of movement, particularly down the right wing through man of the match Jack Colling. His crosses gave Shaun Huxham another goal as he got a wonderful spin on the reverse to finish it under the keeper. Within a few minutes the same movement gave Jack the opportunity to cross, but this one was a bit in the air, but Colin Ainsworth coming in from the left wing caught it sweetly to put it into the roof of the net. Weston then got their act together and worked well to come back with a well worked goal to the free man at the far post and then a flick from near the edge of the D into the side netting. 2-2 at half time. The second half started and almost immediately North had a short corner which was well finished by Jon Venn to put North ahead. The game was then very even through the rest of the half until Weston had a short corner in the last few minutes which was well finished with a high flick leaving Steve Geary in goal with no chance. A great game finished with honours even at 3-3.

Sunday’s game was at home to Bridgwater B and from early on it was clear that Bridgwater were worthy of their second place in the league and had a couple of players who have the ability to play in higher leagues…… Bridgwater moved the ball around very well and North struggled to keep with their pace, especially down the right hand side which they had overloaded leading to Bridgwater being 2-0 up at half time. The second half went a bit better and we got the hang of their movement a little better than the first half, meaning we had a good team move finished at the back post and then after Bridgwater had picked up a couple more goals Jon Venn got another goal from a short corner to finish with a 4-2 loss, but Bridgwater unsurprisingly moved to the top of the league. The downside of the match was a bit of a break when Colin Ainsworth went in for a 50-50 challenge and the Bridgwater player accidentally hooked Colin’s knee with his stick, probably ending his season. Man of the match was Sam Down, with some great work down the right wing.

The juniors played friendlies in the U10 and U12 age groups at Gordano against Firebrands, I would normally try to write more, but as I was at the minor injuries unit the reviews came from my kids, who said they enjoyed the games and we won them both! I know that the U10s played it as 3 short games which we won 2-1, drew 0-0 and won 3-0 (thanks to Jon Venn for the scores). Lexie was particularly excited to be playing against her best friend who is at Brands! The U12s were coached by Charlie Dangerfield who is usually with the U10s, but stepped up due to my injury, although the team won well, Charlie has indicated that we were starting to be a bit greedy on the ball rather than the usual good passing, something for Joe Merrett to help sort out in training next week whilst I recuperate!