Cambridge University Lacrosse Club

14/10/07

Cambridge 12 - UEA 9

The first match of a season is always a testing time, and this match was no different. The end of last season had seen one of the strongest varsity performances in recent years, and we were determined to build on it and start the new year with heart, skill and a dominating victory.

However, we were only two weeks into term, and featured a lot of new blood replacing last year’s leavers. Despite not having had much experience together we were confident in our abilities; we had a strong record against UEA and could see the individual skills we each possessed.

Having a home game was to our advantage, giving us the time to properly warm up and prepare for the battle. We started in the ideal fashion with James V controlling the draw and the confident Cambridge attack slotting in with a sweet finish – doing a brilliant job of calming my nerves.

UEA were strong though, fielding the best team I’ve seen from them in the last three years and were quick to counter, taking advantage of our lack of communication in the defence and brought the scores level.

We finished the quarter ahead of the opposition and took the time of the break to re-group. The added measure of control showed itself straight from the restart. Throughout the quarter, our midfield especially was dominant with such sleek passing and cutting running that it was surprising that we didn’t score more.

The remainder of the match followed in the same vein. We squandered some of our chances in the fan, and our defending was a little loose on occasion – both down to only having really played with each other a couple of times, and aspects which I’m sure will improve over future outings.

Special note should go to Stuart Mac – scoring in his first 10 seconds representing Cambridge, and duly being awarded man of the match by the UEA captain. Livia also won the ladies’ award for her silky skills harrying work in attack.

The final score was 12-9 to Cambridge. The relief of victory and getting off to a winning start was a fantastic feeling, although many areas presented themselves as points for us to work on. We are a very new team and know that this is only the start; that we must raise our game each week. This assured performance, though, gives me no doubt that we will succeed in this challenge.

Jack Baldwin