The Match Report ...

This blog post is primarily aimed at Fi, my good friend and ex-hockey team mate in Melbourne (that's us above, celebrating our grand final win in 2007).  Fi requested a full match report after my first hockey game, so here it is.  Weather - sunny, warm and lovely (spring is finally here), even at 8.15 pm, game time.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had been placed in an A grade team, something I was slightly nervous about, but had no reason to be - the A clearly stands for 'A Very Friendly Competition.'  Ten minutes before the game, only a couple of players had arrived and five minutes before the game, I was still trying on my new uniform (red sleeveless shirt and black skort, for those of you interested in hockey fashions).  There was no warm up and no coach, just a few half-hearted stretches and a couple of veterans making suggestions to everyone.  Positions were very vague and we were all in charge of our own subbing off and on the field.  After three years of not playing, my skills left a lot to be desired and I won't even mention my fitness levels.  So, you can imagine my surprise when I scored the first goal of the game!  The game turned out to be a demolition of the other team, who were 4 players short, and I lost count of the number of goals scored by us, the Astro As.  Unfortunately, despite numerous opportunities, I didn't score any more goals.  The most challenging part of the game (apart from the fact that my lungs were burning) was coming to grips with the new rules - a 'self pass' rule and a rule about not hitting inside the 25 metre line that I really didn't get.  The big question for next week's game is 'will I be able to stay awake until the 9.30 pm game?'  I promise not to bore everyone with weekly match reports, especially given I'll be playing two games a week soon (I'm going to have a hit with the B grade team as well), but I did promise a full report this week to Fi, so there you are Fi!