Injury, sickness and work commitments turned a 13-man Spencer 3’s squad into the bare minimum for the trip north to Hitchin. So the Londoners were very happy to see Hitchin take the field with only 11 players themselves, thus an evenly matched game was on the cards.

However the Spencer win was comfortable, albeit with a good fightback from Hitchin in the second half.

Key to success was how Spencer organised their 10 players. The midfield trio of Gavin, Rodney and Dan are the three fastest and fittest players into the squad so they allowed the older and the slower to focus on defence and attack.

The defence played their part, snuffing out Hitchin in the first half, and clearing the ball calmly up to the midfield. When Hitchin played their best lacrosse in the 3rd quarter, the defence also stepped up with strong checks and good teamwork. Hitchin’s five goals were all well worked and well deserved.

In attack, a Spencer debut for Ed Cassels who looked lively even though he’d not played for a year. Rob moved from midfield to attack, which worked well as he was nursing a foot injury and could do the running that was needed for midfield today. Mark Davies got his shooting boots on in the second half and top scored with two from outside and two from inside.

Joint men of the match today were the midfield enjoyed well earned beers afterwards in the Cricketers Pub.

Quarter Scores: 0-3 / 0-7 / 3-9 / 5-10

Spencer III’s were; Colin Byrne, Toby Rule, Glen Gardener, Brendan Callan (1 goal), Gavin Park (1), Rodney Yong-Set (1), Dan Taylor, Rob Gooch (1), Ed Cassels (2) and Mark Davies (4)

Spencer 2’s 13 – 6 Croydon

Sorry, no match report available.