Joey Bryant reports: “The match began with intensity after being told that Horsham brought their boyfriends, girlfriends, kids and dogs with them for support and, having Abby’s sister playing for them there was no way we wanted to lose this game!

Horsham also turned up with a couple of other Brighton turncoats in the form of ex-Ireland junior international Dina (is that her?) and their coach Fran, who was well known to us. But we weren’t rattled and as the starting whistle went Bara threw a lovely aerial down into our attacking 25. It was pretty end-to-end play and they had a couple of skilful players but nothing we couldn’t handle and it was mostly Brighton in possession.

However after a couple of quick passes in the D Horsham somehow ended up being a goal up. Not fazed by this Brighton continued to fight and with some composed play by Meg we got a much deserved short corner and Bara slotted the ball in the net with a flick after a lovely one-two between Meg and herself.

Amanda (goalie) also pulled off an awesome save at the other end of the pitch on one of their short corner hits too. Everyone was playing amazingly and were not giving up easily. The umpires made some questionable decisions including giving a Horsham 16 hit out after their goalie kicked the ball onto a Horsham defender's foot on the goalline.

At half time it was 1-1 and we knew we couldn’t let up pressure. The juniors in our team were all outstanding and Eliza especially made some stunning runs up the pitch. The defence were also solid as usual.

In the second half we were awarded another short corner so decided “what’s not broke so don’t try and fix it” and Bara and Meg showed us a lovely one-two and flick into the right side of the net again, goal awarded to Joey (taken off Bara). 2-1 to B town.

About halfway through the second half both the umpires had a wobble and called the captains over. We felt we were just showing our passion for the game but apparently not and we were told we had to stop shouting at them! (And that wasn’t even Ryan’s fault).
Anyway long story short: Joey got a green card for a great tackle and the ball went down to our defending end. After numerous short corners and long corners given to the oppo they managed to level up to 2-2.

Not for the want of trying, Brighton fought hard, be it more quietly now, but still showed our flight and the midfields worked their socks off all game to distribute the ball around effectively but sadly there just wasn’t time for us to get another goal.

A very hard pill to swallow as Brighton were definitely the better side and we were unfortunate to draw this game. We came away feeling like we lost but it’s one point gained and we move on to next week with positivity and a feeling of pride from our performance.

PoM - resoundingly Eliza Tudor-Williams. Legendary skills and speed.
DoD - Joey (just because/green card)."

Horsham 4s 2
BHHC 3s 8

Alex Smart reports: "It was a goal frenzy at twilight for the 3s at Horsham. With a 4pm game, most of the team rocked up looking like they’d come straight from the pub. Gemma had a strong combo of a clubbing shirt with Sweaty Betty running shorts. Juliet discovered that “L” and “R” on her socks actually indicated which foot was which.

After a disappointing draw before the half-term break, a determined team talk from Jo made sure that we were not going into this match as “Casual Carols”. Abbie’s life was on the line in the warm up as the team hammered balls at her. With a big focus on actually getting the ball in the goal this week, we were game to try all sorts of tactics, starting with impersonating animals to determine how high we’d press.

Having joked about sending defenders up the pitch to cause confusion in the D, Georgie did some lovely weaving with the ball from screen to find herself in front of the goal to put the ball past the keeper. Ange’s hard work up front soon paid off as she also got herself onto the scoresheet with a great position on the left post. She soon found herself in front of the goal again and despite a look of disgust at the pass she was given, she managed to win the ball back and make a perfect cross to Jo for a one touch shot into the net.

Transfers around the back between Zoe, Diva, Gemma, Lizzy and Amanda worked well to take advantage of plenty of pitch space in alternate channels. Georgie, Juliet and Ellen were always on hand for a pass in field with Sorrel dominating the wings to drive forward. Someone on the team was so impressed they called her Sorcha.

The opposition struggled to manage the overload of the defence pushing high and gave us lots of opportunities to make quick passes and keep the ball. We had plenty of chances to work through our penalty corner routines and even threw in a rogue sixth option. The classic in and out between me and Jo worked a treat to award her a second goal.

As we sailed into a convincing lead, someone put an emergency call into the groundstaff to turn the floodlights off and put an end to this landslide. Only 13 minutes into the second half, we hadn’t played long enough to call it a day and the result to count. Thankfully some pleading with the school got the lights turned back on and we quickly returned to winning ways.

Ellen put two goals away in quick succession on the left post after injecting penalty corners while Ange suffered from FOMO on the sideline. If she wasn’t on the bench she was in danger of racking up her goal tally from two and getting the jugs in next weekend. Elise also had a well earned goal that resulted in the opposition keeper throwing her hand pads off.

All in all, a worthwhile evening out in Horsham. There was a lack of PoM and DoD votes as everyone was keen to get back to the pub."

Other results

BHHC 2s 1 Lewes 1s 3
BHHC 4s 2 Crowborough 1s 0
Priory 1s 2 BHHC 5s 2
BHHC 6s 2 Eastbourne 2s 3
BHHC 7s 3 Eastbourne 3s 0
BHHC 8s 0 Crowborough 3s 4