On a hot sunny day (IN FEBRUARY!), the old school THCC team lined up against the young spring chickens, both with some new additions to their teams. The youngsters had gained the talents of speedy Aaron, left peg Lee, and lanky Luke With since the last clash, whilst Stephen Bingham, Sam Gilbert and Terry Brewer were new additions to Old School THCC.

A close first half saw chances at both ends of the pitch. Old school had Mikey Penman in goal due to the absence of the brilliant Rob Dan. Luke With, currently in fine form, and with family watching from the sideline, broke the deadlock after the Old School defence was unable to deal with a high ball over the defence and Luke drove a precise shot low past the diving figure of Mikey P into the far corner of the net. Old school pushed for an equaliser and it took some very good goal keeping from Matt Taylor to prevent Eddie who headed goalward from close range, and Mark Bowtell and Tony Uddin who both had excellent long range efforts tipped over the bar.

Half time (0 - 1): Old School swapped keepers in the second half, but unfortunately the first task the new keeper had was to pick the ball out of the net after watching it sail over his head from the boot of Luke With who audaciously shot from the kick off!!! It must be noted that Luke has also scored directly from the centre kick in the league and so the unnamed keeper should not feel entirely disgraced, right Jonny? Again Old School went close with efforts from Mark Bowtell, Eddie, Mikey P and Nigel Dean who burst through on goal only to be denied at the last by Peter Smith who blocked Nigel's path to goal with a brave clearance. The young ones were in the driving seat now though and despite the combined experience of Steve Stride, Dave Penman and Terry Brewer, and the tough tackling of Suzy Stride, Old School still could not stop those spring chickens breaking through. Luke With sealed his hatrick and Shaun Weston who had been holding the fort at the back swapped to striker and also got on the score sheet. A consolation goal before the end of normal time was excellently finished off by Stephen Bingham, heading home from a pin point Beckham'esque free kick curled in by Phil Williams.

Full time (1 - 4): Due to the excitement of all involved the referee was persuaded to add a 10 min extra time period in which all players were brought into the fray at once, thus a 16-a-side match ensued! One goal was scored at each end in extra time Leon Davis pouncing on some casual defending scored for the young team and Michael Penman assisted by Joe Toko, fired past the reaches of the keeper for Old School. Final score after extra time (2 - 5)

Thank you so much to all those who came to watch and if you have good photos please send them to Michael Penman so they can be added to the site :-)

Today was also the last match for Dave Pilkington before his move with his lovely family to South Africa. We wish them a safe journey and God's hand on them as they set out on a brand new adventure.