Taylorian 2020

89 the season unceremoniously cut short, this team certainly has an abundance of talent, and is one of the finest 2XIs to have graced the pitches in many a year. We look forward to seeing it on display again next year. Miss E K Trafford and Mr L J Charman Squad: M. Barnfather, H. Bridgewater, K. Chauhan, M. Crow, A. Dave, S. Duggan, L. Farr, T. Groves, A. Jones, H. McNaught, G. Muralitharan, D. Odejinmi, N. Patel, R. Pattni, D. Rowlands, M. Temowo, H. Wareing. 3rd XI 3rd XIs suffer from the fate of being pillaged to support 2nd XIs when necessary and from being obliged (quite rightly) to promote their best players. As a result, the team had a large squad over the course of this truncated season. Nevertheless, a steady structure of the team emerged, and they did us proud. We may not have won every match; indeed we won only two (against the Perse and Watford Grammar), but the dedication to improve was what marked the team. At training there was a commitment to develop and hone skills, which in turn were well implemented in matches. We focused on our passing game, posted up to receive the ball and tried out the ‘turn and burn’ to great success in our final match, a 3-3 draw against UCS 1st XI. Re-reading the match reports, I am reminded that we had at least five goals stopped on the line during the course of the season, but it didn’t matter: the key was that every single player threw himself into his hockey, played like a gentleman, and developed both skills and character. This was a really fun season – if only we could have had those last couple of games it could have been even richer. Mr R C Garvey Squad:  Z. Abdur-Rahman, L. Johnson, I. Rodriguez, M. Flash, G. Wright, H. Wareing, D. Williams, N. Hassan, H. Whistler, J. Jobling, J. Keeney, J. Kenny, A. Ali, V. Sharma, R. Dasgupta, M. Hills, J. Graham, S. V. Patel, W. Redman, A. Baldwin, R. Swan, N. Hazan, O. Hamilton. 4th and 5th XI This year’s 4th XI was made up of the usual differinggroupsofL6thandU6th:thosewho wanted to keep playing some competitive hockey but without the demands of the more senior teams (by “demands “ I of course mean such inconveniences as “squad depth”, “training” and “umpires who vaguely know the rules”) – we might put luminaries like Kartik Dogra, Jack Grimes, Alp Kilic, Teigue Murphy, Zak Torns, Zain Anwar, Rohan Patel and Ishan Aggarwal in this camp; then there were those who had tasted the big-time, had been in “the show”, but knew it wasn’t for them – these were the gilt on the lilies, the Caspar Hassans, the Tunveer Mangats, the Munraaj Mangats, the Jack Fitzgeralds and the Krish Patwals of this world; and finally there were those who were clearly on their way up, for whom the 4th XI was just a rung in their ladder to stardom, but whom I kept schtum about for as long as possible so Garvey wouldn’t nick them for his team – yes, I’m talking about you, Jasper Jobling, and you, Neel Thakkar. Games? We had a few, including a couple that were actually quite good fun. The results, you ask? They were one of three varieties: win, loss, draw. Mr M C Husbands