The mens Lacrosse side reached the finals of the West & Midlands cup on Saturday in battling style.

The closest score line so far this season is a fair reflection on a game that was hindered by farcical weather conditions.

The team met early Saturday morning, only to find out that the drizzle we were experiencing on the South coast was nothing compared to the conditions in Stoke, aka ‘the town that time forgot’.

Understatement of the Season goes to the Staffs Captain for telling us “it’s a bit damp up here, but the pitch looks ok.” Captain/Driver Chris Mattison, after brief discussion, decided that having woken at the crack of dawn and hired the mini-bus and driven four hours north, we may as well play and see what happened.

What happened was a game that started out hindered by the weather and the ensuing damage to the pitch resulted in the referee having to stop play so the ball could be dug out of the goal mouth for the fourth time.

In a game where neither side was really able to build any kind of rhythm to their play, it boiled down to who was more willing to scrap for a result.

An excellent performance from the Staffs keeper ensured Pompey had to work hard for every goal. A combination of the conditions and some excellent individual Staffs players lead to some very tired legs in the Pompey midfield. If the lads can take anything from this victory (apart from a place in the finals), it’s that ‘given the same situation, hockey would have sacked it in and gone home.’