Devizes A’s first game after the Christmas break was an away tie against Chippenham C. With mince pies, brussel sprouts, and novelty knitwear nothing more than a distant memory Devizes set to work trying to continue from their impressive start to the season. The first few minutes of the match were very encouraging as Devizes pieced together some fantastic moves, opening up the pitch with crossing runs, lay-offs, and plenty of posting up. As a result, Devizes had the majority of possession but were unable to create many attempts on goal. Kofi Pegden was constantly probing down the right wing and managed to play some good balls across the ‘D’ towards Toby Benning-Batstone but the Chippenham defence were able to pressure him sufficiently to prevent any meaningful shots. Tom Stoner was also looking threatening but his first shot at goal went just wide of the target. Another chance fell to Tom a few minutes later and although Chippenham’s goalkeeper was able to get a touch on it, the shot had sufficient pace for the ball to travel over the goal line. With Devizes continuing to push forward, Chippenham were able to get behind their defence at times and Stan Alsop showed great composure to deal with some awkward through balls and forwards threatening his goal. Just before half time Devizes won a string of penalty corners but the Chippenham defence closed ranks and denied Devizes from any opportunity to extend their lead before the break.

Devizes went in to the second half full of confidence and this showed with their composed style of play. Ed Palmer and Tom Syndercombe were playing well in midfield supported by Simon Church advancing from wing-back whenever the opportunity arose. Devizes continued to attack firmly and apply a good press on the Chippenham defence making it difficult for them to clear the ball. Jacob Stoner pounced on a failed clearance inside the ‘D’ and drove the ball firmly into the backboard of the goal to put Devizes 0-2 up early in the second half. The extra goal allowed Devizes to attack with more vigour and Nick Gompels orchestrated a fantastic attack down the right wing. After beating the defender in the corner he turned and ran the ball inside the ‘D’ before passing it back to a perfectly positioned Sam Hodge who made light work of flicking the ball over the diving goalkeeper increasing Devizes’ lead to three goals. From there on in Devizes were able to calm the pace of the match down and were content to see the remainder of the match out by simply keeping possession and snuffing out any attacking opportunity that Chippenham created. This ploy was successful and the final score of a fantastic first match back finished at 0-3 to Devizes.

Hockey is a sport which needs a fair amount of kit. Factoring in items such as a change of clothes, wash kit, towel, shoes etc. etc. there can be quite a bagful so it is not unforgivable for somebody to forget to pick something up in their eagerness to get to the match. Sam Johnson was this weeks unlucky forgetter and managed to scale new heights with what he managed to forget. Whilst packing his bag it occurred to him that he may need a change of shoes, but in his haste, he forgot that they come in sets of two. He was duly elected as DoD as he hopped around the changing room insisting that the elusive piece of footwear “MUST be here somewhere”! Ed Palmer played a very good game and he was elected as Man of the Match (seconded by the umpires!) for his excellent supportive role, accurate passing, and faultless positioning throughout the game.