Report Author: Michael Scott

Game: Southampton Men vs Surrey Men

Location: Jubilee Sports Centre

Score: 10-12

Date: 26/10/22

A not so long time ago, SUWPC came third in the BUCS Men’s Western Tier 1 League. So they switched to the South Eastern Tier 1 League and have their sites squarely on 1^st Place (duh!). It’s going to be a busy year in this league with 8 matches to be played and they got off to a strong-ish start in their first game.

The first minute and a half was action packed after Surrey won the swim off. Sadly (not) for Surrey they had an exclusion which gave Finn Thomas a shot just off goal. Surrey failed to convert their attack and some lovely passing from Howard Teng and Finn allowed Omar Tawakol to score the first goal of the game. Surrey quickly replied with a lovely pass across into their pit player who easily placed the ball into the goal before Michael Scott could reposition. Surrey scored again in quick succession following a nice steal. SUWPC struggled for the remainder of the quarter, failing to score again despite Surrey earning three exclusions whilst the opposition were able to score twice more bringing the score to 1-4.

Surrey won the second swim-off and after several runs up and down the pool from both teams it was Alex Wilmshurst who put away the first goal of the quarter from pit. Surrey replied in kind with a very nice goal from their pit player, but not before one of their players got a bit hot headed and was quickly chastised by an angry referee for his use of language in the pool. Surrey’s apparent frustration coupled with another exclusion allowed Omar, Howard and Alex to put away 3 more goals before Surrey were able to squeeze out the last goal of the quarter bringing the score to 5-6.

Finn was able to win the third swim-off and after each team had earnt a major, he was able to capitalise on an out of position enemy to bounce a shot across their keeper’s arms. The rest of the quarter was a close battle between the teams, with Surrey scoring two goals within a minute of each other, before Omar was able to bring the score to 7-8 going into the final quarter.

Finn won the swim off again but there was a tense 3 minute back and forth before Sam Dalton was able to get pop a rebound into the goal. Unfortunately for the boys, Surrey came alive and found 3 goals in just two minutes. With the score at 8-11 with 3 minutes to go, SUWPC dug deep and allowed Mathew Hughes to fire one home and Omar following up not long after in a similar fashion to bring the score to 10-11 with just 1 minute on the clock! Michael was able to stop a shot but overcooked his pass to a very fast Finn on the wing which let a counter attacking Surrey player score in the dying seconds of the match, bringing the final score to 10-12 to Surrey.

Man of the Match

Omar Tawakol – he had a very consistent game, scoring a goal in each quarter whilst creating plenty of opportunities for other players to do the same.