The OL Club Review
OL Sports Roundup Lancing Old Boys First XI against Malvern College in the Arthur Dunn Cup first round On 30 October the Lancing Old Boys First XI played against Malvern College in the Arthur Dunn Cup first round at Lancing. The first team pitch was immaculate and so were the conditions – many of the squad had travelled down from London and were concerned the game would be postponed due to the torrential rain in the capital. However, Lancing was bathed in sunshine. The First XI brought a full squad of 14 to the game and quickly looked to impose themselves on their Worcestershire-based opposition. The team was led by goal scorer Felix Haxby (Head’s 2010–2015), with Ben MendozaSharman (Gibbs’ 2010–2015) and Will Johnson (Head’s 2014–2016) providing real quality in the LOBs’ engine room in central midfield. The 1s raced into a 2-0 lead courtesy of two goals from the impressive Demi Abiru (Teme 2013– 2018) playing up front with creative support from Oskar Berelowitz (Head’s 2011–2014) and Tom Haxby
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(Head’s 2012–2014). The LOBs went into half time 4-0 up. The skipper made a few changes and the LOBs went 5-0 up through a delightful chip from Ben Mendoza-Sharman, and then Demi scored again to make it 6-0. However, Malvern pulled one back after some soft defending, the impressive Luke Davies (Head’s 2011– 2016) finally being beaten in goal. The LOBs, with experienced defenders in Jamie Betts (Head’s 2006–2011), Taylor Hope (Second’s 2003–2006), George Conway (Second’s 2003–2008) and Wilfred Aylett (Gibbs’ 2005–2010), steadied the ship and made sure that they firmly shut the door on any hope of a Malvern revival by scoring two more, one of which was by the mercurial Jonny Clifford (Teme 2001–2006). The final score saw Lancing win 8-1 against their division one rivals. Honourable mentions should also go to Will Bainbridge (School 2016–2018) and Johnny Sullivan (Second’s 2012–2017)
who played with real maturity. This was a statement performance from the 1s and saw brilliant individual performances from Demi Abiru (below), who finished with 5 goals, and Ben MendozaSharman, who added real quality to the side. It was an outstanding team performance.
