Every sportsperson who dares and wins sometimes fall victim to error. On Saturday, it was the turn of Edward Peck in Ross Men's Hockey Club 'A' Team's clash with Stroud 'B' in the Davies Wood Hereford and Gloucester League Division Two. Attempting to intercept a fierce up field ball he merely succeeded in kicking the ball into his own 'D' whereupon the striker slotted it home. The crestfallen defender spent the rest of the first half skulking shamefacedly. Soon after, another failure also involved a foot, the one that S Couch and G Weston were convinced they had seen used by a Stroud player moments before he slammed the ball past S. Sullivan in the Ross goal. In truth this was unrepresentative of Couch's overall performance as he had one of his best games in a Ross shirt, often left as the lone sentinel as T Faulkner marauded up the pitch. However, Stroud 'B' scored a third to make it 3-1 at half time.
Ross decided to compete more effectively in the second half. A cool new stickslinger known as Lydney Jake started to interact with increasing impact with B Da Cuhna and the excellent C Ainge. B Clare shrugged off the years with his searing runs from right back and Sullivan saved a rather tame penalty flick. Nonetheless, Ross slumped to a third defeat in a row. Extraordinarily, there are two teams in their league playing worse than Ross at present and Ross play one of them next week in a genuine six-pointer. Charlie Ainge was named South Hereford Motorcaravans Man of the Match.