East Grinstead met early to head down towards Lewes. With the Saints without a fixture this week the 4s were hoping that the talents of Tariq would be available this week, for no other reason than match reporting.

EG arrived to find half their team crowded round the pool table playing with their hockey sticks - not a hopeful sign when half the team have no idea what sport they were going to play.  The customary fines started to fly, with Scott Powell stating he could pot any ball of choice with his hockey stick, or be fined £5.00. The 4's are not a team that likes to shy away from a bet and found themselves £5.00 richer.

Eventually the team went to the changing room with pool cues in hand and donned waistcoats and bow-ties ready for the start, with the whereabouts of Mike Lewis still unknown. The team expertly completed the compulsory warm up before getting ready to indulge in some pre-game stick skills and passing practice until the team realized we had a distinct lack of balls.

East Grinstead were as ready as they could be for the start, with the their first touch of a hockey ball being the push back, but the obscure round white object that was moving around the Lewes turf wasn't the cue ball they were accustomed to. Two minutes into the game with EG looking rusty, Ethan decided that it was only fair that as we didn't know what to do with the ball he'd hand it straight to the opposition forward to see if he could enlighten our team.  He duly delivered by scoring via a deflection over Si Robinson off Ethan's stick.

Ten minutes in and the first change was made, Ethan off, Rupert on and JP making good progress down the left.  To our horror, and for the first time this season he made a pass, followed by more passes, showing that he did know what he was doing and that maybe up front, trying to score goals was not his strongest position. He had an outstanding game.

Shortly after JP found himself unmarked on the back post with a simple sweep into an open goal to level the scoring, except he missed. The game stayed fairly even and chances were coming for both sides, with Si Robinson outstanding in goal, keeping the opposition at bay. EG were playing some of the best hockey this season, discovering that passing the ball works - whether they can remember this for next week is yet to be seen. EG finally got a deserved equalizer through Jordan Torrilla. He went one way, then the other, then back again, and again......and again, and then for a change opted to shoot on his reverse stick with the ball flying into the bottom corner: 1-1. If anyone has any record of a strong side shot from Jordan please forward all evidence to the club, so rare is this footage we are willing to pay well for it.

EG continued to play well, passing the ball beautifully making some expert runs and chances, it was a pleasure to watch and play. Half time arrived with the score even, we all congregated in the goal for the half time chat and Haribo. Wise words were said, the team came out fighting and kept the ball, with Keith Turner controlling the game beautifully, passing the ball round the back and moving it well.

Then the injuries started to flow, first Rupert ready to clear the ball from the back wind-milled up as the tackle came through from behind, and crunch, one broken finger as his stick landed on the opponent's hand. Apparently this wasn't enough for him and from a 16 shortly after he attempted an aerial which was duly blocked by an opponents head, as the blood started to poor. He wasn't happy and people feared for Rupert's life as he got some evil stares and a lot of swearing.  No-one stepped in to protect the fragile lad, but luckily the Lewes forward walked away with little more than a raised voice and lots of swearing. These two incidents won Rupert the beautiful pink D**k of the day shirt, which clashes wonderfully with his ginger hair.

Alex Gowen wanted a piece of the action, got knocked over and landed bumping his head, stood up and said "did I hit a big guy?", yes Alex only the biggest on the pitch.

Si Robinson couldn't resist getting involved on the action and duly patted the ball down onto Keith Turner's head, injury number 4. Luckily he was fit to continue and finished the game in outstanding form.

Overseas player Jordan Torrilla continued to shine up front, received the ball down the left before turning two defenders inside out and laid a strong side pass across the goal for a simple tap in for JP, the open goal beckoned, the team were nervous, this time he put it away.....just!

There was little left in the game and EG kept the ball and held on for a well deserved win.

This was a much improved performance by the lads, hopefully they will continue their push towards a high league placing next week.

Scorers - J Torrilla, JP