It was a tale of David versus Goliath (or rather Davina versus Goliatha as this was a girls’ match). A collection of 15 determined U14A Sevenoaks girls undertook the perilous journey to Greater London on a grey Sunday morning to challenge a very tall U16A Blackheath & Elthamians. Some of the opponents were twice, nay almost thrice, the size of our heroic Kent-grown girls, who were left undeterred in their desire to take to the battlefield against their towering opponents of unbeatable hockey heritage (Blackheath apparently is the oldest hockey club in the world).

After a very organised warm-up, some last-ditch war-food (probably gummy bears) and a final rallying cry by Ian, both sides took the field for an unequal battle on this undoubtably memorable day.

Unexpectedly, the giants had the initial upper hand. However, it took only 10 minutes for the daunting realisation to appear that any underestimation of their much shorter opponents would be a fatal misjudgement. A broken-through right-wing player was (unfortunately and irregularly) halted by Kelsey, resulting in her very first green card. The 10 remaining girls heroically fended off the resulting short corner and subsequent offensive. Thankfully, it did not take long for the squad to be reunited in full strength.

A more determined, aggressive Sevenoaks was able to ever so slightly shift this epic clash in its favour, creating more chances than their opponents with strong transfers and passing, resulting in a well-deserved goal by an incredibly persistent Emily.

In the second half, our viragos took to the pitch with just a single aim: to defeat these giants once and for all. However, Blackheath had other plans… strong pressure on the (otherwise very solid) Sevenoaks defence resulted in increasing loss of possession during outletting. Might Goliath strike down David after all? With pressure mounting, lightning struck (well it was actually more of a collective lightbulb moment) and the team remembered an old piece of wisdom: ‘If you are not strong, you’d better be smart’. Displaying fantastic maturity and intelligence, Sevenoaks used its lack of dominance in midfield possession to create a series of ever-so deadly counters. The first of two finishing blows came, when Emma decided - after travelling most of the outside of D - to finally just deposit the ball in the giant’s goal. The final act came in the dying seconds of this epic (en)counter when Holly single-(back)handily finished off a smart solo by passing through the remaining Blackheath defence.

After a hard-fought, very well-deserved victory, the U14A girls returned homeward. And for those who paid attention, they all seemed to look just a bit taller.