Men's 2nd XI Vs Bodmin 2

Mens Hockey: Caradon 2’s V Bodmin 2’s Sat 17th September

Saturday saw the re-emergence of a Caradon Men’s second team as they took on Bodmin 2’s in a pre-season friendly. Due to the number of young players coming through the club and the need to give them hockey, a team has been entered in the GoCrea8 South West 2 hockey league. With a mix of youth, age and experience, the team took to the field on a beautiful sunny Saturday at Lux Park.

The two sides were very evenly matched in the first half with Bodmin fielding a similarly made up side of mixed ages. The young Caradon players were not phased at all on their debuts and carried forward the confidence gained from playing in last year’s Badgers hockey league.

It was Bodmin that took a slim 1-0 lead into the break after some dogged Caradon defending with Stephen Hayes marshalling his defence with maturity, belying his age. The half time team talk was about upping the ball speed and finding space which was taken on-board immediately after the restart, resulting in young Dave Locket rounding Bodmin’s defence before slipping the ball through the keeper’s legs on his reverse stick. Bodmin struck back at once to retake the lead but it was Locket again, this time through a short corner, who slammed the back board to restore parity. After a lot of ebbing and flowing the visitors once again took the lead with a reverse stick flick eventually beating the wall that was Dan Harris in goal. The best was yet to come however as with time running out, Captain Will Turpin tomahawked his shot from the left edge of the D into the top right corner, triggering jubilant scenes on both pitch and side-lines and in doing so securing a well-earned draw on the teams debut.

Final score Caradon 2’s 3 ­– Bodmin 2’s 3