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" Kenley Vets 5 : Baker's Dozen 1.
BD's were greeted by a beautifully manicured grass pitch but failed to come to grips early on with a lively opposition forward line : as a result Kenley raced to a two goal lead before the match was ten minutes old. The two goal deficit acted as a tonic to the BD's who raised their game as if woken from a trance and proceeded to enjoy an equal share of possession and goal-scoring opportunities for all but the last ten minutes of the game. Brian O'Connor pulled a goal back early in this spell and could and probably should have levelled the scores before half time following an excellent BD's end-to-end move; sadly he failed to connect with the inch-perfect cross. BD's continued to work hard and other chances came and went without being converted; the main culprit was a Kenley player loaned to the 10 man BD's in the second half who missed no less than three gilt-edged chances with the air of a man who would have been far more surprised to have scored them--he was genuine enough and was very sheepish and critical of his own performance in the bar afterwards. ( when of course BD's praised him for at least being in the right place at the right time but queried whether new glasses might help ! ).Sadly BD's became weary in the closing stages with Kenley adding three more excellent goals--- which they needed to be given the heroics of Chris Long in the BD's goal. Chris made a series of fine saves to keep the final score within the realms of reasonableness.
Not for the first time this season, the BD's were beaten by opposition containing a few younger and faster players than the BD's possess but for most of the game competed well and played their fair share of the better hockey played. Having said that,the BD's did have the youngest player on the pitch in the shape of Barry Corbetts teenage son who had an excellent game, while Kenley had a number of senior veterans and the most senior vet, a 79 year old who appears in the Guinness Book of Records as " the oldest playing league hockey player anywhere in the world ". He did really well and will ,we hope, like a fine wine, continue to improve with age ( and grace the field of play )for decades to come. "
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