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Horsham Sparrows Ladies v Eastbourne Ladies

Amid all that the gods of rain, wind, and generally unpleasant weather, could throw at us, Horsham continued their fine tradition of fielding a full side, minus a few. It’s become a tradition that when Horsham Sparrows Ladies hove into view, everyone starts that surprisingly difficult task of counting a milling group of people. The only thing that you can be quite sure of is that however many there are, it isn’t going to be eleven.

The Horsham Ten, with the uncertainty of the missing players, were up against one of the best organised, as well as just plain effective sides in the league, the table leaders Eastbourne Ladies.  Horsham play the flair card, with the explosive dynamism of the Sharpes, Dunn, and Ansell. Today, unfortunately for flair, the Eastbourne manager Adam Wolecki had done an impressive job of planning the removal of the threat of Horsham’s key card.

 

26th February 2012

“The weather continues fine”, and so it did.

After an interesting set of somewhat surprising mishaps, this writer found himself back in Ferring, for what might be described as a “crunch match”, against  visitors Henfield Ladies.  Ferring Ladies, still looking for their first win of the season, and Henfield Ladies, with one victory so far, are neighbours in the league table.  A comment lacking subtlety might put it something like this: “Whosoever it is that loses this match, they it is who will collect the wooden spoon”, which is essentially not too far from the truth.

With all the impartiality in the world, this writer also has to admit that these two teams are sort of favourites; every game is a battle,  every week they run and fight and run and fight, they watch the goals go in,  return to the changing room with no points, and every week they get better.  This week, there would be points, almost for certain.

Both sides were at full strength, with, in the view of this writer, the Ferring Ladies strike force giving them the edge in the form book. For sides at the lower end of the league, both have excellent goalkeepers, and some players clearly very comfortable in defensive roles. Henfield Ladies’ midfield is starting to emerge as a force, as is their front line, dominated by a centre forward and a perpetual motion left wing.

As usual, the head banging bizarreness of Ferring Ladies is the line up of players who are simply good, who win and hold possession, work hard, makes chances, shoot, and have one point from the season. Explain that if you can.

The first half passed in a blur, in fact it was a blur southbound on the A24, as the aforementioned mishaps were of considerable and unnecessary duration. Henfield came out for the second half a goal up, and forty five minutes of passionate football commenced, so much so, in fact, that the referee had something to say on the matter.

Henfield went two up after eleven minutes, when Woods latched on to a delightful through ball, evaded a strong challenge from the Ferring number 5, and slipped the ball passed the advancing keeper. Ferring’s reply was in character, they launched a series of ferocious attacks on the Henfield goal, giving us a real battle in the midfield, and a number of opportunities for the Ferring strikers.  They brought it back to two goals to one, with a a close range effort from Southey, after a series of runs and passes had left the Henfield defence wide open.

Two goals to one was how it finished.

Elsewhere, Eastbourne Ladies blitzed Black Hawks Ladies over a fifteen minutes after half time, and eventually came out winners eight goals to nil. One of the rapidly improving sides in the league, Black Hawks clearly held their own for considerable periods of  the match. The mid-table clash between Horsham Sparrows Women and Bexhill United Ladies resulted in the hosts moving a place above the visitors, with two games in hand. Horsham ‘s goal machine Sharpe (L), and captain Ansell, together put three goals past Bexhill.

 

19th February 2012

Spring, or possibly faux spring, brings these delightfully sunny, if often chilly, days.

Ferring Ladies, the conundrum of the league, continued the season, visiting Adam Wolecki’s high flying Eastbourne Ladies. Eastbourne, without elements of their midfield, would go top with a win, and Ferring, with only ten players, were still looking for their first win of the season.

Ferring Ladies continue to confound and confuse this writer, almost as if they were doing it on purpose. Some classically talented players, the best keeper in the league – in the view of this writer – and one point from fourteen games.  Many thoughts on this, but this is probably not the place.

The two halves were diametrically opposite, with Ferring essentially holding their own during the opening period, going in three down at half time. After they came out, Ferring’s strikers made chances, their goalkeeper produced a string of excellent saves, with two really outstanding, and elements of the defence ran themselves to a complete stand still.  Eastbourne’s strikers found weaknesses in Ferring’s defensive organisation, and were completely merciless. But for the goalkeeping, and a couple of non-stop performances (numbers 8 & 9 especially) it could have been worse.

Eastbourne’s left wing played her usual devastating game, and a striker new to this writer showed determination, agression, and talent, which is just about right for a goal scorer.  She always seemed to be heading for goal, not afraid to take on defenders, and anyone else for that matter, and gave the keeper some close calls.

Elsewhere, Graham Wood’s  Worthing Town Ladies continued their exultant charge towards the top of the league, at the expense of visitors Predators Ladies, winning eight goals to one.  With three racing strikers, a solid midfield, and a defence built on a defender of Wade’s stature, they are always very hard to beat.

Seventh in the league Black Hawks Ladies played host to the Henfield Ladies, positioned eighth, and the Black Hawks revival seems to be picking up steam, putting four past the consistently improving Henfield Ladies, who managed one in reply. For what this writer believes is a first, Henfield Ladies had twelve players from which to pick the starting lineup of eleven. Gone are the days of eight, and a rotating goalkeeper!

 

12th February 2012

Under a sky swollen with gloom, the Siberian gales play merrily along the streets and lanes of this silent grey and pleasant land.  At least that is along the lines of what this writer believes is the case, given that he’s hiding under a nice warm rug, hot chocolate and shortbread to hand, bathing in wonders that we have known…….

So, again, our ancient Norse gods ascend, and laughing, blast their freezing fire over the land.  Like the tribes of long forgotten Wessex, we huddle in our shelters, frightened faces upturned, as freezing horrors shriek and scream, dancing their crazed dance over and around our shrinking little worlds. It is possible the ancients were right. When the world was young, did they commune with the gods, and see  the end of our world foreshown in the stars? Of tornado and tsunami, washing away the tears of man.

On the plains of an primordial Sussex, before the echoes warning of the fall of Troy, before the might and glory of Rome,  rumours of another end. Amid the campfires of the Cambrian, it was darkest before the dawn, on the morning of the extinction.

Coming up for a refill, all games are formally postponed, and this writer is left merely to ponder the possibilities of the fixture list:

The Predators were visiting Bexhill, at the Polgrove. This was probably the most difficult game to call. Each side is capable, when up to strength and on form, of taking on anyone. Predators have been under-powered since Christmas, and Bexhill have been having one of those sticky patches that can be so difficult to battle out of. A draw would have been a real possibility, but we’d certainly have been entertained to an interesting game.

Adam Wolecki’s high flying Eastbourne Ladies were due to visit the conundrum of the league, Ferring Ladies.  Eastbourne, a balanced, poised, side, producing results in line with their skills and determination. The explosively talented Ferring, with possibly the  best keeper in the league, with just one point from thirteen games, are the conundrum. After the last match that this writer covered, with the skills, determinati0n, and fighting spirit that Ferring showed, how did they lose?

Horsham Sparrows Women were due to play host to Graham Wood’s storming Worthing Town Ladies. Given the skills of each side, this should be a very exciting match, and certainly one that with a little help the local papers would have been interested in. The draw back, of course, would have quite probably been that Worthing’s eleven would have been facing as many as eight Horsham players. Even with Ansell-Sharpe(L)-Sharpe(E)-Dunn combination, supported by a lot of hard work, it is unlikely that they would have stood up to repeated onslaughts of the winged demons of Worthing dervishes.  This writer would be very interested to hear if Horsham raise a full eleven this season (anyone?).

Finally, Henfield Ladies were visiting Maresfield Village Ladies. Henfield still  building their side, with some slots clearly being claimed by natural fit players, would have come up against the devastating combination of Leanne ‘Jimmy Greaves’ Strudwick, and Danni ‘Mach 3′ Ford. Well, we shall see these games, on another day, under the gentle smiling days of spring.

 

29th January 2012

Eastbourne Ladies versus Horsham Sparrows Ladies was an engaging prospect in the Sussex Women’s Football League.  The Eastbourne side,  full of fight, fire, and a flying grace, against the sullen, dangerous, and explosively talented Horsham Sparrows Ladies side: The hard tackling midfield battle would be rejoined;  the Eastbourne strikers would be unleashed; and the lurking menace of Ansell and the Sharpes (E) and (L) , …., as this writer approached the outskirts of Eastbourne, the games’s possibilities  were many.

We all know the Eastbourne seafront, the elegance of the pier, the promenade, a place, in fact, where it would not be in the least bit surprising to see Miss Marple perambulating gently past the palm trees, deep in thought. This is Eastbourne for visitors, Eastbourne for the amiable, blazer’d, holidaymaker, relaxing into  the elegance of yesteryear.

Go inland, and enter the other Eastbourne. This is the Eastbourne of roundabouts, supermarkets, and, more to the point of this narrative, many football pitches. Very many football pitches.

The match was, the FA assured me, to be held at Causeway School, at the given post code, at the given time. With the marvels of satellite technology, and a degree of finger dexterity, a route was rapidly plotted, and a beguiling voice guided our path with the comforting melodic tones of the nursery.

We arrived, with sufficient time to unearth a warming cup of coffee and to settle down. With time to spare, all was well, the gods seemed to be smiling. The correct school was where it should have been, this writer was in very much the same place, and it was therefore somewhat unfortunate that the football match clearly wasn’t. Having reconnoitred for some several minutes, and rechecked the details curtesy of the FA website, we took off for the other two known possibilities.

The streets of Eastbourne are circuitous, although not mean, are  silent and foreboding for a Sunday afternoon. Characters from a Philip K. Dick story appear and disappear, only to reappear, years later, on a yet to be discovered street corner. The Eastbourne ladies football game had simply disappeared. Blank faces answered questions, murmurs of half forgotten Alderaan.  Adam Wolecki and the Eastbourne team may have been happy with the walkover they were awarded, but this writer, left staring sightlessly at the endless sea, was, possibly, less so.