Following their cup exit a few weeks previously, Mid Sussex had a home draw against Reigate Priory in the wintery drizzle at The Triangle in what proved to be a cracking match and a great advert for mixed hockey.

Despite both teams having had a festive eve-of-match the contest started evenly and played in a very good but competitive spirit. It was fairly evenly balanced but perhaps the Middies players were a little slower to shake off the previous night and amongst all of the outstanding play there were a few misplaced passes in our own half and defence and eventually RP scored a well-taken breakaway goal. Both sides continued to look dangerous but RP were edging it and, despite Andy Couves weaving his magic in tight corners on our baseline and great support being provided by his fellow defenders and midfielders, RP slotted in a second to go into the break 2-0 up.

The second half was equally impressive from both sides but perhaps Middies were shaking off their hangovers as RP began to succumb to theirs and after just a few minutes Harry Musson weaved his way into the D and sent over a cross which Chloe Threadgold finished beautifully. Around 10 minutes later Abbie Dixon continued her fine form and set up Charlie Elwell-Sutton to level the score at 50 minutes. The match ebbed and flowed but it was now RP making passing errors and Middies' tails were up and every player was contributing with hard running and good decision-making. On the hour, Harry Musson scored his own goal for Middies to take the lead and the Reds' marginal dominance continued, albeit with some dangerous moments from RP breakaways and penalty corners.

Just under 5 minutes from the end, a Middies penalty corner injection went awry but fell to Charlie E-S outside the dotted line. The ladies first-strike protocol now being redundant, Charlie smashed the ball back into the D and Ollie E-S deflected it into the RP net for the game to draw to a close with a 4-2 win for the home side.

Thanks and credit go to each and every player for a superb performane and thanks go to Andrew Hough once again for his excellent umpiring and to Fi Dixon for great work running the subs bench. Each player deserves a special mention but perhaps Coby should be picked out for an excellent contribution in his first mixed game, playing outfield instead of in his customary GK kit. Finally, we bid a hopefully temporary farewell to Charlie as he heads off to South Africa to take up a coaching opportunity and we look forward to seeing how his waistline fares in the land of sunshine, beers and braes of mountains of meat!

Merry Xmas all and thank you!