Penarth Hockey Club's first team in battling draw as seconds thrash local rivals

After an emphatic 6-0 drubbing of West Wilts in their opening Conference North encounter the previous weekend, Penarth’s 1st XI returned home to welcome Swindon to the ‘Bears Den’ at Stanwell School amid rumours that the visitors had made significant additions of their own during the off-season.

As predicted, the game proved to be very different to week one of the season and, from the start, Swindon proved to be a very solid team with no weak links for Penarth to expose.

The match was played at a frantic tempo with the visitors flying out of the blocks and, even though Penarth gradually managed to wrest control after the opening exchanges, it was Swindon that broke the deadlock, with a reverse stick cross finding an unmarked attacker at the back post to give them the lead midway through the first half.

Penarth refused to let their heads drop, however, and continued to press for a goal of their own.

While their efforts were to no avail before the half-time whistle, the Bears came out strong after the break and, once again, their tough pre-season preparation paid off as they looked the fresher team pushing forward.

The Vale side had a gilt-edge chance to equalise from the penalty spot after a Ben Croxall shot was illegally stopped on the goal line but, despite David Joyce sending the Swindon ‘keeper the wrong way, his effort was somehow clawed off the line by the netminder’s flailing stick.

Again, Penarth refused to let the setback deflate them, knowing that, as their pressure mounted, it would only be a matter of time before they’d get the chance to level the scores.

Sure enough, the opportunity arose via another penalty flick after Swindon again illegally prevented a shot from crossing the line and, this time, Croxall stepped up and made no mistake from the spot.

Penarth could now sense victory and went for the jugular but, attacking with reckless abandon, left themselves open at the back, allowing Swindon to strike on the counter-attack, with an excellent reverse stick shot regaining the lead for the visitors.

With little time remaining, Penarth threw caution to the wind and went all-out in attack in an effort to rescue something from the game.

With just minutes on the clock, captain Tom Haran sent a long pass up the right wing, allowing Chris Baker to leave his marker for dead before driving into the D and smashing the ball into the bottom corner with unerring accuracy and composure.

The Bears almost snatched all three points right at the death, as Joyce shot narrowly wide, but it was not the Vale side’s finest performance, at times panicking when they fell behind, and it took all the spirit and fight that took them to a division title last season to come away with a share of the spoils.

Goalscorers: Ben Croxall (pen), Chris Baker.

After a disappointing defeat on the opening weekend of the season, Penarth’s 2nd XI looked to get their first points on the board in De Cymru 1 with an away game against Whitchurch ‘C’, and it was a strong side – complete with a couple of summer signings - that made the trip knowing that nothing short of victory would suffice.

Penarth started well and dominated from the off, with Sam Docherty orchestrating from central midfield.

Unsurprisingly, it did not take long for the pressure on the pitch to transfer to the scoreboard with Phil Lane converting an early penalty corner.

Penarth soon doubled their lead when Dave Kidby tapped home at the back post, while further strikes from Steve Davies - with his first touch of the game - and Lane, with a sweet strike from the top of the D, made it 4-0 within 20 minutes.

Whitchurch looked shell-shocked but Penarth were playing excellent hockey and maintained their momentum with captain Sam Chick grabbing a fifth before Davies added a sixth before half-time.

The Vale side looked to keep up the intensity after the interval, but Whitchurch came out for the second half much more organised and enjoyed a spell of possession that led to a series of penalty short corners.

During this period of play, however, a goalmouth scramble escalated into an altercation between Penarth goalkeeper Simon Comfort and one of the Whitchurch players, which saw Comfort receive a yellow card and time in the sin bin while his adversary was shown a straight red for violent conduct.

With no ‘keeper for ten minutes, Mark Thomas bravely offered to stand in as ‘kicking back’ only to find that his first duty was to face down another Whitchurch penalty corner.

Defiantly, Thomas proceeded to charge the corner down, blocking the shot with his nether regions, which nicely cushioned the ball to Chick to start a Penarth breakaway.

Chick duly took the ball upfield before slipping a pass to Chris McCarthy, who completed a hat-trick of assists by unselfishly squaring to Kidby for another tap-in.

With Penarth a man up for the majority of the second half, Whitchurch might have capitulated but, to their credit, they worked tirelessly to frustrate the Bears and limited the visiting side to just one further score, with Sam Salisbury continuing his strong start to the season by adding an eighth late on.

Goalscorers: Phil Lane (2), Dave Kidby (2), Steve Davies (2), Sam Chick, Sam Salisbury

The 3rd XI travelled to Swansea to take on the local university’s ‘C’ team in their first De Cymru 3 league match of the season and what was expected to be one of the hardest matches of the campaign turned out to be just that.

The students dominated most of the possession in the first half, but failed to create many clear-cut chances due to a solid and well-organised defensive display by the Penarth back four of James Davies, Simon Wilkinson, Morgan Salisbury and Rob Harrison.

As the half wore on, Penarth slowly got themselves back into the game and created a couple of good chances through quick breaks, although these were unfortunately wasted by the forwards.

Despite that, Penarth went into the break in the ascendancy and confident that they could get something out of the game, but the second half started the same way as the first, with the university side controlling most of the pitch.

Once again, however, the Penarth defence thwarted what chances were created and, even when the students did find a way through, some good saves by goalkeeper Mark Harris meant that there was no score going into the final quarter.

As they had in the first period, Penarth started to get more of the possession as the half wore on, and again created two or three good opportunities only to see them go begging.

Good use of rolling substitutions by the Bears meant that they matched the youth and fitness of the students, with Tom Griffiths working tirelessly in the midfield on his 3rd XI debut.

The resistance could not last, however, and the university gradually began to play more and more of the game in the Penarth half.

Although Penarth were forced into a personnel reshuffle after losing Wilkinson to a self-inflicted head injury, the home side continued to waste the opportunity to put then game away.

With little over five minutes remaining, the Bears looked like they were going to hang on for a draw, only for a late effort from the students to take a deflection in the D before being diverted into his own net by the hapless Paul Thomas.

Penarth mounted a late challenge for a share of the points, but the university held on to keep the scoreline at 1-0.

Once again, three Penarth sides will be in action this weekend, with the 1st XI travelling to Swansea looking to take all the points from the second-placed rivals in a rare all-Welsh clash in Conference North.

After their strong performance against Whitchurch, the Seconds will be hoping for more of the same as they also face a strong Swansea City ‘A’ side, welcoming the league leaders to Stanwell School (noon start), while the 4th finally get their league campaign underway with a trip to Rougemont School to take on Gwent.

Penarth Hockey Club always welcomes new, old and returning players, umpires, supporters, friends and helpers regardless of age and ability.

Training takes place on Wednesdays at Stanwell School, with the juniors on the pitch between 6.15pm and 7.15pm and the seniors between 7pm and 8.15pm.

Anyone interested in joining the club at senior or youth level can contact club secretary Dave Stevens via d_stevens81@hotmail.co.uk for further information.