Vietnam Hockey Festival Nov 2012

Tornados once again went en-mass to Ho Chi Minh City to celebrate our sister club's annual 6-aside hockey festival. With 3 men's and 3 ladies teams, Tornados were by far the largest participants at the tournament. Looking resplendent in their Tsunami supplied kit (thanks to Boobs for sorting that out) all 6 teams played some great hockey on the first day despite having made the most of the Ice-breaker party on the Friday night at Bar17. At the close of day all 3 Ladies teams had qualified for the Plate competition whilst the Men's 1's were heading for the Cup and the 2's and 3's the Plate.

At the Saturday Night party Tornados once again outperformed all-comers to maintain their grip on the coveted best dressed team award. The procession of  Cops and robbers entering celebrity chef Bobby Chin's restaurant provided much amusement to the watching locals in the neighbouring shopping mall.

Back on the pitch on Sunday the Men's 2's and 3's were eliminated early by strong opposition in the plate and the Ladies 2's succumbed to the might of the Ladies 3's to set up an all Tornados ladies plate final in which the Ladies 1's proved to be too strong.

In the last game of the Tournament Tornados Men's 1's took on the hosts Tornados Vietnam. in a very close game Tornados Singapore edged out their sister club 1-0 to take the title for the first time. A fantastic weekend on and off the pitch and the Tornados players are already planning their return next year.

Ladies Final Match report

The ladies first XI were fully committed with a large squad arriving early to warm up and for the final team talk of the season! We were taking on the Dutch B's in a match that we all knew was going to be tough and physical! The crowds were gathering and the pre match excitement was building.

 

The Dutch managed to snatch the first goal however, a practiced, and text book short corner saw Charlie equalise not long after, kicking off an exciting 20 minutes of Tornados pressure. A fantastic run of quick Tornados passes then ended in Charlie scoring a perfect flick past the goalie, putting the Tornados 2-1 up!

 

However, despite the promising start, it sadly was not to be our day... Three excellent Dutch goals in quick succession and a Tornados yellow card for some impressive, yet illegal, ariel stick skills (Kate) saw us 4-2 down at half time and temporarily reduced to 10 players (quote Charlie: "Rich, do you know we've only got 10 players on the pitch?!" Rich: "yes, that's what happens when there's a yellow card...!")

 

The Tornados continued to battle hard after the restart and we were soon back to full strength with 11 players.  Unfortunately another Dutch goal soon put them 5-2 up, but a spell of Tornados pressure and some silky skills from Rosie followed, forcing the Dutch into scoring an own-goal and bringing the scoreline to 5-3. However, the gap was just too big and another final strong Dutch attack meant that the match finished a fair 6-3 to the Dutch.

 

An outstanding performance from Teej in defence saw her take a well-deserved, unanimous player of the match award. Special mentions must also go to Kirsten and her lightening quick reactions in goal (even head-butting the ball out of danger), Alex (a "breath of fresh air" whenever she was on the pitch), Hils for a solid game in midfield and Lizzie, Suz and Becky for keeping us all well hydrated during (and after!) the game (paddling pool and ice - genius!).  Of course, a massive thanks also has to go to Rich for coaching us all season - we couldn't have asked for anyone more committed who kept us all focused throughout the season and hopefully we did him proud by putting into play the moves that we had been practicing at training!

 

Although the result didn't quite go the way we'd hoped, it was all in all a great day of hockey and a fantastic way to round off what has been an incredibly successful season - congrats ladies!

 

Milly & Sam W

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.