Men vs Essex - 20/01/2019

BLWP 22 - 12 Essex

The urban dictionary defines BDSM as Bondage and Discipline (BD), Dominance (Barts) and Submission (Essex), and Sadism and Masochism (the match last night). It was apparent from the first quarter that their 7-man squad was not going to stop our 13-man force. From the get-go we showed them how much we wanted to win. Thirsty for another win against Essex we looked for the open man, made some great passes and moved our offence beautifully, managing to score 10 goals in the first quarter alone. The first quarter ended with a score of 10 – 2.

Diminished, Essex tried to stage a come-back. We got cocky and sloppy, as we do, and we let them during the second quarter. 3 times the ball edged past Luke’s posts. To take revenge, we started aiming at their goalkeeper’s head. Most shots were on target, only two missed by a small margin. The second quarter ended with a score of 12 – 5.
Third quarter came and it was time to concentrate. We had no excuses for letting a team with 5 players less to outscore us in a quarter. Defence got tighter and offence got more controlled. Blocking a couple “man-down” (a win in itself) and several 2-on-1 on offence brought us closer to victory. The few goals we were conceding were glitches in the matrix. The third quarter ended with a score of 18 – 8.

The final quarter was a victory lap. Their best players were tired and double marked, and we took our time on offence. The match ended with a score of 22 – 12.

In all seriousness, it is quite impressive to see a team without subs to play at the level that Essex played last night. After halftime it was obvious how drained they were physically, yet they played their hearts out and fought hard. I remember a time when our men’s team went up to Essex, not too long ago, with a barely-cutting-it squad of 7, praying to the BUCS Gods that we wouldn’t get smacked too hard. To our surprise, Essex also had 7 players that time and we played a fairly well-matched game in a very shallow pool in Clacton-on-sea. Barts has come a long way since then.

Essex can no longer expect us to show up with 7 players and a dream.

Special s/o to Rowan for his debut match last night!

For the boys xx

Goals:
Marco – 9
Jono – 6
Hughes – 3
Liam – 2
Omar – 1
Renos – 1