Men’s Red Lions

Captain – Geoff Aylen

The Vets – Red Lions

The Red Lions ably led by Geoff Aylen play most of their matches on grass. (real grass!!)

18th Feb v Reading Retros (away) L 1-7

The Red Lions visit to Reading appeared to be a tough one! Unfortunately despite being called the Retro’s it appears they’re more the 20 something cool kids that like Classic Stan Smith footwear than the Men that got to wear them first time round. Despite a first half hammering the Lions recomposed and dug in deep to keep the scoreline at a mere 7-1 defeat, John Salter bagging their only goal. Let’s hope they have more luck on the road to Thames Valley this week.

 

28th Jan v Gerrards Cross (home) W  8-6

This week, the Red Lions had a full side but Gerrards Cross Vets only turned up with 6 + an umpire but no keeper.  A quick re-arrangement by donating two of our players to the opposition and they were off and running.  Unsurprisingly, with only 25 minutes gone, the Red Lions streaked ahead and went 5 – 1 up.  More re-arrangement in which Geoff donated his keeper to the opposition, as well as moving Peter Richardson from centre forward to full back made for an interesting game as Gerrards Cross now crawled back by slotting in 5 more goals! However the Red Lions kept their noses in front (with Peter Richardson also returning to the front!) and finally ran out 8 – 6 winners.  Scorers: Richardson x 3; Salter x 3; Darwin & Shackel.

 

21st Jan v Maidenhead Merlins (home) L 2-4

For those of you that have been eagerly awaiting the score for The Red Lions from last week, they hosted Camberley & Farnborough in a 3-3 bonanza! Unfortunately this week saw 2 players cry off before the away leg against Maidenhead Merlins and despite being loaned 2 players for the day (one of which an Octogenarian, I’m not exaggerating!) they didn’t manage to prevent the inevitable 4-2 defeat. Hopefully a full squad and more luck will be found when hosting Gerrards Cross this Saturday.

 

07th Jan v Kenley Vets L 2-4

Geoff’s belief before the game was that if Man. Utd. can suffer from post-Xmas blues, then why can’t the Red Lions too?  A game at home, on the grass v Kenley that they could and should have won didn’t start well when Kenley scored within the first minute.  Despite their best efforts, including a couple of not so best efforts front of their open goal, Kenley ran out 4 – 2 winners.  Whilst an excellent game played in a good spirit, there was alternative entertainment on the next pitch where during the Sunbury footballers game, one player was sent off resulting in a major handbag competition lasting a good 2 / 3 minutes!

15th Oct v Maidenhead Merlins

Maidenhead Merlins only arrived with 5 players and despite Geoff making some last ditch attempts to find some extra players, the game was a mix and match affair, concluding with a 7 – 4 win to the Red Lions.  Interestingly Sunbury players scored all of the goals except one.  Peter Richardson x 3; Richard Darwin x 2; Jitz Desai x 2 & Adrian Sprake (playing for the opposition) x 3!

8th Oct

In keeping with The Red Lions objective of sociability, their very first fixture of the season was held at the Maidenhead Hockey Beer Festival.  4 teams with 3 games of a muscle-aching 30 minutes each & eight different beers on tap.  Geoff confirmed he has absolutely no idea what the scores were during the games but the beer was good!