BA 4 – 3 Mill Hill How did captain scott feel when he got to the antarctis and found Amundsen had got there first. How would he have felt if amundsen had trailed him all the way, sniping about how useless he was and trying to trip him up but then getting picked up by a south pole race official in a helicopter who carried him the remaining distance.

If you can imagine that you are some way to the feeling experienced by the Mill Hill side after they slipped to the narrowest of defeats.

Amid the youthful euphoria of the national schools lacrosse tournament, the visitors had arrived in west London with spirits a high as the screams of the young girls lining the roads as they passed. They left with their hopes torn to shreds like bettings slips on the floor of a south african bookmakers after a Test match against Australia.

The team had begun just as they had left off a week ago, with Matt Larner added to his case for meriting the sobriquet prolific by finishing a flowing move. Mill Hill's youngest player took advantage of Dan Stockhill's demotion to defence to sneak in at the far post for a simple tap in. Mike Solomon doubled the lead in similar fashion when he was first to the rebound from Ryan Sclanders' deflected shot. This prompted a burst of discontent from some of BA's more feisty players which was worsened following an acrobat display from goalkeeper Mike Ellis, formerly of Moscow State Circus. The managment consultant crystalised as physical reproduction of the mental gymnastics he performs in his day job to fend off a series of one on ones. When he finally cracked, the circumstances were controversial. BA were given a clear advantage which produced a powerful and unopposed shot at goal. When Ellis dealt with this, the umpire decided to call a short corner anyway.

From the set piece, the ball was fired in at head height, in obvious contravention of the rules. Once again, Ellis was equal to the task. But the resulting rebound proved too much.

In vain did Mill Hill point out the transgression to the umpire. As independent as the judiciary in Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe, he turned a blind eye to brutal beatings, while showing himself a dab hand at trumped up charges. Nick Warr was cautioned for hitting the ball off the pitch to hard, while the persecuted Stockhill was sent to polish his stick in the sin bin after attempting a vain act of self defence in the face of a particularly aggressive assault.

At the other end however, things went more in Mill Hill's favour. The award of a penalty stroke allowed Sclanders to restore the two goal cushion.

Following the half-time switch it was the visitors' forwards who became subject to justice, despot style as uncompromising defending neutralised any threat. BA clawed back the deficit, drawing level from a short corner.

Cracks began to emerge in morale as Dave Evans flicked the ball viciously into his captain's head after a glitch in his hearing aid prompted him to misunderstand a motivational comment as a reference to his hairline..

" What I actaully said was that we were CONceding fast," Pete Lazlett explained afterwards.

With just a couple of minutes to go, BA snatched victory with a flick that just evaded the heroic Ellis. "Such is life," he was head to say through the narrow grill of his pockmarked armour as he collapsed, Ned Kelly style, to the ground..