In typical Hawker fashion we were up against it from the start.  It was the hottest day of the year, all the booze was on ice for the sponsors and Choco, seniors coach and extremely reliable defender was missing as was 7 other Hawks senior players, so many that in fact Duncs was looking like having to strap on the boots.

Fortunately that was avoided through the arrival of Hooey who whilst only being in the country for two days, and fresh from a rugby training session was keen to give it a go.  And we are all thankful he did. He fitted in well to the Hawkers set up with some great runs through the middle.

The Hawks put up a great fight for the first 5-10 minutes keeping a very strong west london scoreless but with a 5 goal breeze the Wildcats soon hit their targets. Dr Suess managed  to kick truly and scores were 1 goal a piece after 10 minutes but the onslaught was just about to begin.  We battled hard and the boys matched it with them around the ground but their goal kicking power was hard to defend.  Hawkers were down by 8 goals at the first break.

With a stiff breeze behind our backs the second quarter was a closer affair. The Hawks kept possession and linked well. A couple of bad shots at goal proved costly and some of them landing out of bounds on the full had made the Boat race selection an easy task.

The second half was a bit like the first with the heat of the day slowly drawing the run out of the Hawks but not the heart. While the scores showed a convincing loss to the Hawks, we had plenty of chances to put the score on the board.  On more occasions than one, we missed easy shots in front of goal and need to work on keeping possession and being more careful about our disposal of the ball. There were some good signs though and full credit to the boys for battling right to the final siren and for not dropping their heads.

Special mention to the new boys, Hooey and Fraz who played really well.

Only 6 more training sessions and 3 games until the end of the session so hopefully everyone can turn up this week and give the selection committee a real head ache by having a full list to select from.