Vets make is six from six in wind and rain against leaders Ardingly
The top two in the Mid Sussex League Fred Pretty Veterans Plate met at Oriel High School in deepest, darkest Crawley where Hassocks ran out 2-1 winners over divisional leaders Ardingly.
Victory stretched the Robins’ perfect league campaign so far to six wins out of six in Group A, where Nick Newman’s side trail Ardingly by three points.
Ardingly have completed their fixtures whilst Hassocks have three games left to play and a vastly superior goal difference.
One win from those final matches will therefore be enough to see Hassocks top the table, putting themselves in a really strong position for when the knockout rounds start involving the top four teams from Group A and Group B.
Not that anybody was thinking about that come the full time whistle. All the yellow-clad Hassocks players wanted to do was get back into the changing rooms after 90 minutes played in torrential rain and a 40 mile per hour wind blowing from one end of the pitch down to the other.
So cold were the Robins come the full time whistle that half the squad showered still wearing their kits in an attempt to warm up.
Whilst this was no problem for hardy individuals like Steve Spies and Nick Newman, Anthony Hibbert was a little put out that his hair had been messed up. It remains to be seen whether he can be convinced to play another Vets game this season.
Hassocks made several changes from the side who had beaten Brockham 4-1 in their last game a fortnight earlier. Phil Gault was still ruled out by the injury he picked up in that fixture against the Badgers.
Gaulty has not kicked a ball since, describing the problem as “groin and something else”. Nobody has been able to identify what the something else is.
When Gaulty looked out the window of his Haywards Heath mansion on Sunday morning, he was probably delighted that “something else” had happened to prevent him having to play in such horrific conditions.
Joining Gaulty on the absentee list were Robert Sayers, Che Williams, Dave Juniper and Lee De La Rue Browne. Into the starting XI came Joel Harding, Michael Broadstock, Brendan Leahy, Elliott Butler and Mr 7/10 Richard Thompson.
In a strange turn of events, Steve Spies had already played a game on the Oriel 4G three hours earlier as Hassocks Fatboys won 4-3 to reach the final of the Sussex Sunday Trophy.
“Tt is a small pitch and it is windy,” were Spiesy’s words of wisdom. Clearly, the Robins listened to the advice of Spiesy (either that or getting blown over walking from the car park to the changing rooms was a bit of a giveaway) and adapted to the conditions better than Ardingly.
Jonathan Bundy and Paul Armstrong were the Hassocks scorers with Thomas Freeman grabbing the consolation for a strong Ardingly side.
Hassocks: Joel Harding, Paul Armstrong, Nick Newman, Mitch Broadstock, Ant Humphries, Brendan Leahy, Jonathan Bundy, Anthony Hibbert, Elliott Butler, Richard Thompson, Steve Spies, Dave Juniper.
Subs: Steve Curtis (used).
