It was great to see most of the guy’s making it to the field by 1.00pm or thereabouts (except Joe) but then those navigation systems don’t seem to take account of the traffic – Tooting style – on a Saturday lunchtime.

Hillcroft were a bit ‘off the boil’ thinking it was a 2.30pm start – claiming the points there and then seemed a bit cheap so we ended up with plenty of time to warm up and re-confirm ‘man up’.

A late withdrawal through injury by Mike Goodman left us with just three long sticks but we were boosted by Dan Hughes’s first appearance and Pete Duckworth (on Hols on Sunday).

We made a really positive start to the game moving the ball really nicely and were denied by the pipes a couple of times. Hillcroft scored first but there was little to choose between the sides up to half time, both teams playing some good quality lacrosse. Colin was ‘a wall’ to outside shots and the defence looked really solid – I had 6 – 5 to Hillcroft a the half.

We lost the game in the third quarter. An intense rainstorm seemed to turn the ball soapy (well, when we had it) and produced three or four manic plays each of which was punished with a goal. And Mango Hillcroft decided to turn up then as well and drove a couple of goals from behind the cage! So that was it – a six goal quarter!

A last quarter return to reality evened out the game and it fizzled out a bit in the last ten minutes ending with a 13 – 7 defeat.

Positives – Hillcroft were probably close to full strength (only looked to be missing Pete the D). We went ‘eyeball to eyeball’ with them for three quarters and really just ‘self destructed’ – that scenario will improve as the team gets used to playing together and if we spend a little more time on the clear. Ray Nash blew three fouls the whole game and the man up achieved the desired result on the first ‘1 minute chance’.

Players Man of the Match = Toby Thompson (great midfield performance).
Players Goon = Ant Broadhurst. Ant won ‘the race’.
Coaches Man of the Match = Colin Byrne (excluding the ‘walkabout’)

Spencer were;
Colin Byrne, Alan Keeley, Craig Simkin, Matt Blom, Will Walker (2 goals), Ant Broadhurst, Colin Rutter, Dan Hughes, Pete Duckworth (1), Keith Holloway (2), Toby Thompson, Steve Greszczyszyn, Cliff Hide, Justin Marshall, Joe Bayern, Mark Davies (2), Mike Bayern, Ross Hudson