Mens 2xi 8 - 2 Dublin University 2

The 2’s enjoyed the coming of spring with a comprehensive win over Trinity 2’s. It was a game of 2 very different halves. In the first half our biggest obstacle to victory was indeed the referee. From literally the first minute of the game we had a player sent off the bench. Yes, the bench. Apparently his misdemeanour was so severe that he required a 10 minute stint in the corner of the pitch to reflect on how he might word ‘its not your circle to the umpire’ after a corner had been indicated against us. There was also the threat of a red card a minute later for a similarly soft offence. After about 10 minutes of this we did eventually manage to play some hockey and we scored some lovely goals, leading 6 nil at half time.

We knew the game was over and the Trin simply could not handle us. The challenge in the second half was to keep the pressure on our opponents and score 4 more goals whilst conceding nothing at the back. Our friendly Leinster branch umpire on the other hand had decided that we would be better off with ten men on the pitch and gave Trinity a corner, just for the craic.

This truly was a milestone in my long hockey career. There were no fouls, fights, bad tackles, niggles, bad words, cursing and in truth and with respect to Trinity barely an opposition (certainly one that wanted to be there). Yet we found ourselves with 2 yellow cards and the threat of a letter being sent to the Leinster branch about our conduct on the pitch!!

Mindboggling stuff. Thanks to Colly Huet for helping umpire the other end. Bring on Corinthians.

Ross Varian