Wulfs Bite Country Rangers in the West Midlands

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	Saturday 30 March 2013 at the Castlecroft Stadium
Result	AFC Wulfrunians 4 Black Country Rangers 3
Competition	West Midlands Regional League Premier Division (Step 6).
Hopping	Ground 510 on the lifetime list and I am here because I have been in West Bromwich for lunch at the ancestral home!  My first game for a month as it happens.
Pre-match preparation
Frankly, not much beyond “Is the game on?”  I know that both teams have been among the league leaders in recent seasons and today is 2nd v 5th.  Also, as both teams have scored over a hundred league goals each this season, this match might help get my Hopping for Moorfields total back on track after I have missed several weekends for either weather or work reasons.
This match in one sentence
Not as exciting as it might appear from the scoreline – Rangers, by now down to nine men, got two goals in stoppage time to limit the damage to their goal difference.
So what?
No change in league positions (leaders Lye Town also won today and lead by one point) but the gap between fourth and fifth is getting significant.  Lye have already beaten Wulfrunians home and away so the title will come down to how the teams get on against lower-ranked opponents in the remaining fixtures.  Wulfrunians have the better GD.
The drama unfolds
Both sides started with attacking intent and both got into good positions in the early moments, but the first decent shots came after 8 minutes or so.  Wulfs’ Kyle Brady gave a sign of things to come with a left-foot shot just wide, and then home ‘keeper Matt Martin came out to block a Jason Chilton effort with his legs.  A superb through ball then found Brady again, and this time the other ‘keeper, Jamie Wood, needed the lower limbs to block a shot.  All good stuff on a surface which was much better than I had expected to see.  Here is my scene-setter clip from 15 minutes into the game.  AFC Wulfrunians are in the red. Five minutes later, the home side took the lead.  Brady pulled away again to the left of the front line, and a good diagonal ball sent him through on goal.  His left-footer across the keeper was good enough to find the far corner.  1-0 after 20 minutes Alex Hammond of BCR earned a yellow card for a shirt-pull that was to prove significant later on, especially as his team-mate Leigh Pardoe earned a red card for an out-of-control tackle with studs showing just before the break.  Half-time spectator chat suggested that the ref had upgraded a yellow to a red for something said.  1-0 at half-time Nathan Rose-Laing got a second for the home side against the ten Rangers.  Wood got a hand to his flick, but could not keep it out.  2-0 after 52 minutes Four minutes later, however, Andrew Price scored to keep the visitors in the game and the result in doubt.  2-1 after 56 minutes However, Hammond’s second yellow card, for a late tackle, made it an 11 v 9 game and Mike Robertson got a goal on the hour mark with a shot that Wood could only partially stop.  3-1 after 60 minutes Mike Robertson gets on the scoresheet Mid-way through the half, Brady got his second to open up a three goal margin and seal the win.  4-1 after 66 minutes However, either complacency set in, or they got careless, who knows.  The Rangers got a goal from Aaron Lloyd in the last minute and got another through Shane Parkes in stoppage time.  There was not enough time after the last one for anyone to get really jumpy.  Final score 4-3
The programme
A black-and-white programme as the fixture had been in doubt all week, but the club also gave away complimentary copies of a previous programme.  Nice touch.
Something random
The rose symbol on the wall of the main stand at Castlecroft is the sign of the ownership of the ground by the Rugby Football Union.  This venue is a former Wolverhampton Wanderers training ground that was more recently occupied by England’s “schoolboy” rugby sides.  The main stand is way ahead of anything else I have encountered in Step 6.
Hopping for Moorfields Update
Seven goals, so we are now up to 170 for the season.
Mars Bar Watch 2013
No purchases today, as I am working through one of my many chocolatey leaving presents from last Thursday.  (Regular readers of my tweetage will know that I am now between jobs, and I am shortly heading back into the wild and wacky world of secondary school science teaching.  This partly explains the reduction in my blog output this month.  Bear with me as I find a new position of equilibrium!  Which is in itself an A-level chemistry reference.)  Rumour has it that Asda has been selling a 4-pack of standard 58g bars for a loss-leading £1.  I will have to investigate.  Please tweet me if you can confirm.
What Next?
Hopefully crossing paths with a group of European friends as they head for Stamford v Kings Lynn tomorrow.

Storm Rumble as Thunder Crumble

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	Monday 11 March 2013 at the Surrey Sports Park
Result	Surrey Storm 62 Manchester Thunder 44
Competition	Superleague – the top tier of netball in England
Hopping	Second netball venue, which is the same as that used for basketball by the Surrey Heat.  However, not the first venue in which I have seen two different sports – that honour went to the Madejski Stadium, Reading (football and rugby union).
Pre-match preparation
The games between these two sides last season were epics, hence my choice. Both teams have a 3-1 record – Storm lost by a point at Yorkshire Jets in their last outing, which was something of a surprise.  Thunder have a certain Tracey of the Neville sporting dynasty as director of netball.
This match in one sentence
Thunder edged the first few minutes before the teams ended all square at the interval, but then Storm blew their opponents off the court with a third quarter demolition and a stunning 18-point margin of victory.
So what?
Storm overtake Thunder in the table and join Team Bath (the only team to defeat Thunder so far) with a 4-1 record.
The drama unfolds
First signs were not great for Storm. They found themselves 2-6 and 4-9 down to some clinical Thunder play, and contributed to their situation with a number of unforced errors.  They clawed their way back to a two-point deficit at the end of the first quarter, with GA Ash Neal catching the eye as GS Rachel Dunn saw less of the ball than usual.  11-13 at the end of the 1st quarter Here’s a scene-setter clip from early in the second, as Storm start to perform and they get back to 16-16.  You will detect from these clips that I am with one of Storm’s best and noisiest young supporters!  Top work, Ed.  Storm are in blue. For my second-time visit to a top netball game, I made more of an effort to watch the tactics and the movement.  Here are 100 seconds in the life of a netball Centre, Storm’s Becky Trippick. The crowd reaction tells you that the teams are trading scores and we finish level at the half-way mark.  23-23 at the end of the 2nd quarter With TV cameras present (this goes out on Thursday), the match was shaping up into the close encounter that everyone expected.  For about another 5 minutes.  Dunn was now firing on all cylinders and Neal continued to impress.  Here are two minutes of GS Dunn, but of course Neal is featured too. It’s 32-30 and Storm have edged into the lead … and then suddenly it was 37-31 and 41-31 as they stepped up a gear and Thunder could not respond. Dunn was now scoring for fun with a near-flawless conversion rate now.  Thunder reorganised, and used a timeout, but they were rattled and down by 11 at the next break.  44-33 at the end of the 3rd quarter Other than a brief period of scrappy play in the fourth, Storm never looked like losing their grip.  I took a couple of clips of Ash Neal at work, though Dunn is scoring heavily at these points too.  For my untutored eyes, Ash Neal was player of the match overall.  The local experts gave that honour to WD Natalie Seaton. It finished 62-44.  That is an 18-point margin in a match that was expected to be close.  Whatever the Storm coaching staff said at half-time should be put on motivational posters with pictures of kittens or something.  Facebook loves that stuff.  Final score 62-44 Ashleigh Neal, Storm's GA, in the blue
The programme
Mars Bar Watch 2013
At BP Wisley North on the A3, a standard 58g bar cost 85p.  I should be outraged really, but I am in such a good mood because of this £1 off cheese voucher picked up at the game.  Awesome.
What Next?
No idea really.  Regular followers on Twitter will know that I am shortly changing jobs and heading back into the secondary school sector with a new challenge, back in the classroom full-time after Easter.  The next few weeks will be very busy and hopping decisions are likely to be last-minute.  Follow @GrahamYapp and be among the first to know, and maybe even help make the decisions.  I shall watch some more netball sometime – athletes performing with both pace and skill in a game in which there is respect for officials, and the ideals of sportsmanship are embedded into the way it all works.  No wonder the school parties are here in force. #letsgostorm is what I say.