RYE – Field Hockey New York

The fact that we had to chase polar bears off the pitch was a sure sign that this was New York going into winter. But there were other clues: a warm-up that really wasn’t, the jarring sensation of hitting something hard with a piece of four-by-two and an opponent that didn’t show up until after the scheduled start time.

In fairness to the Islanders we anticipated a late start. Hockey at 9am on Sunday is nobody’s idea of fun. So eventually, after a few inspiring cliches from our Captain and a lot of something else in German, the game went ahead. And let’s just say that while Rye were not exactly smoking hot, we were certainly warmer than the weather and eventually emerged victorious 6-1.

A few anxious moments early on – just to showcase Rye’s incomplete range of ball-retention qualities – however, on balance a game the men in yellow controlled. One interesting twist in this game was that we went for Plan B first, followed by Plan A late in the second half. Plan A is of course to score three or more goals early, keep the ball, and then score more goals to close out the game. Naturally that is too boring. Plan B involves the odd goal, the odd turnover and most of the time smashing the ball over the backline so we can practise our press.

Plan B was working beautifully. And then on about 50min, 2-0 became 2-1 on the back of a breakdown of the plan and a dubious penalty corner. But that’s life. With the game now on, and the Islanders now gunning for a point, we then decided Plan A would be worth a try. Fortunately this worked – and with four goals in the final 15min victory was secured. Particular hard work down the left from Jaspreet Singh broke the deadlock and opened the flood gates. 6-1 in the end with two goals each coming from Stutz, Dr (Akhlaq) Tab and Jaspreet Singh. Rye are now sitting pretty at 5 and 0.