it was a long way to Abbymead, so we left ourselves an hour to get there. Things started badly as the Portbury Hundreds were one way and it took 25 minutes to get out of our own town. Then we faced the challenge of finding the ground, which was hiding in a backwater surrounded by a huge new housing estate.

Three cars headed to the match, only two made it, which is a 33% hit rate, it could have been worse and the cars that did make it were carrying most of the players.

Apparently Satnavs purchased in Filton don’t go as far as Gloucester and Filton Jon is still going around in Stroud.

Abbymead are a very good side, we knew we would get a tough test with our unbeaten run this year on the line, and so it turned out.

We could make excuses about having players missing, but it is all about the depth of the squad and today we largely fielded the Over 70 squad against a more mixed 60s team.

3 very close games that were super competitive, we had plenty of opportunities and Abbymead have asked us if we would pay for repainting their goals because we rattled their woodwork so often, at least 6 times. That was basically the difference between the 2 teams, their shots went in.

Special mention for Pete the Feet playing his first competitive game, the rest of the squad included Les, Pete R, Chris M, Glenn, Rod, Colin.

• Abbymead 2 1 Portishead – Glenn
• Abbymead 1 0 Portishead
• Abbymead 1 0 Portishead

Disappointing but we lost to a very good team and we will take those lessons forward