| Hedingham Hawks Youth Football Club Weekly Match Reports |
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| Hedingham Hawks Under 18s in Holland 2007 Hawks 2006-2007 Under 18s played their final two games for the club on a visit to Holland. Squad: Ben Smith, Stuart Bryant, Shaun Burke, Tom Ranson, Jack Bushell, Ollie Gransden, Matt Darkins, Alec Pyman, Shane Day, Simon Smith, Sam Mullock,James French, Carlo Manfredi, Sam George, Matt Ireland and Brennan Knight. Also on the trip Manager Graham Day assisted by Ferg Ranson, David Pyman and Dave Heather. The team were accompanied by a video production team of Ashley and John Gardiner. The day started well (if a little early-5.00am) at Stansted Airport with the successful arrival of all the players. With check-in completed boys dissipated in all directions resulting in four boys *just* making the take-off. The bus from Eindhoven Airport delivered the team to Ajax Stadium in Amsterdam where the boys met up with Tour guide, Jem Hancock. A couple of hours eating, watching the first team train, viewing the museum and visiting the bar led in to the stadium tour. A very interesting experience... (The average Season Ticket at Ajax costs....120 Euro!!!) The tour also featured Graham's spat with an american guy...which he won quite convincingly!! Next stop the Hostel. (Some sleep en-route..) The boys found their rooms (and the bar) and got changed ready for their first game. The short drive to Ede gave little opportunity for sleep and the boys got changed and warmed up. The game was hard work for the tired team, not helped by a poor playing surface and the boys were quickly 1-0 down as Ben was deceived by a direct free-kick. DTS '35 doubled their lead, but Sam George reduced the deficit with a solo run and good finish. In the second half Matt Ireland evened the scores making up for hitting the post moments earlier. The boys struggled to improve upon the two goals and as they got more tired DTS hit a winner. The boys had a good go at the end and, indeed, Shane was through on goal only to be brought down from behind. Sam George's freekick skimmed the top of the bar. The return to the hostel involved a trip to the Burger King where several boys ate a number of meals each..!! Gives you an appetite this football lark! Once back at the hostel we were treated to Dutch and German sing-alongs to some Eurohits. A high proportion of the tired footballers retired to their rooms leaving Simon, Sparky, Brennan and Ben drinking, playing pool and air-hockey and Matts Ireland and Darkins plus Carlo chatting up two Dutch girls from the hostel... Bar shuts at 1.30am... Morning arrived and the coach delivered the team to SML Arnhem where the boys warmed up on their artificial pitch. The game took place on a grass pitch with fairly worn goalmouths, but close inspection showed it to have a very nice flat surface. SML passed the ball around well in the early stages and it took Hawks a while to settle, but when they did, a slick move through the midfield gave Simon Smith the shooting chance he required and he made no mistake. SML continued to attack, but Tom (playing his final Hawks game) looked unbeatable alongside Stuart, Shaun and Jack (all a year younger). As the ball sprang out from the Hawks defence, Sparky laid a fine ball into the path of Matt Darkins down the right wing. It looked as if he had left the cross too late as he rounded the full-back and brought the ball in along the line, but the full-blooded cross was met with an equally determined header by Sam George to nearly burst the goalnet. As Graham rotated his squad with the roll-on-roll-off substitutions Brennan Knight had barely been on the pitch a minute as an opportunity came to make it three. He did and Hawks looked rampant. SML had other ideas, however, and Shaun was deceived by their star player who shot past Ben to make it 3-1. However, the come back was short lived as Shane made it four with a one-on-one which he contrived to convert with his favoured left foot when his right would have looked favourite! Sam George rounded off the scoring with a shot from outside the box. As the game drew to a close both teams rotated their substitutes giving Hawks a laugh as Frenchy was marking a lad at least a foot shorter than him! Following the match the lads went into the centre of Arnhem to watch the FA Cup Final in an Irish bar. Many of the boys went out exploring the town during the pre-match build up, whilst others just sat in the bar....... It appeared during the game that Graham, Shane and just one solitary Dutch girl were supporting Chelsea, with Sparky being particularly vocal in his support of United. Giggs near goal led to a spontaneous chanting of " Same old Chelsea, always cheating!" which spread to the whole pub! We had a coach to catch, but we stuck it out 'til the dying seconds of extra time when, of course, Graham and Shane had the last laugh!! We returned to the hostel for a bite to eat (and a little drink!) and set off to go Bowling. The boys were given 4 private lanes and despite a little bit of alcohol fuelled silliness things went well and everyone had a good time. We returned to the hostel once more where the boys all enjoyed a little more alcohol.... Once again Matt Darkins got friendly with the natives. David joned in with him singing songs with the Dutch! Simon took over the computer juke-box behind the bar, assisted by Sparky and amongst the drinking quite a few cigars were smoked! By morning Matt Darkins had spent the night in a different room due to leaving his key-card on his bed, Dave and Sparky had made an uninvited visit to one of the other rooms and several boys had slept in their clothes..and shoes. With a full schedule ahead most of the boys made breakfast on time, but extracting Sparky, Simon, Brennan and Ben was rather more difficult. A task achieved whilst the coach driver was waiting..... But, with all rooms clean and all boys loaded we set off for De Eftling theme park en-route to the airport... Once at the park the rain came down, but boys set off in all directions. Sightings were made of the boys all 'round the park on the various roller-coasters although rumour has it that some of them took to the relaxing boat trip 'round the lake purely for a sleep! The coach returned the boys to Eindhoven Airport where after a couple of hours wait, spent mainly eating and playing cards (whereupon Jack spent several minutes out in the cold as some sort of forfeit), before boarding a very busy flight home having first had to contend with some world-class queue jumping! Back at Stansted Graham thanked all the boys for their efforts over the years and we now look forward to the presentation night on June 9th and seeing the outcome of Ashley's four hours of video edited down into the tour DVD!! Today I received the following e-mail: "Thanks for taking the time to drop me an email. I'm glad to hear that your guys all enjoyed themselves. Obviously we take a lot of youth groups away each year and in a time when kids in general come in for a lot of stick over their behaviour and attitude it was nice to see them having a good time and not causing any problems whatsoever. It was a pleasure having them with us." Jem Hancock, Touring Sport |
| May 18th - May 20th |
| Hedingham Hawks didn't stand a chance against great DTS'35 A1 Ede. Friday May 18. DTS'35 A1 closed the football season really well with a match against the British Hedingham Hawks Youth Football Club. At home at the sports park Inschoten the East London team was beaten with 3-2. Although Hedingham Hawks had a few exciting attacks for the keeper Niels van de Top, who had luck on his side a few times, the Londoners didn't stand a chance in Ede. DTS A1 were the kings on their own field. In the very first minute the superfast Mark Drijvers found the keeper, else the score would've begun soon. DTS played well, except for losing the ball on the midfield because of nonchalance and not being carefull. Also the throw-ins weren't always precise and hard. Our thank goes to Ap Domonicus, Fred Steinmeijer and the referee of Friday night. Thanks to their work, we were able to play football at this unusual night. DTS A1 opened the score via Allard Maltha. With a free kick from more than 30 meters the captain brought the team on a well-earned 1-0. DTS kept playing uncarefull but the close DTS defense with great players Stefan Ossekoppele and Nick Hilgersom killed all potential danger. After a great attack in the 35th minute via Nadim Melekzai, Mark Drijvers and Lesley Nap, Bart Buitenhuis scored the 2-0 very precisely. Hedingham seemed to have forgotten a little about the technical sice, but they'd get an 8 (out of 10) for their motivation. Especially the captain of the British team would be great to have at DTS. Mainly because of their input, the Londoners got to 2-1. An attack on the left side was finished great, so their was a surprisingly 2-1 at halftime. In the mean time a beautiful head-goal of Nadim Melekzai was disapproved after a even more beautiful pass by Mark Drijvers. DTS didn't understand this. After halftime the Hedingham Hawks had a good start. They well earned the 2-2, as DTS obviously lost concentration. Hedingham Hawks had the final strike after more than an hour. After a beautiful pass the defense had to let go of the fast Drijvers, and it turned 3-2. DTS had a few other chances to score, but they didn't score anymore on this Friday night. |
| This somewhat one-sided match report comes from DTS '35's own website and was kindly translated by HawksWeb's fantastic Dutch friend Rianne!! |