Abby Furber reports: “This week Brighton faced Aldershot & Farnham. In the midst of storm Bert we remained eager and hopeful for another win, especially after our great performances against Guildford and Brom and Becks the weeks before.

At first Brighton started off positive, with Bara’s big aerial to get us on the way. Although our pressure was cracking their defence. unfortunately they were able to catch us out. A quick break from an Aldershot attacker and the ball was in the back of the net leaving us 1-0 down.

However, we were not prepared to lose to them. Not long after, we were in their D again with Orla crossing it in to Dani who smashed it into the goal. 1-1 and we were only starting. There were multiple attempts on our behalf; with a killer drag flick from Bara saved by their goalie, as well as many runs from Aoife, Joey, Elodie and Dani which were very close to getting us another goal.

In the midfield Izzy, Amy, Renee, Bills and Bara were strong, both attacking hard and then coming back to help our defence. Both Hannas in the back as well as Bella, Abby and Orla were strong and stopped Aldershot from getting another goal.

Finally, with the return of Amanda, after her cracking hockey played in sunny New Zealand, she returned to miserable UK and played even more amazing hockey. We were unsuccessful in scoring another goal we worked so hard for and we went to half time with the score remaining 1-1.

A motivational team talk from coach Sean and captain Bara and we were on our way again. At first Aldershot applied a lot of pressure on us. However, we held them off and did not concede. After another great lead, the ball was given in to Aoife who smashed the ball in the back of the net on her backhand. We had gotten our flow back.

Not long after, we secured our win with Izzy slapping it into the goal, the game finishing 3-1 to Brighton. With yet another win under our belt we are looking forward to more success in our next games and climbing up the table.

MoM - Joey ( amazing as always).
DoD - Abby (aerial went a bit wrong)."

Middleton 1s 0
BHHC 3s 1

Alex Smart reports: "Saturday’s match was reminiscent of a recurring nightmare I have where I’m trying to run really fast but my body remains stationary. Despite gale force winds, there was no question of this game not being played as we have important daytime drinking plans booked in for the slip week.

My car left with plenty of time to be blown up the A27, fuelled by the three coffees that Ellen had made. We even had time to stop in Sainsbury’s to browse the Tu Christmas clothing collection and pick up a posh £5 meal deal. I wonder how many times a day the Littlehampton Sainsbury’s staff are asked where one can find the sushi counter. Unlike Zoolander, it seems that Juliet can only turn left and almost didn’t make it out of the supermarket car park.

After being tackled by my own car door trying to get out of the car park, I looked like I’d been electrocuted by the time I reached the changing room. While everyone got the memo that we weren’t wearing navy shirts or red socks, I’m unclear where it said we were wearing grey shirts (Ange) and grey socks (half the team). Meg was on hand with hair grips and hairspray to make sure that everyone could see. After being smacked in the face with my pony tail a few times, a plait felt like a sensible hockey hairstyle.

The local traffic warden came straight to umpire in his high vis jacket. He also had a nice woolly hat to pull down over his eyes to deal with the cold winds. Gemma decided it would be a good idea to ask the other umpire to remove his top two layers of warm clothing so that his black jacket wasn’t confusing against the opposition being in royal blue.

This was not a day to “let the ball do the work”. Either the ball didn’t go far enough to reach a player or the player couldn’t run fast enough to catch the ball. Whichever way we faced, the game was a struggle.

Regardless, everyone put the effort in and did what they could. Gemma and Lizzy made great interceptions and tackles with composure in the centre and Gemma even found herself up in the attacking D at one stage. Amanda’s overlapping runs on the right were well timed and would have been even more effective if I could have got the ball to her rather than either two metres behind her, or ahead of her, depending on which way the wind was blowing. Zoe was a strong outlet on the left and most importantly, her eyelashes didn’t blow off. Aisha was a bulldog at the back with lots of effective hassling to win the ball.

Juliet under promised and over delivered in screen. Or as Georgie put it, “I think there’s no chance you’re going to get that ball and then you do”. Ellen’s trademark drag pushes and Georgie’s slaps helped move the ball up the pitch and into our attacking D for Jo to threaten the keeper with her dangerous strike. Ange was relentless in the middle of the pitch with great leads into pockets of space. Izzy had some great link up play with Ange and Jo up front and was robbed of a goal (and penalty flick) when her impressive strike was stopped with a defender’s foot on the line.

Elise had a strong start to the match with some lovely ball carries and eliminations. Unfortunately she headed a ball off the opposition’s stick and it was game over. We think she was on the sideline for the rest of the match - it was hard to tell under the dry robe mountain covering her. Sorrel dominated the left hand side of the pitch and once she realised that passing connections were going to be a struggle, took matters into her own hands, eliminating three players to slot the ball into the goal and award the team the goal they were desperately looking for.

Middleton had a few close chances in the D - thankfully most of them went wide but that left Abbie with minimum touches of the ball. While trying not to freeze to death, she calculated that the match cost her £5.50 per touch. One was a clearance straight to their centre forward just so she’d get to move her frozen limbs.

With our small victory and a win for Lewes over Mid Sussex, we sit four points clear at the top of the league. The next match will be a big one vs South Saxons who are creeping towards us. It’s a great weekend for half the team to go on holiday.

PoM: Aisha’s Mum who brought team sweets after reading Meg’s team message that Aisha forwarded with the match details and taking on board the instruction to 'bring sweets'."

Other results
Epsom 2s 0 BHHC 2s 0
BHHC 4s 0 East Grinstead 3s 0
Mid Sussex 2s 2 BHHC 5s 3
BHHC 6s 3 Southwick 1s 0
Worthing 2s 2 BHHC 7s 2
Lewes 5s 4 BHHC 8s 0