After shutting them out on home soil 2 weeks prior, the mighty Cheltenham Men's team took a trip to Bristols ‘new and improved’ ground (located under the watchful eye of Bristol's third finest Tesco Superstore) to face off against the Bombers for the 4th time this season. This was a highly anticipated game, as a win for Cheltenham would crown them as the SEMLA Division 2 Champions, having just two weeks ago secured the Cotswold Local League and John Harrop Shield after seeing Bristol off 9-0 at home, and defeating them twice more earlier in the season.

Cheltenham's Max Biddlestone bagged an early brace, assisted by Gary "the wind beneath Max's wings" Wood and David Lennox, but was matched with two successful outside shots from the Bombers. With Cheltenham clearly playing the better lacrosse, the first quarter ended 2-2.

Cheltenham came out strong in the second quarter, defence dominated with strips, saves, groundballs and transitions, and their efforts paid off with goals coming from Harry Jenkins, Tom Blunsden, David Lennox and Max, met well by a defensive shutout at the other end. The second quarter ended 6-2 to Cheltenham.

Coming out for the second half, to our surprise, the condition of the Bristol pitch managed to get even worse! This, paired with tiring legs, made for a tough start with the third quarter containing scrappy ground balls, dropped passes and missed opportunities. Heroic stand-in keeper, Steve Bennett, filling the tiny shoes of the absent Dan Martin, had a tough day back in the office after two years away from standing between the sticks, with Bombers scoring 4 in the third quarter. Thankfully, a magical snipe from Marvellous Max meant the mighty Cougars maintained their lead going into the last quarter.

At the start of the fourth and final quarter, Cheltenham held a narrow 7-6 lead - bums were squeaky. Bristol fought hard during the early phases of the last quarter, and once Harry remembered which way he was meant to go, it was clear Cheltenham wanted another goal. But with Cheltenham going man down due to a penalty (probably Joe), Bristol managed to draw it level. With 6 minutes left to play Bombers took the lead after they found something that worked. However, some brilliant man-up play from Cougars was finished off by our very own number 9, Jake Troth - mere minutes remained, and the game had broken even.

With only a matter of minutes remaining a very familiar run from Joe Embery saw him see the whites of the Bombers keeper's eyes. Without hesitation Joe took his 99th shot of the day which to everyone’s delight found the bottom corner and gave Cheltenham the lead in the dying minutes of a hard fought game.

If you thought that goal had put this game to bed then I’m afraid you’re very wrong. A controversial call from one of the referees awarded a dubious foul against Cheltenham's Guy Oldring for and I quote “something”, with around 12 seconds on the clock. This gave Bombers possession for the remaining seconds of the match. Bristol moved the ball quickly and a chance-y outside shot was fired, hopes were lifted, a whistle was blown, a net shook, but hearts were broken. To Cheltenham's delight the ball had failed to hit the back of the net before the referee's final whistle had blown, and the goal was not allowed.

This well deserved victory meant Cheltenham had earned themselves their 13th win of the season to go along with 3 trophies in their pockets and keep the dreams of an invincible season alive with just 2 games to go.

The final score - Bristol Bombers 8 - 9 Cheltenham Cougars.

A well deserved man of the match to Joe Embery and a special mention to Guy for all his assists…