| Team | Mens 1 |
| Opponent | Marlborough 1 – Rearranged date |
| Date | April 12, 2025 |
| Result | Win |
| Score | 3 – 2 |
The Men’s 1s have won the league!!!
So many people have contributed to this; thanks to everyone involved!!
Our record for the longest time spent in one league is now over.
Special thanks to David Richards for the phenomenal Match Report below, fit for the history books.
(Top tip from me: watch the supporters’ limbs after Leo Vorster’s winning dragflick top right. Sign of a very healthy club, huge thanks to all that came so far).
Lansdown Men’s 1st XI matches should come with a health warning, but dedicated followers already know that. On the back of 11 consecutive victories, 7 by a 1 goal margin, Lansdown had earned the statistically improbable opportunity with victory in the final game of the season to leapfrog a free scoring City of Bath team, goal difference a mere 38 better than Lansdown’s, claim the league title and with-it promotion.
In the affluent surroundings of Marlborough College; Tom Brown’s School Days to the Grange Hill that Lansdown are accustomed to playing home games, on a pitch akin to the plushest deep pile carpet, Lansdown started with an intensity to match the solar rays of the midday sun.
Bloggy clattered the opening short corner against the inside of the left-hand post, both sides collectively holding their breath as the ball flirted with the goal-line only to escape past the right-hand post.
Moments later it was Lansdown’s turn to defend a short-corner. Nick’s initial save could not be cleared from the D and Marlborough followed up with a bobbly shot. Tom couldn’t resist the temptation to reach out for the ball, only to deflect the ball under Nick’s raised right leg, gifting the Marlborough player lurking on the back post a tap-in to an open-goal. Jake helpfully spent much of the post-match BBQ giving Nick a detailed analysis of goal keeping technique, where he went wrong and how he should have saved it. Tom bounced back admirably from the early set-back to deliver his usual assured performance (Tom, as ever, only doing his job!).
You don’t win 11 consecutive games without knowing how to overcome adversity, and Lansdown struck back through Bloggy tenaciously bundling home a goal line scrap. We’ll quickly gloss over Bloggy’s two subsequent missed open-goals which could have made for a much more relaxing afternoon!
1-1 at half-time.
The half-time team talk was slightly delayed as Jake and Leo both took work calls. Who said men can’t multi-task? Jake assuring his customer at the caravan park gate ‘I’ll be right there’, neglecting to mention that he was 66 miles away!
Lansdown commenced the second half with renewed purpose, moving the ball well. Jake drove into the D, flicked the ball goalward, only for a Marlborough defender to unfathomably deflect the ball inches over the bar.
Lansdown pressured Marlborough high up the pitch, with Alex Farquhar reacting quickly to turn the ball past the keeper, only for the goal to be ruled out. Soon after, Lansdown took the lead with Jake unlocking the Marlborough defence to set up Sam VV who outmuscled the defender to put the ball in the goal.
Defend a 1-goal lead, win the league.
Short-corner to Marlborough. Who do we leave unmarked in the D? The one player we shouldn’t. Outcome – Marlborough goal and all level again with 15-minutes to play.
The physical battle and the heat took its toll, but Dr Farquhar was ably on hand to patch up ailing bodies and get players back out on the pitch.
A stone’s throw, or a Leo aerial’s distance away from the hockey pitches at Marlborough College is the Marlborough Mound. The second largest neolithic mound in Europe and said to be the burial place of the wizard Merlin. With the clock rapidly ticking towards full-time, and promotion appearing to be slipping through our fingers, up stepped Lansdown’s very own wizard, Leo, wand in hand, to conjure his magic and rip a drag-flick into the top of the net.
It wasn’t quite over, further short-corners defended, the cross bar dented, but Lansdown withstood the late pressure, and deployed our game management to see out the remaining minutes. Another 1-goal winning margin – what else did you expect?
Champagne moment: Leo’s promotion winning drag-flick
MotM and DotD double: Jake, who swiftly polished off a four-pint pitcher.
Thank you to the many travelling in support. You made yourself heard throughout, provided a home-game like atmosphere and gave us a much needed edge.
Thank you to the Kedgey family for hosting an excellent BBQ and to Amelia for embarrassing all of us on the space hoppers.