Varsity 2010: Hockey

As the clouds drew ominously overhead, both first teams of Edinburgh University were untroubled by their opponents, aggregating eleven balls in the net though, with more clinical finishing, it could well have ended up as thirty.

The women were sharper on the turf, turning the Watt defenders inside out and pressuring without cessation, though it took fifteen minutes to chalk a goal on the scoreboard, the ball worked well in the D. A second came on the half-hour, Mo Harding’s tap-in resulting from great ball control by the Edinburgh attackers. The best goal of the game came from Harding five minutes into the second half, a wonderful solo effort after skipping past two players and firing in from the edge of the D. Number four was put in powerfully three minutes later, and Watt then cleared off their goal line twice; they offered precious little by way of attacking threat, Edinburgh managed three strikes in five minutes, winning possession back with ease every time. Harding ought twice to have bagged her hat-trick but her team-mates shared the free scoring while Watt defenders sprawled and slipped and stumbled to a heavy loss.

The men ran away with their victory in a more
temperamental game, with each side frustrated with the officiating and meriting a yellow card and green triangle for each side. Edinburgh’s Stewart ‘AJ’ Inglis was sinbinned particularly harshly, though it was 3-0 to his side at his temporary dismissal. Wasting a short corner in the very first minute, the thrust was always Edinburgh’s; five minutes into the game Paddy Thompson’s shot was deflected wickedly for their first goal and three or four more fantastic chances fell for Edinburgh including one for Inglis himself who slipped as the goal gaped. The score stubbornly remained 1-0 with Watt only forcing one save from David Forrester, though they were better in the second half. At forty minutes the pressure told as Duncan Birse cemented a great season with another deflected shot from a short corner which had been lost through Watt’s ineptitude at the back and Andy Campbell’s tenacity. Edinburgh’s back line, including a well-behaved Neil Fulton, deserved the inevitable clean sheet but their opponents were lackadaisical. Too much room when giving the ball away in their own half allowed Andy Duke to run into the space and, unselfishly, feed Inglis for a simple third goal. The latter should have fed the former in another good attack before his yellow card sent him to the bench. Sticks flew, and the captains were told to settle the troops as action moved from one end of the turf to the other. Mike Witchell, brilliant all game in his vision and ballwork, deserved to take a well-won penalty flick which he confidently placed to the keeper’s right. Watt, as the saying goes, were lucky to get nil, as Edinburgh rose to the Varsity occasion.