Dereham faced a young Walsham side on Saturday and found themselves 1-0 up in 5 minutes when Les Howlett sneaked into the D to follow up a rebound.

But then normal service was resumed when Dereham failed to play hockey preferring instead to run in very tight circles.

Walsham took advantage and equalised when Dereham failed to clear a shot on goal.

With the defence busy Bill Wiseman took the opportunity to manopolise play, move the ball forward and intimidate friends and foe alike in a match winning performance with skill tenacity and not a little casual violence.

Dereham did improve and took the lead with a superb reverse stick shot by Jerry Reeve which flew into the net nearly smashing the back board in the process. (note to Reeve I have written it can you please release my family now)

2-1 at half time.

Following a half time review of perfomance and some fairly diplomatic comments by Les, a side of him we did not know actually existed Dereham improved dramatically.

Robert as usual injured an opposition player but provided some telling passes down the left wing.

Some flowing moves saw Dereham score 4 more goals in the second half, a hat trick for Ian which brought a rare smile to the giant forwards face, followed by a sharp pain in the wallet later in the pub . Two of the goals coming from short range whilst the other a fierce drive from a short corner.

Les also scored with a flick following desperately unlucky blond striker Steve Marsh whose shot had been stopped on the line by a defenders knee cap.

All in all a comfortable win.



Scorers (league games) This season


Steve Marsh 10

Ian White     9

Brian Reid     6*

Jerry Reeve   6

Martin Bohn  3

Les Howlett  3**

Matt Hawker 2

Robert Mann 1

Shane Barnes1

*2 x scored in an abandoned game
**1x Penalty Flick