Men's 1st team: Tavistock 4-2 Camborne

Tavistock put in one of their best performances of the season to come from behind and claim all 3 points against a very strong Camborne side. As expected, the game was played at a high intensity with both sides playing quick attacking hockey, as in the reverse fixture earlier in the season the students were very direct and looked to attack at every opportunity.  The home side worked the ball well, maintaining possession while looking to create chances in front of goal and nearly got the breakthrough from a penalty corner only for Si Fenwicks flicked to be kept out by a fantastic diving stick save from the Camborne keeper.  Tavistock again came close to taking the lead but were denied by the post and more fine goalkeeping, Matt Graham made a number of fine saves to keep out the students at the other end.  Shortly before half time Camborne did take the lead with a well struck penalty corner.  Striker Ollie Richards levelled the scores when he finished off a well worked penalty corner following a pass from Megicks, Dom Stanbury then gave Tavistock the lead from another penalty corner.  The home side started to dominate the game and looked the more likely to score, the third goal was scored by Megicks who fired the ball in at the back post following another save from the visitors keeper.  Tavistock took advantage when Camborne were temporarily reduced to 10 players and forward Ollie Richards scored his second of the game. Richards received the ball with his back to goal and instinctively hit a reverse stick shot which looped up and over the advancing keeper and into the goal, Camborne scored late goal with an extremely well hit reverse stick shot from a penalty corner.  Despite only having 11 players Tavistock maintained the high work rate for 70 minutes and tactically were superior to their opponents, playing a half court press in the final few minutes they reduced the space for the students to play in and eliminated the threat of their running game.  Mount Kelly College student Josh Walker made an impressive first team debut as well as club chairman Phil Honey giving another accomplished performance in the Tavistock defence.  Tavistock travel to Truro next Saturday knowing a point will secure the league title.

Mens 2nd team: 

Tavistock’s A team travelled to Truro at the weekend, in need of points and with a ‘can do’ attitude. For the first 10 minutes of the match the ball didn’t leave the Truro end of the pitch. Tavistock applied intense pressure and the forwards, especially Elliott, were very unlucky not to put several in the net and even more unlucky not to have been awarded several penalty corners. Truro got back in the game by being better in the midfield and slowing things down, but twenty minutes in Elliot would be denied no longer. Total commitment and determination to finish saw him slot the ball under the keeper and Tavistock took the lead.  Play ran end to end and Truro equalised shortly before the half time whistle, taking advantage of Tavistock’s determination to push up the field.  When the game resumed Truro came on strong, attacking hard down the right and Tavistock struggled to change the rhythm of the game.  Truro had more possession and Osbourne in goal kept Tavistock in the game with some outstanding saves, before the Truro forwards finally slid one past him to take the lead. Tavistock were not giving up however and took the fight to Truro again, winning a penalty corner, which Anning flicked into the net, levelling the scores.  The score remained 2-2 until 8 minutes from the end when Truro hammered in a powerful shot from a penalty corner. Tavistock went for broke, needing 2 goals to score points and inevitably left gaps. Truro took advantage with a well worked goal two minutes form the final whistle, leaving them 4-2 winners of an exciting match that could have gone either way. Man of the match for Tavistock was tightly contested but finally went to Harry Donnelly at left half.