The Combermere School Old Scholars (CSOS) Hockey Club emerged victorious in the 2024 Open Masters League, capturing the title in their last match of the season against All Stars Sports and Social Club at the Usain Bolt Sports Complex on Tuesday night.
Though it was a league competition, the match could have been considered a final as the winning team would top the standings and take the championship. CSOS, however, only needed a draw from this last fixture to repeat as champions, while All Stars needed the win and the three points.
In a keenly contested match which featured former and current national players, CSOS opened the scoring early in the second quarter – after a goalless first period – through a welldirected strike from former national forward and senior women’s team head coach Aaron Forde in the 14th minute, beating All Stars’ custodian and national goalkeeper Andre Boyce across the body.
Play continued evenly with All Stars creating opportunities of their own, testing CSOS’ goalkeeper Dr Kristina Hinds in the process. All Stars’ forwards Joel Bodkin and Damien Downes, with support from midfielder Jemar Small, pressed the CSOS defence hard and were rewarded just after the halftime restart in the 25th minute, after a searching ball from Downes found Bodkin deep in the CSOS defence. He executed a targeted cross that allowed an arriving Omar Drakes to have a regulation slot home tobeat Hinds, levelling the scores at 1-1. A reinvigorated All Stars side, with the tempo in their favour, continued to press and test the defence of CSOS who were able to see out the third quarter without conceding any further.
In the final quarter, CSOS took the field with renewed purpose, and almost immediately after the touch-off, the Waterford masters strung together an impressive sequence of passes which ended in the 37th minute’ with Forde squeezing a shot into the surface that beat Boyce over the body as he went to ground in an attempt to keep it out. With that goal, CSOS again took the lead at 2-1 with just under 12 minutes left to play.
All Stars created more chances of their own, the best of which came from a CSOS midfield blunder that gave the Stars a 3 vs 1 opportunity against Hinds, but they wereunable to convert, with Bodkin sending his shot well wide of the uprights. That missed opportunity would prove costly, as in the dying seconds of the match, CSOS’ Forde featured again. This time he delivered a near perfect cross to his teammate, the ever-green Mark Owen, who expertly slotted home the proverbial nail-in-the-coffin in the 49th minute, just seconds before the final whistle, to see the final score at 3-1.
With the result, CSOS topped the league and secured the league title for the second consecutive year, while the UWI Blackbirds masters finished an impressive second, and the 2022 champions All Stars were third. Rounding out the masters division, YMCA and Maple Club finished fourth and fifth, respectively.
Earlier in the month, CSOS also captured the 2024 Women’s League Cup by an impressive margin and with a match to spare. The Waterford ladies had a considerably good season as they have played unbeaten to date and are sitting at the top of the league, four points clear of second placed club Legends, with one match remaining.
The Barbados Hockey Federation’s Open Masters League Cup is a keenly contested league competition where clubs can enter teams with both male and female players aged 35 and over. The 2024 Hockey League Season continues on with the Men’s Division 2 on Saturday, July 22, from noon.
(BT/BHF)
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