Years of building up go into Yobbos’ title success

And yet, even after being crowned champions thanks to a resounding win in their final match of a successful Division One campaign, captain Steve Eulenkamp seemed almost reluctant to count his chickens even though they had hatched.

That is what comes from being a stalwart of a side who had not been competing at the top end of the league for many years.

Look at their team list from Saturday, though, and it hardly comes as a surprise that a squad that can boast such quality has come out on top of an intriguing three-way title race which also involved Indies and Colombians.

‘I think it goes back the last three, four, five years,’ said Eulenkamp of the key to their success.

‘We have been down the bottom of the league for ages now and we have been able to bring in some good young players who have come back to the island and played for us – the likes of Matt Stokes, Ant Stokes, Will and Hugo Thompson, Jonny Clark.

‘It has just added a bit of fire and a bit of skill to our team, a bit more experience from them going away and playing at uni and we have just played some great hockey this year.’

Without wanting to get ahead of themselves, signs are that this is far from a flash in the pan for this group of Yobbos, too, and theoretically they should be capable of challenging for the title for several years to come.

‘We look like we’re going to keep most of the guys who have been around this season ... and hopefully we will just be able to kick on and keep playing well,’ Eulenkamp said.

‘I think the important thing is we are all enjoying our hockey at the moment. It’s great to win games, it’s great to have close games, but it’s better to enjoy them. We have had close games over the last few years where we have lost but still had a great time playing and I think that’s the most important thing – that is what Yobbos is all about.’

Matt Stokes certainly enjoyed himself on Saturday morning when Elizabeth College learned the lesson of not giving him penalty-corners from which he can demonstrate his drag-flick prowess.

The students conceded three inside the opening quarter of an hour and they paid the ultimate price every time as Stokes gave a masterclass, putting unstoppable efforts into the top-right, bottom-right and then top-left corners.

College had come up with a fine equaliser thanks to Cameron Rivers-Moore to the first of those Stokes strikes, but by the end of the first quarter they were 4-1 down with the man of the moment having completed a hat-trick before Jonny Clark added the fourth having played a neat one-two with Ant Stokes before slotting home.

When the older Stokes brother finally got one of his drag-flicks wrong, within a few seconds he was taking it out on the ball by thumping it home on the volley for his fourth goal with College having been unable to clear the danger.

Having reached half-time with a comfortable 5-1 lead, albeit with Dan Brown having made a couple of good saves to deny Charlie Clapham, Yobbos quickly went in search of more goals in the second half and added a couple to their tally in the first six minutes.

Ryan Gilson had the simple task of knocking in the sixth after a high-class interchange between the Stokes brothers and then Matt added his fifth goal of the game with arguably his best drag-flick of the lot that hit the roof of the net like a rocket.

Andy Good’s youngsters never gave up and Brown came up with an excellent double save to deny Will Rouget and Jake Swaisland, but the final goal came at the other end with more than 20 minutes still remaining as Jack Birch scored from a narrow angle after being set up by excellent work from George Le Roux.

‘Once we got the first goal in I think that settled the nerves a little bit and we went on from there,’ said Eulenkamp, whose side won 10 of their last 11 matches having started the season with just a couple of wins in their first five games.

‘It was just good to get some good performances in at the start, maybe we didn’t get the results we wanted, but then a really good run from then and we’ve just continued to play in the same way.

‘We had a few moments where we almost lost it, but just carried on and it’s been really good.’

Now there is the prospect of the chance to become Channel Islands champions.

‘To be honest I’ve never really thought about the Upton before – it’s always been well out of our reach – but a couple of months ago started to get excited about it and hopefully we’ll get the chance of playing the Jersey champions,’ said the Yobbos captain.