Spencer 10 – 5 Hampstead

Spencer 2’s 10 – 10 Croydon

Oxford University Iroquois 7 – 9 Spencer 3’s

A win pulled out of the fire as a theoretically strong Spencer 3’s team made hard work of beating 10-man Oxford 2nd team, the Oxford University Iroquois.

The 3’s ran with a deep 16-man squad comprising of the usual young and old suspects this season plus the first game for a while for James ‘Moose’ Morrison. The only 3’s regular missing was captain Mike Sheahan. Spencer were expecting an easy win, especially as we humped Oxford 15-4 in the opening game of the season.

However within minutes of the game, this was to be a different story. Oxford were faster in body and mind, won every ground ball and created numerous fast breaks early on and raced to a 4-1 lead. Every time a Spencer player won the ball, he promptly lost it again or threw it away. We just were not switched on.

Changes were made for the second quarter which made a big difference. Milo moved up to long stick midfield and Fred dropped back into defence. That sorted out our defensive issues. With the ball we started to move it better and control possession. A few mistakes led to more Oxford goals but Spencer were gaining control and edging into the Oxford lead.

By the fourth quarter, the 10-man Oxford team were starting to slow down. This gave Spencer an extra advantage and took the lead at 6-7.  Oxford levelled but Spencer soon scored an 8th. Oxford had 3 man-up periods but they only converted one into a goal, otherwise this could of been even more of a nail biter. A few last gasp defensive checks plus plenty of saves from Colin stopped Oxford scoring while Andy finished a nice team move to score the Spencer 9th that iced the game with only 30 seconds to play.

At the whistle, Spencer were relieved. Take away the first quarter and it was not a bad performance, just a little under par. If Oxford had some subs, the result may of been completely different. From the neutrals perspective a great advert for the standard of East Division 3 lacrosse and Spencer’s hopes of promotion this season remain intact.