Four goals from Duncan Parnis and a fifth from Adam Ward sealed a 5-0 win for the Men’s 1st team against Hampstead and Westminster on Saturday. Goalkeeper David Gough-Cooper was the player of the match as his quality between the sticks helped the team to their first clean sheet of the season too!
On Saturday HC Knole Park’s Men’s 1st team played Hampstead and Westminster Colts at home. In blustery & wet conditions, the youngest Men’s 1st team so far this season set about the match in fine form. A series of penalty corners in the first few minutes were unfortunately unconverted, however some of the early hockey played was some of the best of the season so far.
Two converted penalty corners by Duncan Parnis did however start the scoring as Knole Park went 2-0 up. The second part of the first half did belong to Hampstead however as the travelling opposition started to gel and they created a number of excellent opportunities. They hit the post and tested goalkeeper David Gough-Cooper with a number of excellent shots.
In a much improved second half, Knole Park played some superb passing hockey moving the ball throughout the team. Ollie Bingham, debutant Charlie Harrison and Adam Ward all played superbly and linked up with Duncan on a number of occasions as the team looked to increase their lead. The result was some sustained pressure on the Hampstead goal and despite some excellent goalkeeping from the visiting goalkeeper Duncan was able to score two more penalty corners to take the score to 4-0.
The fifth goal was one of the best goals of the season so far. David Gough-Cooper made another double save, before Jago Ongley-Dellar calmly played the ball out to Duncan. He rolled the ball to Indy Morris who linked with Ollie Bingham through midfield. Ollie’s excellent through ball was superbly taken by Mike Legon whose ankle breaking shoulder drop allowed him to ghost past the last defender before rolling the ball to Adam Ward to score another trademark goal! A great way to finish the match. In deteriorating conditions David made one more excellent save to preserve the clean sheet and keep Knole Park top of the league!
