The Blues
After finishing 7th in the league last year, the Men’s Blues were relegated as a result of a restructuring of the East Leagues, resulting in them having a place in Division 1 North with the Wanderers, our Men’s second team. This, along with the large influx of highly talented players in the club, means that anything but promotion would be deemed as failure!
On the opening weekend, the Blues started strong with an 8-0 win over the Wandies. Incoming player Raunaq scoring 4, a common theme that we see for the rest of the season. Into the next weekend, the Blues see off St Ives 1s with a 7-0 score line. First year Femi Owolade-Coombes grabbing a hattrick along with goals from Joe Greer and Pete Jansen. In the following matchweek, the Blues demolish Cambridge Hockey Club 8-3 with high scoring games starting to be expected from the Blues. Spalding 1s were similarly no problem for the Blues with a season high 9-0 scoreline and goals spread across the entire team! 5-2, 5-1 and 6-1 wins against Harleston Magpies 2s, UEA and City of Peterborough 2s continued what is shaping up to be quite an easy weekend league season for the Blues. More recently, an 11-0 win against Wisbech Town and a 9-0 win against Norwich City 2s have easily solidified their place. The Men’s Blues sit top of the weekend table with 27 points from 27 and a goal difference of 61. In comparison, second in the league Cambridge City 2s have managed 24 points and a goal difference of 16. It is safe to say that promotion and the title is highly likely.
On the other hand, BUCS provides the Blues with their biggest challenge this year as they look for success in the Premier Division (South). To start off the season, the Blues manage an away victory over Oxford Brookes 1s, a well fought 5-3 win with 4 goals from Raunaq. Following on from an extremely successful first match, the Blues are held to a 3-3 draw when facing Cardiff Met 1s. However, the Blues bounce back the next week with a 3-0 win over Cardiff 1s including 2 more from Raunaq and another from Owen Dyson! With the Blues confidently sat top of the table, Bristol 2s provided no challenge. A 6-1 win here provides incredible momentum for what will be a tough match against Exeter 2s. After an extremely tight match, the Blues recently suffered a 2-1 loss to Exeter away. However, this is very much not the end of the season as the Blues sit second, 1 point behind Cardiff Met 1s with three games to go. Promotion is absolutely on the cards and undoubtably will be the driving force for the remainder of the season!
Captain Will Laird is pushing his team forward, leading them to many weekend victories and looking to finally get promoted to the National Premier League. A double promotion would be a massive success for the boys and provide great momentum for an exciting new season!
The Wanderers
Following the large amount of relegations in the East Leagues last year, Division 1 North just got a little bit harder for the Wanderers. Luckily, the Wandies have also improved an incredible amount! They look to push for a promotion spot this year!
Unfortunately for our Men’s 2nd team, their season started with a tough match against a team that wanted to make a statement, the newly relegated Blues. However, what came to be quite a one sided match showed glimmers of hope for the rest of the season. The Wandies shone next week with a 4-1 win over Long Sutton 1s, a hattrick from Freddie McElwaine-Johnn showing that week one’s result was an ill representation of the team the Wandies could be. With momentum on their side, the Wandies went 2-0 up against Cambridge City 2s, yet against the run of play ended up losing 3-2. With the team now settled and everyone back in Cambridge, captain Connor Singleton decided that a big win was necessary. The Wandies provided just that with an impressive 8-0 win against St. Ives, away from home. Anyone who has played in the east leagues will recall how difficult that pitch is! Another hattrick from Freddie McElwaine-Johnn and a brace from a returning Samuel Pritchard meant the Wandies were well and truly back. The following week provided a challenge, with Cambridge 1s very up for a match against a team that they beat 5-0 last year. Yet, the Wandies held strong and were unlucky to come away with just a 2-2 draw in the end! Facing UEA 1s the following week brought another 4-2 win, with a first brace for Lucas Savage, an impressive new striker. Following this, another 6-2 win, this time against Spalding 1s, left the Wandies 3rd in the league with promotion a very real possibility. Unfortunately for the Wandies, luck has not been on their side as of late, with a 2-1 loss against a very strong Harleston Magpies 2s and quite a disappointing 3-3 draw against Wisbech Town. The Wandies currently sit 6th in the weekend league, a vast improvement on last year’s finish.
Following a narrow relegation from their BUCS league last year, the Wandies find themselves in Men’s Midlands Tier 3. Starting off with 3-0 and 3-2 wins against Nottingham 7s and Nottingham Trent 5s respectively, the Wandies still wanted more from themselves. A slightly weaker side took an unfortunate loss to Loughborough 6s away and in a search for improvement, they were unfortunate to come away with a 3-3 draw in the reverse fixture the next week. There was still much improvement to be made! The Wandies’ latest BUCS match finished 8-0, a far more fitting result! 4 goals from Freddie McElwaine-Johnn were matched by 4 goals from newly converted forward Henry Murphy. Is this a sign of more goals to come for the Wandies? Going into Christmas, the Wandies sit top of the table with 3 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss. Promotion is surely on the cards here!
Captain Connor Singleton is incredibly excited for the rest of the season and with the team getting better and better every week, I think there are some incredible moments ready for the Wandies in the new year!
The Squanderers
Currently sat in Division 3 North West, the Squandies are very much looking for a tough title charge this season. Having missed out on promotion last season following some unfortunate results, the Squandies are absolutely raring to gain re-entry to Division 2 North West.
As is the case with every first fixture, the Squandies struggled in their first match against City of Peterborough 5s. Two first half goals, one of which from captain Finn Dovey, were not enough as the Squandies Squandered all 3 points. No change of routine there. The following week provided our Men’s 3s an opportunity for redemption against Cambridge South 4s, an opportunity they took! A game practically ran by (now Wanderer) Ben James ended 3-1, the first steps towards a big point tally at the end of the season! The following week saw a 4-0 win against Cambridge Nomads 2s with a brace from Kyrill Borzenko! Incredibly eager for more goals, the Squandies faced Spalding 2s and their eagerness paid off, going 3-0 up in only 8 minutes! The game finished 7-1 in the end with goals shared amongst the entire team! With the Squandies very much settled into the season, they then won 5-0 against St Ives 3s including goals from fresher James McKinley-Smith and a 7th goal of the season for Ben Lewis! Unfortunately, the next two matches were against City of Peterborough 4s and Cambridge City 3s, the two top teams in the league both of which were relegated in the season before! Two 2-0 losses were certainly disappointing, but did not mean that the season was over. Especially since Cambridge City 3s are yet to concede a goal this season. In recent weeks, a 3-2 win over Ely City 2s and a 4-0 win over previous promotion rivals Long Sutton 2s have given the Squandies new hope.
They now sit third in the league with a goal difference of 17 and are only 4 points behind Cambridge City 4s, who they play this weekend! The promotion race is already getting tight but it is still entirely in the Squanderers hands. Finn Dovey pushes his team forward every week and constantly reminds them of this! Will they Squander it? Or will this finally be the Squandies’ year?
The Blunderers
The 2024/25 sees the Blundies in Division 4 North West. Having been only one win away from promotion last season, the ever improving Blunderers have once again set their sights on joining the Squandies in Division 3 North West.
Starting off the season in October, the Blundies dug deep to maintain a 0-0 scoreline and get a point on the table. However, they faced a set back against Bourne Deeping 2s ending the match with a 2-0 loss. This team had beat the Squandies last season and came into the match with incredible confidence, something the Blundies had not prepared for. The official start of the season for the Blundies came in week 3 when they successfully defeated Cambridge City 6s with goals from Harry Neal, Alexander Röntgen and Riley Aumonier! It was a club wide feeling that Adam Harris’ team was surely going to use this momentum for many wins going forward. Going into the bye week, the Blundies had some games to catch up on with fixtures against Newmarket 2s and Kettering 3s on Friday and Saturday! The Blunderers finished this weekend with 6 points from 6 with 3-1 and 9-1 wins. This includes a hattrick from Röntgen as well as another 3 goals from Club Treasurer Sachin Bhogal! The next game week was no exception to this incredible run of form as the Blundies saw off Wisbech Town 3s with a defiant 6-2 win, once again Röntgen scoring twice! Kettering 2s posed the first great challenge of the season for the Blundies, with an athletic and physical team coming to WIlberforce Road to try and gain a win. Fortunately for the Blundies, goals from Luke Boniface as well as Leo Parry-Wingfield and Harry Neal culminated in a 3-1 win. Going into the final few gameweeks of Michealmas term, the Blundies were well and truly flying. Unfortunately however, Cambridge City 5s, much improved compared to last season, managed a 4-1 win over the Blundie Boys. A harsh weak of training in the cold and a push for competitive Hockey by captain Adam Harris culminated in a 7-2 win against Spalding 3s. More goals from Leo Parry-Wingfield and further goals from Bilal Qureshi and Henry Means secured 3 more points!
As we head into the Christmas Break, the Blundies sit in the promotion zone placed second in the league with 19 points! The title is absolutely within Harris’ men’s grasps as they chase top of the league Cambridge City 5s in the new year. It’s likely we see the Blundies in Division 3 North West next season and it is absolutely down to Adam and the team for the incredible performances we have seen so far this year. We’re excited for many more high scoring matches and an incredible first varsity win since 2018 for the Blunderers!
We will do our best to get back to you as soon as possible.
