Spencer away, Prem - 8 Oct 2005

A balmy afternoon on a tremendously prepared pitch saw Purley take on Spencer in their first game of the season. Purley welcomed new boys Rich Kennedy and Nigel Tasko, who joined his brother Jamie, though as luck would have it they won't be playing together as Jamie will be out until Christmas following knee surgery. And speaking of knee surgery, Dave Arnot also returns after 2 years out with a knee injury.

It became apparent early on that Spencer's stick skills and overall game play had improved since last season, and it would be more of a challenge - as was shown by their close 13-7 loss to Hillcroft last week. Purley's lack of game action saw them go one-nil down early on, and they struggled to level the scores 1-1 at quarter time.

The second quarter was also close, with Purley giving the ball away too easily, and failing to use the ball well when they did get it. However they did pull it together enough to pull out to a 6-2 lead, before loose marking and lack of discipline in defence saw Spencer pull 2 goals back at the end of the quarter to bring the score to 6-4.

The third quarter saw no improvement for Purley, as Spencer completely dominated possession. But the Purley defence held firm, aided by some excellent midfield defence from Graeme Holland, and Paul Terry being a wall in the cage. At the other end Tim Richmond managed to get the only goal of the quarter, leaving the game still in the balance for the final quarter.

It was the final quarter when the rust finally wore off. No more silly mistakes, slick ball movement, and intelligent offensive team play lead to seven goals in the quarter, to give a final score of 14-4.

Scorers: Tim Richmond 4, Dave Arnot 4, Nigel Tasko 2, Chris Spence 2, Mike Barrett 1, Dave Cluney 1

Photos by Jamie Tasko.