Beez end season with a brave performance

Tornados Killer Beez have ended their first and probably only season in Div 1, firmly rooted to the bottom of the table. However, on Saturday the 11 players available put in a fine and very brave performance in a very hot 3pm game against table topping A team.

Despite playing the first 10 minutes with only 10 players the Beez restricted the A team to a few Penalty Corners, which for once Ben wasn't able to convert. The Beez defended well and made it difficult for the A team to break them down.

Three goals in a 10 minute period early in the second half finally ended the Beez resistance, although they did regroup to prevent any further damage to the scoreline.

The game was a competitive bow for Mother Misso who returns to Oz after many years in the Maroon of Tornados and for Josh who put in a valuable stint for the Beez in his 1 season with the club. He now heads back Stateside so will probably be too fat to ever play again.

The Beez now look forward to a long break, disrupted by the odd friendly, before returning to their normal habitat in Div 2 next season.

First a few beers to toast the season at the POW on the 28th June at the Beez end of season awards night.

9/6/12 ladies 1s game v. SCC

9th of June 2012

 

Tornado Ladies As: 2

SCC: 0

 

Saturday resulted in another eventful day of ladies hockey for the As they squared up against a feisty SCC.  Focusing on 'tidy hockey', the As quickly pressed an offensive attack, playing 11 field (wo)men for the first 10 minutes.  With the goalie taking the field, the As settled into their battled tested 3-4-3 formation and consistently worked the ball up the right side to generate scoring opportunities. 

 

Imagine their surprise to have a ref who found her whistle!  Chris was the first to be sent to the sin bin for 2 minutes due to an aggressive tackle.  It wasn't long after she found her way back onto the pitch that Helen was blown up for a clean tackle and given a yellow.  10 minutes on the naughty chair. 

 

With the first half left at 0-0, the As were nothing less than fired up start of the second.  Majority of play left SCC back pedalling on defence while the As created numerous scoring opportunities.  Inevitably, the As scored their first goal.  Hils fired a high bouncing shot with Kim deflecting off the back line to connect with the back of the net.  Controversial but given.  The As pressed on through interesting calls… 

 

(The best one was a short given to SCC.  Reason: you cannot shadow a player with your stick on the ground and direct her where to go.  Hmmm...)

 

To score their second goal.  Playing one-two hockey up the right side, the ball was laid off to Chris who dribbled through numerous defenders and fired a low, hard shot to hit the backboard.  The As held SCC to win 2-0.  Great job everyone (particularly defence) working through the calls and playing solid Tornado hockey!

 

LOM: Kim Krauze

 

Kim

Ladies 1s vs SRC (inc continuation), 1-0 win!

The match against Singapore Recreation Club started off well for both teams with the ball featuring at both ends of the pitch. Strong support from the tornadoes defence and midfield meant that the forwards were able to have moments of pure brilliance in front of the goal, but frustratingly unable to find the back of the net. A well organised SRC defence and some excellent goal keeping skills meant that going into half time, the tornadoes were left wondering where they were going to get a goal from.

 

Patience paid off and the tornadoes started the second half strong. It was going to take more than a few rumbles of thunder and flashes of lightening in the distance to put the tornadoes off the task in hand.

 

A ball driven down the left wing by Rosie Clarke was hit in to the top of the D. The ball was deflected off an SRC stick and with some excellent timing, skill and luck we saw Charlie White volley the ball into the back of the net to secure a 1-0 lead for the tornadoes.

 

This did not stop the determination from SRC to fight back and as legs began tiring gaps began to show in both teams with SRC having the upper hand. Thankfully for the tornadoes a hard fought short corner for SRC was halted abruptly when the umpires decided that the fast approaching thunderstorm should stop play.

 

With 23 minutes left to play it was the tornadoes who had the 1-0 and due to poor weather the rest of the match would be completed at a later date.........

 

........and on a Tuesday evening as the flood lights were just coming on, a re-fuelled and determined side of 18 Tornados ladies 1's (down to  17 when one omitted to bring footwear...) turned out to play their 23 minute game.

 

Aware that time was of the essence and that we needed to be fired up from the whistle, adrenalin was high. But to raise the game another notch, we hadn't kept things simple for ourselves - finishing the first round of this match on the blow for a short corner, against us.

 

So we began on the ultimate back foot. But shorts practice at training had paid off and our brilliant defenders (led by Sayj doing an ever increasingly seasoned and honed job in goal) rose to the challenge, keeping the sheet clean.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

But we weren't in the clear yet, and three more short corners were conceded under the pressurized start before we took the ball out of our defensive half, shortly after which Teej was struck in the face with the oppositions stick and had to take to the bench (ever committed, she stayed to see the game out before heading off to A&E!!)

 

After a challenging start though, the play returned to our court, and a strong game was played with slick breaks and great team play through the midfield and up both wings to our attackers.

 

No goals were conceded and none scored in the strangely short game of hockey, leaving the Tornado's Ladies victorious on a Tuesday night!

 

Alex & Hilary

Ladies 1s vs Theresians, Sun 3rd June - 2-0 Win!

Sunday evening saw the Tornadoes Ladies 1's pitted against Theresians in a game that kept up its tempo for the full 70 mins. Tornadoes started with a very strong first 20mins, involving lots of left to right switching and visa versa through Meagan the pivotal "pivot" at the back of the Diamond. The defence were put under pressure from some strong Theresians players who although had good stick skills couldn't quite keep vertical. Some dubious calls were made by the umpires however the defence managed to keep any threat they posed at bay. The few shots Theresians put in on goal were deflected in fine fashion by Sharifah who has joined us again for the end of the season allowing Sayj to show off her skills as centre forward.

The first goal of the match was finished off by Elaine when a ball came in from the back-line and was deflected in from the P-spot. It gave Tornadoes the boost they needed to keep fighting for the rest of the half.

The second half saw more of the same with multiple runs up both sides of the pitch by the respective midfields and forwards. The second goal started from the defence with a spectacular 16 from Kate which made its way up the left side to Alex who worked it towards the back line and around the goalie and was finally deflected in by Chris.

Both goals were a perfect demonstration of putting training scenarios into practice during game situations and credit to Richard who has worked hard throughout the year to actually get us to do these 1-2 passes up the pitch and use the baseline in order to succeed in scoring goals!

 

Special mention should go to Helen who played in right mid but who seemed to be everywhere. Her ability to assist the ball from defence up through mid-field to the forwards helped to keep the game mostly attacking for the Tornadoes and earned her player of the match.

 

All in all it was a strong performance from Tornadoes with a good display of teamwork and it demonstrated well the transferability of training drills to match play. This should further emphasis the importance of continued attendance at training despite the seasons nearing the end! Go Tornados!

 

Rosie

 

 

 

Tornados As v Republic Poly, Sat 19th May

Result 7 -0

 

The Ladies Tornado A team opened the game against Republic Poly with wave after wave of attack. It had been a straightforward team talk; it was a must win game with a decent goal difference. The Poly girls were clearly a weaker side and it was really only our inability to slot that goal between the posts which prevented us from reaching double figures.

 

The first half saw a plethora of balls passing the oppositions left post and over–compensation in the second half meant the right post was witness to a similar scenario. However, goals were scored; two from Elaine, a hat trick from Chris, one from Rosie and by far the best goal followed by the best celebratory leap coming from Jenny “boobs” Bloomfield.

 

The decision to move Sage out of goal and onto the pitch did not go unnoticed by RP. There were a few hairy moments and short corners which had us all feeling anxious but the defense was having none of it, and no goals were conceded.

 

This was a game the tornadoes clearly enjoyed. We were confident, our passing was good, we were changing positions and communicating and carving out real chances for one another. Not all of these chances were converted into real money, but then again, we are saving our glorious best for the final…

 

Man of the match – Chris: she is omnipresent on the pitch and yet again graced us with an outstanding performance.

 

Beez vs. SCC A - Beez find their sting!

The Killer Beez faced their 3rd game in 5 days at Sengkang last night. Things looked ominous for the Beez as SCC A turned up en-masse to face only 12 very tired Beez.

SCC started the game strongly and went ahead very early from a PC. The low drag flick had much of its bite taken of it from Garf's stick and it should have been an easy clearance for Harry Houdini on the post but he'd done one of his famous disappearing acts.

To their credit the Beez heads didn't drop and mid way through the 1st half they drew level with a fierce shot (in his words) from Josh, that looked like a tap in to every body else. Only a few minutes later the Beez took the lead for the first time in a game this season. A long ball through the middle found Anton unmarked in the D with his back to the goal. The SCC keeper tried to mount Anton roughly from behind. Although Anton didn't seem  to be complaining about the amorous intentions of the SCC keeper, a stroke was awarded which Anton clinically despatched before asking for the keepers number.

The Beez went into a much deserved and needed break 2-1 but came out sleeping allowing SCC to get a simple back post tap in equaliser after only 5 minutes.

Once again this only spurred on the Tornados team who were in no mood to settle for a draw. With 20 minutes to go the Beez took the lead through a field goal from Nick. The Beez then settled into a counter-attacking game to protect their lead. SCC had most of the remaining play but the few D penetrations they had were dealt with confidently by Garf and his defence. The Beez task was made more difficult losing Wazza to a back injury and temporarily Anton to a hammy/cramp.

Close the end of the game the Beez thought they had made it 4-2 when Nish appeared to score but the umpire ruled that the ball had already crossed the line before any Tornado had touched it.

The Beez ran out 3-2 winners. A fantastic effort from the team who had only managed to save just enough energy to open a few post match Red Rocks.

With games to come against SCC A and B the Beez can still avoid the drop.

Nick was voted MotM for his tireless performance and Nish DotD for wearing a pair of luminous green briefs that have no rightful place in the 21st Century  

Ladies 2s vs IA As, Sat 12th May

Saturday saw the Ladies 2^nd XI take on the IA A’s and whilst there were a lot of positives to take from the game the girls are still searching for that elusive first win of the season.

 

Straight from the first whistle the girls knew they were in for a tough game coming up against a team of young, fit and fast local girls. This was the first time this season that the girls had come up against this type of direct play and for the first half the Tornados struggled to contain the IA with the midfield gaps being constantly exposed by a couple of extremely handy IA players.

 

However, this is not to say that the first half was all one way. Tornados put together some nice moves with Reachelle combining nicely with Annalise to cause the IA defence a few headaches as well as some good strong running from the forwards. Once again the defence looked solid despite conceding a few goals in the first period – as always the SHF refs probably contributed to the score line but I think the IA deservedly went in ahead at the break. In all fairness the girls didn’t react to some of the decisions which was a credit to them – they left all of that to Mitch on the far touchline ;)

 

After a quick team talk from Joran (and after a quick whisper with the officials from Mrs B!) the Tornados came out for the second half and looked like a completely different team. The structure looked a lot more solid and the midfield started to stem the flow of the deep runners coming through from the IA. Lady of the Match Lizzie started to boss the game from the left hand side and linked extremely well with the rest of the midfield and forwards – she showed some slick little dribbles and some strong tackling as well which was great to see! Tornados were unlucky not to nick a couple of goals in the second half with Sara desperately unlucky not to get her name on the score sheet with one of her trademark on the knees sweeps. To add to this there were also a couple of goal mouth scrambles and on another day it could have been a different story....I think it finished 5-0 in the end and most of that damage was done in the first half.

 

If the girls can increase their levels of composure in all departments and start the game at a higher tempo there is no reason why we can’t get a few wins on the board in the next few weeks!

 

Keep up the good work ladies.

 

Coach Kris.