Yate 1st team started their Summer League campaign with a trip to Chew Valley to take on the hosts Mendip, on what turned out to be a very pleasant evening. The game was played in great spirit by both teams, with some excellent attacking hockey on display.
Mendip started the stronger, pegging Yate back into their own half with some strong attacking down the right flank. However, they found the defence of goalkeeper Ollie Baldwin, Dom Chambers, Angus Friell, Jonny Edwards and Josh Johnson in fine form so - apart from one disallowed goal - clear cut chances were restricted and short corners were dealt with fairly comfortably. Yate counter-attacked superbly, with the speed of transition causing the hosts problems, with the midfield of David Sharpe, Matt Hall, Will Davies and Matt Clark feeding the speedy forwards. From one of those breaks, Yate opened the scoring as Danny Pearce found space in the 'D' and flicked the ball into the roof of the net.
The game continued in the same vein with Mendip attacking and Yate relying on their speedy forwards with Rhys Gamlin and Nick Perry-Gough causing all sorts of problems for the Mendip defence.Just before half-time, Gamlin broke down the right and found the experienced Mike Chaney in the 'D' and he hit a rising shot past the GK's left hand to double Yate's advantage.
The half-time team talk focussed on passing the ball earlier which seemed to go out of the window as Mendip once again started stronger, penning Yate in their half for long periods, causing a few scrambles in the defence and being awarded a few short corners, which were dealt with by the defence and strong kicking by Baldwin. The game was decided by another excellent counter-attack, Sharpe picking the ball up and feeding Gamlin in the left channel, he moved the ball quickly to Perry-Gough, who passed the ball around the GK to Gamlin, who had a tap in to an empty net. This galvanized Yate and shortly after Gamlin converted a penalty corner with a deflected shot from a Pearce injection.