2009 BHF League Champions

Well done all 37 Upstarts squad members on a well deserved league title. Our dedictation to the sport and countless hours spent training and keeping fit seem to have paid off.

Upstarts vs Panthers Photos - 22 Feb 09

Never a good sign when you have your keeper chasing back to goal for a ball.... however no goal scored!

One vs. One - Miss........

Two vs. One - Miss....... Haven't we seen this before somewhere...?

At this stage Phil was looking for any help he could get.

Let's see if Ross can do any better......

One vs. One - Wait for it......... saved.....!!!

Not sure what Ward is looking at here but Hargadon has his number.

Kev still confused as to how he saved everything that came near the goals yet managed to concede a goal through his legs.

Upstarts 2 - Panthers 1

As I stood at the half way line as we were 2-1 up with 8 minutes to go, (with all the other Upstarts girls, who like me, are terrified of defending short corners), I was hastily rehearsing my apologies to the team for being involved in three of the worst goal scoring balls-ups of the entire season. We should have been 5-1 up (or maybe 6-1 up Bruce?) and cruising, but no, we were hanging on and defending like crazy to take all three points.

Thankfully, our defence held out magnificently and my pathetic speech remained undelivered.

We started the match on the back foot as Panthers gave us an exhibition of their quick passing and positional dominance. Yes, their nine training sessions a week were clearly reaping rewards in keeping possession, but they were not necessarily getting any closer to our goal.

As always, Kev was an absolute rock at the back. Whenever they got a rare shot away, he just knew where it was going and effortlessly palmed or kicked it away. The rareness of the shots was clearly down to the solidity of our defence. Davy, Kaniaru, Donny, Skiller, Alan and Rob didn't put a foot wrong all day, and calmly passed the ball out to our midfielders, or on occasion, Donny would tw@t it through the midfield at such a pace that if our forwards didn't pick it up, it caused immense damage to the wall and fence at their end of the pitch.

This went on for about 20 minutes or so. Then a moment of pure genius. Gary picked up the ball at around the half way line on the right and easily beat two Panthers, who were clearly tired from all the training, and passed it up to me in their twenty five. I somehow managed to control it, sort of, and pass it back to the still running Tavares. Gary picked the ball up cleanly and fired it into the net. It was definitely one of our goals of the season and it left the Panthers stunned. We had beaten their well orchestrated defence with a move of sheer brilliance. The Argentinian girls would have been proud of that one. Clearly, our training sessions were paying off too.

That took us to half time, where we sort of stood around a bit and modestly told each other how slightly above average we were.

In the second half, that man Bruce came on and quickly astounded us all with a mazy run past three Panthers on the left, before deftly passing it on to Ross on the edge of the D. I'm not sure what happened then, but two minutes later he did it again. This time though, I think it all ended up with a short corner and Gary blasted it in under their keeper. 2-0 up and we were in a strong position.

A few minutes later, Pete picked the ball up on the right, fired it over to Ross on the edge of the D who in turn, expertly played it onto Bruce who was waiting at the far post with the line to beat. 'Why don't I get chances like that?' I cried from the bench, as the ball continued towards the corner flag following Brucies' freshy.

I wish I'd have kept my mouth shut.

By this time, Panthers were pushing up and leaving big gaps at the back. Then the nightmares began.

Rather than dwell on the two unconverted two on ones Ross and I had, and the one unconverted one on one I had against their keeper, I'd like to reiterate how well our defence and midfield played on Saturday. You basically won the game for us. Donny's disciplined stint in the middle at the back gave us the structure for the other defenders to work around.

At the other end, I single handedly F***ed up all three opportunities with amazing ease. I would have happily left the stadium with three TW@T sticks instead of just one, but at the end of the day, as I just mentioned, the game was won by our defence and two great goals (again) by Gary.

In addition, JT, Kirk, Bruce, Pete, Ross and Keir ran tirelessly throughout the match and basically shut out their allegedly very strong midfield.

But my mind just keeps going back to standing on that halfway line as Panthers had got one back, and were on a roll with yet another short corner...............the ordinarily polite Kirk came over to me and said something along the lines of 'Trussell, you're supposed to put in the net you ********* ******* ******* ********* **cker. I didn't argue with him.

We mustn't forget Johnny, who also had an excellent game on the bench. Nursing a torn hamstring and an extremely dodgy pair of sunglasses, he valiantly let the rest of us take the victory. He'll be back next game for sure.

Anyway, we won, and we're top of the league with a four point lead.

So we're DLWWWWWWWWWWW

Assuming Panthers don't slip up, we need two more W's from these three remaining games.

Sun 8 March vs Rebels 12.30pm
Sun 15 March vs Police 12.30pm
Sun 22 March vs Chameleons 12.30pm

NONE of the above games will be easy. We'll take each one as it comes, and let's get some fitness training in during our week off. We want to finish this campaign in style.

I'll email out for availability a week today for the Rebels game. Ross and Bruce - do you think the three of us need to practice in front of goal just a little bit before then?

Phil

Upstarts 3 - Rebels 1

Well, after a particularly lack lustre first half, Phil, Donny and Ross came up with the goods against a well organised Rebels side and we got away with the points.While I was watching from the bench during the first half I was thinking of how we could possibly keep the great man Moniz in position.Some sort of GPS device? Maybe one of those invisible electric fences they use for dogs and tigers? No, the answer was simpler than that. Just swap him with Keir and everything would be fine. And it pretty much was in the second half. Gary had a fairly quiet game, but he did manage to restrain himself after quite simply two of the worst umpiring decisions ever made in the history of hockey. Thankfully they didn't cost us the game and Gary's yellow card for trying to kill a Rebel in response only rewarded him with a 5 minute sit down.Jules played well in goals and even let one in to keep the Rebels interested. Where was the left back when we needed him?Incumbent Tw@t stick holder, Bruce, decided to award it on to our new defensive midfielder, Donny, firstly for his wandering antics, but most of all for his amazing dive in the opposing D. I was on the bench at the time, and when I saw it, I was immediately reminded of that plane landing in the Hudson.......... Was it just me, or have I finally gone mad?Anyway, those Panthers managed to overcome being down 3-1 to that red team and win 4-3, which means we really have to beat them next Sunday at 12.30pm. Gary, we really, really need two hat tricks from you next week.................

Upstarts Golf Day

Pete on the par 3 7th....



Rob on the par 3 7th....



Phil on the par 3 7th shortly after chipping in for eagle...

Upstarts 6 - Chameleons 0

A decent result against a lacklustre Chameleons team who were lucky to be 0 - 0 at half time. The final score of 6-0 could have been much more had the Upstarts woken up before the start of the game instead of at half time.

Goals Scorers:
Donald Moniz
Gareth Tavares x 3
Peter Douglas
Phil Trussell

T.W.A.T. awarded to Moniz for the meal he made of his short corner strike.

Next game against the ladies Bermuda Pan Am Cup squad on Friday at 6:30pm.

Upstarts 5 - Polecats 3

A well fought game against a strong opposition. Lucky to have successfully defended the 40 short corners that the Polecats had. Some superb finishing from Ruperelia and Trussell and a rabbit from Douglas that did not hit the back board. Another 2 for Tavares has surely put him at the top of the scorers list.

Goal scorers:
Neil Ruperelia
Peter Douglas
Phil Trussell
Gareth Tavares x 2

T.W.A.T. award presented to Peter Douglas for being the drunkest man on the field. This was a hard fought battle having had half the team at the rugby classic final the night before. What gave Pete the winning edge was the fact that he woke up that morning with a referees kit bag in his kitchen. What he failed to tell the team was that the referee was in the bed....... Nice one Pete.

Special mentions to go to Donny for his baseball save on the line and to Kev for saving countless shots. Well done lads.