Greens have a Ball in regaining trophy
The drinks were on James Ball as Guernsey regained the men’s inter-insular trophy with a five-star performance on Saturday.
While all squad members put in an excellent shift, Ball was the toast of Footes Lane with a hat-trick for the home side in a 5-2 win.
‘I’m ecstatic. It’s a great feeling,’ said Ball with a smile as wide as the D.
‘I just came out after scoring two and went “I’m going to score a third”. I picked it up, scored the third – just so many good emotions right now, I’m loving it.’
Ball had broken the deadlock before Matt Stokes and Sean Donaldson converted short-corners to give Guernsey a 3-0 half-time lead.
Jersey fought back with a penalty stroke from Pete Millar and a clever finish from Barney Aston to narrow the deficit to one, but Ball got the crucial next goal before sealing victory late on after Jersey had taken off their goalkeeper.
‘We’ve had a bit of a rough season and so we wanted to execute big today and we really did – played 70 minutes of proper hockey and came out with the result,’ said the hat-trick hero.
‘The [half-time] team talk was the stereotypical “it’s still 0-0, go out and keep fighting”. They got two goals but it wasn’t enough.’
The first team success completed a clean sweep of home victories in the three men’s matches as the third team started the day with a 5-2 win of their own before Steve Waldrom scored the only goal of the second team encounter.
It was the opposite story in the women’s games with Jersey sweeping the board, culminating in a come-from-behind 4-1 triumph in the first-team clash. The Reds had won the second team game 2-0 and the thirds 2-1.
Match reports in Monday’s Guernsey Press.
