Mens 1s
Newark started the second part of the season with a difficult away trip to Oundle. The day got off to a tough start for Newark with Jack McMunn forced to drop out early in the morning leaving Newark with only 10 players but a last minute call up for Simon Higgs gave Newark a full team. Newark arrived at the pitch but due to the cold weather half the team decided to stay in the cars till the last moment. With only 5 minutes before push back the Newark keeper strolled onto the pitch, only being ready as the teams lined up. Newark started the game as normal at Oundle with the pitch playing up and causing passing to go astray which allowed Oundle to establish a strong foothold in the opening 5 minutes. Newark soon settled down and started to get themselves back into the game and started pressing the Oundle defence back. After 15 minutes Newark broke the deadlock when Ben Eagles played the ball into Sam Smith who took one touch of the ball to find Alex Davies rushing to goal. Davies ran across the top of the D and fired a low hard shot off his reverse stick which hit the backboard before the keeper could dive low enough to save it. This spurred Newark on more as they kept the Oundle defence on the back foot. Only 5 minutes later Newark won a free hit, with great movement from Ryan Foster to lose his defender and be free at the top of the D to receive the pass and with one touch he sent the ball to Sam Smith who turned the keeper leaving him on the floor and firing leaving Newark two goals up at the break. After the break Oundle came out strong and started moving the ball well. Newark got caught on the counter as Oundle moved the ball and found a free man in the area who put the ball into the back of the net. Newark held on till the end of the game thanks to some fantastic saves from James Wakeland to keep the game at 2-1and to ake all three points and move them back to the top of the table. Massive thank you to Simon Higgs and Craig Joynes for making the long trip away to help umpire and play at short notice. Mom: James Wakeland Goals: Alex Davies, Sam Smith