The fan favourites, UCL Men’s Hockey, played a highly attacking game, pressing from the front constantly to secure a relatively easy Varsity victory last night.
Prior to the match, a minute’s silence was held for Aalia Mahomed, a KCL student who was killed in a collision on the Strand last Tuesday. A minute of silence will be held at the start of all Varsity matches this year as a sign of cross-college solidarity in the face of such an awful tragedy.
UCL opened the scoring after just 4 minutes following some sloppy play at the back from the Reds’ defenders.
The scoring continued shortly after with a short corner goal from H. Kwong finding its way into the back of the net.
UCL’s high press forced many turnovers throughout the game, allowing the Purples to draw foul after foul from the KCL defence. This seemed to have been the tactic for last year’s Varsity winners, with KCL unable to defend against the well-drilled UCL team.
Another short corner in the 29th minute saw a KCL defender deflect the ball into his own net to make the score 3-0.
A few chances came KCL’s way late into the second half, but the quality of their long passing was not matched by the ability of their attackers to control the ball.
Just before half time, UCL’s Balraj Singh went on to score two identical goals in quick succession after KCL gave away back to back short corners. On both occasions Singh hammered his shots into the top netting, putting UCL 5 to the good as the sides went into half time. Indeed, by that stage of the match any remnant of fiery contest had truly extinguished, with King’s merely hoping to find a consolidation goal going into the second half.
The second half opened with a beautiful goal from UCL’s number 16 Max Garner, who had a fantastic outing. He followed his goal up with another in the 55th minute after placing the ball in the back of the net with a well struck tomahawk.
The score remained at 7-0 until the late into the second half, when some disorganisation in the King’s back line allowed for Garner to score his third of the night.
The game finished 8-0, with the King’s side never looking anywhere near to getting a goal.
The fans on the night were a mixed bag, with UCL bringing a strong, and very loud, audience. The Purple army’s renditions of the classic Burlington Bertie chant, accompanied by their endless singing of “I’d rather go to SOAS than to King’s”, well and truly drowned out any inkling of a chant from the less populated King’s stand.
Unlike the rather boring KCL crowd, UCL brought someone dressed as a Heineken bottle along. Absurd spectacles weren’t confined to the stands however, with UCL’s number 6, Matthew Stevenson, appearing to have given himself a monk-like hair cut prior to the big occasion.
