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Fish themed fun and games on the TigerTurf

Fish themed fun and games on the TigerTurf

BHHHC Content Editor7 Aug 2022 - 10:30
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The Flounder and the Leaping Salmon

He's tall isn't he?
- Steve (lower photo)

Let's be clear, the camera never lies but it often takes things out of context and distorts what it is looking at. If I get the settings right.

Saturday saw the latest in an ever extending long line of successful intra club matches on the TigerTurf. Much fun was displayed with end to end action and goals flying in. There was much talk on the subject of just how many quarters have we played so far and "ain't it hot" was overheard. Yet more assessments of the bounciness of the pitch were made but I think that you will find that the ball rebounds 420mm, which is well within the 100mm - 425mm range required by FIH, so use this opportunity to get used to it and then leverage it as a home advantage when we get real proper teams from outside the Cow Roast area to marvel at our new facility, which I think I am going to rename the Lockhart Arena. Thank-you Mr Lockhart, it would not have been possible without his donation of the field to the club in the first place, many years ago.

In the photo above you will see Jon making two fantastic saves. He certainly seems to throw himself about with abandon in order to relieve the opponents of the embarrassment of having to celebrate a goal. I am not too sure of the technicalities of goalkeeping so I have decided that the first save was the Flounder pounce and the second the Leaping Salmon defence. They both beat the crawling around like a dog wondering were the flippin' ball has gone - not something that I have seen Jon attempt yet.

The Flounder was used in open play and the Leaping Salmon was used after Jon had declared that he had only lost 5 stone so far (through perspiration) in his black clad thick foam keeping kit, so was up for a shuffle shoot out following the conclusion of the game. Daisy is every bit the keeper too, so challenges were accepted. For those unfamiliar with a shuffle it comprises one attacker on the 23m line and one keeper on the goal line. The attacker is given 8 seconds to get the ball in the back of the net. As the keen observer of the Commonwealth Games will know, it is not as easy as it sounds to score a goal in this situation. What followed was a lot of banter and jollities and I was pleased to witness a great variety of techniques. From the barefoot shuttle to the saunter along with ball resting on the end of the stick at waist height via the faff about and run out of time and the just hoof it at the keeper. Excellent practice for all. Both keepers came out the winners, in my opinion, so we made them run a shuffle with each other.

Following all this we rapaired to the clubhouse to watch the England hockey team in the Commonwealth semi final. The games organisers presumably noticed our antics and unbeknownst to use had swapped the two semi finals around to give us more time to melt Jon completely away, so the England game was later than expected. We soldiered on bravely and despatched orders to nearby pizza and oriental food vendors to tide us over as we discussed matters of import in the sunshine overlooking the grass pitches with the TigerTurf off in the distance. Unfortunately, the England team were unable to replicate our feelings of happiness and contentment, losing out 2-3 to Australia. I shall be writing to them with some penalty corner variations to try out next time.

See some photos from the game here

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