|
|
Ladies First Team 09/10
|
DATE |
SCORE |
REPORT | 12th September 2009
| Cheshire Tournament
| As is tradition, the Cheshire Women’s 11-a-side tournament took place on the hottest day of the year so far, this year at Broomfields. Following our trouncing of teams in Div 2 and 3 last year, this year we were promoted to play against four Div 1 teams, and one Div 2 side- the newly formed Brooklands Poynton; if Lymm were going to make it three tournament wins out of three, it was going to be hard work.
Game 1 was against Oxton, on paper the strongest side in the competition after finishing fourth in the top division last season. Making light of this, Lymm pressed them for the entire 24 minutes. A succession of pen corners yielded no goals so both sides had to settle for a nil nil draw.
After a couple of games off, the next team up were Alderley Edge 1s, the form team after winning 08/09's division two. In another tightly contested match, the decisive play was made when Lisa Hartley dribbled dangerously right to left across Alderley Edge’s D. Coming in off the left wing, Helen Weston swept the ball in between the keeper and the post. One nil Lymm! Another excellent defensive performance kept Alderley at bay and sealed the victory.
Brooklands Poynton were the opposition in the third game. Lymm had the better of the match but with time running out, it looked like the div 2 side would hang on for a point. Lymm continued pushing, playing some fluent hockey that included a quickfire set of one-twos by Jo Hartley, Alex Mitchell, and Lynne Pyman on the right. But it was Jayne Buck who made the breakthrough, getting the goal she deserved by making room for herself and smashing the ball in after having been thwarted until then by an excellent performance by the Brooklands Poynton keeper. Lymm finished the game strongly again, and Lisa Hartley was unlucky not to bag a couple of goals in the final few minutes.
Game 4 was versus Marple and Lymm swept them aside 3-0 with a stunning Helen Weston hattrick!!! Okay, not really. In one of the more unusual forfeits of a game, Marple asked to concede the match without playing because some of their players needed to be fit for a triathalon next weekend. Fair enough, Marple, and thanks for the free points. With Marple exiting the tournament early, it left Lymm’s next and final match versus Wrexham as a potential winner-takes-all decider.
Lymm started the game well but tiredness and some contentious umpiring decisions contributed to a scrappy match. Wrexham moved the ball well and at pace and Lymm were kept in the game by a series of excellent saves from Amy Heywood. Still, on the break, Lymm created chances. On the right an excellent cross from Hollie Acklam was wasted when no one arrived to meet it, and twice Helen Weston threatened with runs into Wrexham’s final third but couldn't force a goal.
With both sides cancelling each other out, the game ended 0-0 leaving Alderley Edge to nick in and win the tournament, Lymm Ladies finishing as runners up.
Overall, this was a fairly solid showing from Lymm, and a good way to warm up for the season. We set ourselves high standards and it’s disappointing not to win in any circumstance, but the positives are pleasing; we used and defended the self pass through out the day. It was particularly noticeable that a number of players on the other teams did not seem sure of the rules; fitness wise, and building on the result against South Cheshire, Lymm held their own, but week on week we can only get better. Finally, the defence was immense, right across the backline; Alex, Jo, Amy, Claire, Sarah, Kate, Helen, and Becky shut out every attack thrown at them. Highlights of the tournament included some absolutely corking tackles (step forward, Sarah Hunt), as well as the more straight forward approach of just taking people out (step forward, Sarah Hunt). Although probably the most dramatic moment of the day occured when someone took their shoes off and then stood on a wasp (step forward, Sarah Hunt).
The key thing to take away from playing good opposition is NOT to be intimidated and invite teams onto us. Against Wrexham particularly, options in attack were limited as the forwards were isolated. Our penalty corners also need work but if the effort we put in on a slow pitch, on a hot day is replicated over the season, we’ll be in for another exciting year.
Special mentions
go to everyone who umpired, and to Jayne Buck for running the tournament like a pro, but most of all to Elly Davy, who joins Coops and Rachey Jackson (the day’s MVP) in the world of uni studentdom. It will be A Whole New World (*chuckle*) without you and your magic shoes. Good luck, and score some Elly reverse stick specials for us.
D of the D
Barefoot. Wasp. Sarah Hunt?
| 19th September
2009
| Lymm v Chester 3s
League
12-0
| Following a calm and easy-tempered (sic) discussion over whether footballers or hockey players have custody rights to the Lymm pitch at 12pm on Saturdays, the firsts were able to eventually complete a warm up and get down to proper league business versus Chester 3s.
The Chester team had a solid 08/09 season finishing mid-table, and even though the side is now sadly both Rachael Jackson AND Elly Davy-less :(, Lymm went in to the game looking to start strongly. They made inroads early on, quickly going two nil up with goals from Susie Chiverton and a superb set piece strike from Jayne Buck.
Misplaced passes and impatient possession play meant the game lulled after that but Chester couldn’t capitalize and were unable to prevent conceding more goals when Lymm went again and raised the tempo. From right midfield Lynne Pyman played in Helen Weston who crossed for Susie Chiverton to shoot first time into the net. Susie scored again, picking off the rebound from a Hollie Acklam shot, before playing a series of one-twos with Helen Weston who finished the move by slotting past the keeper.
Helen added another goal just before the whistle, making it six nil at halftime.
Coach Jim Davy encouraged the team to be more confident in switching the play, and with Lisa emphasizing the need to maintain width, Lymm went into the second looking to create gaps in Chester’s defence. It paid dividends immediately when Jayne Buck won possession in her own half and proceeded to drive straight for goal. With opposition players’ stretched across the D, Jayne carried on her run and finished the move with an expertly taken solo goal.
More pressure for the Chester defence followed with Lymm players winning the ball back high up the pitch. After having been thwarted earlier by fantastic reaction saves from the Chester keeper, Hollie Acklam finished coolly, registering the goal her play deserved. A Claire Dobson goal cameo kept the team’s goal-to-pen corner ratio just about respectable (thanks, Dobson!), before Jayne Buck completed a hattrick with another unstoppable strike.
As both sides tired, mistakes crept in and Lymm failed to make more of some excellent attacking possession. Encouragingly, Lymm finished as the stronger side and captain Lisa Hartley set up Susie for her fourth goal of the game, before sweeping in herself to cap off a solid team performance.
Special mentions go to
our umpire Chris Hunt, and all our supporters- especially Jacqui for some stirling work recording goal assists despite a hangover. Lymm’s defence; ANOTHER shut-out. Keep it up, Heywood & friends. And finally to Chester 3s themselves for showing a great attitude.
MVP, as voted by her teammates was S. Chiverton. Players’ Player as chosen by the opposition was L. Hartley, and D of the D was the kindly but essentially tactless Rugby club gentleman who disrespected Chester’s captain RIGHT IN HER FACE totally by accident, but still quite cruelly.
Goal Assists Table
Susie C 3
Helen W 2
Hollie 1
Jayne B 1
Lisa H 1
Next week... Bebington!
| 26th September
2009
| Lymm vs Bebington
League
4-1
|
Now, I am not a player who often remonstrates with the umpire and I’m reluctant to accuse anyone of being intentionally less than fair to both teams in a game situation, so I’ll just list some incidents that occured during this match;
obstruction given against a Lymm player more than five metres away from the ball at the time,
a goal disallowed for not being totally over the line- if the official called it right, I can only say what an excellent eagle-eyed decision (regulation size of field hockey goal-line 7.6cm, regulation size of field hockey matchball 7.1-7.5cm),
penalty corner stopped, hit out given for touching the ball twice,
yellow card shown to a Lymm player for deliberately trying to trip up an opponent (discipline record of said player; 12 seasons of league hockey, 0 cards)
game stopped, Lymm substitute called over to match official and warned for (I am not making this up) holding stick in a threatening manner,
Lymm captain warned to instruct team to calm down or another player will be sent off (discipline record of team; 3 seasons of league hockey, 2 green cards--> Step forward, step forward, Sarah Hunt)
Lymm moved back once, twice, three times for questioning a decision,
and finally, with about 3 minutes to go, penalty flick awarded against a Lymm player.
Apart from that the game was fairly uneventful :P. Starting back at the beginning, with first push back Lymm attacked Bebington’s D. Getting everyone back and marking tightly the opposition did a good job of stifling Lymm’s usual fluency.
With the game crowded and confined to Bebington’s final third, it took some quick stickwork from Lisa Hartley to wriggle free in the D and get the breakthrough. If Lymm thought that was the prelude to more goals as is often the case, they were wrong, wrong, wrong. Although most of Bebington’s attacking pretensions were limited to wanging the ball in the vague direction of Lymm’s goal, just before the halftime interval lazy play saw the home team win a penalty corner. They scored and whether you want to blame the pitch, the umpire, the direction of the wind- the bottom line was that it had been a poor first half showing with individual performances flickering only in fits and starts.
So it was a good time to have a team talk. Coach Jim Davy pointed out that despite our bad play, we had been in a winning position for most of the match. The side lined up for the restart determined to regain the lead and take the win.
Instead Bebington won a penalty corner immediately and Lymm began the second half as badly as they had ended it. Decision after decision seemed to go against them but Lymm continued to work hard and got the crucial second goal when Lynne Pyman set up Jayne Buck and she shot past the keeper.
With the game still delicately balanced at 2-1, Bebington broke forward and won a penalty corner when it was adjudged that right back Jo Hartley intentionally left a trailing leg out in order to trip over the Bebington forward. Even though it’s only possible to actually physically achieve this kind of thing in cartoons and not real life, to everyone’s disbelief she was yellow carded and removed from the game for ten minutes. The contentious nature of the sending off, which relied heavily on interpretation of intent, coupled with displeasure at other borderline decisions, seemed to galvanise the team. Down to ten players, Lymm scored again when a penalty area melee was finished off by Susie Chiverton.
Now 3-1 up, Lymm finally found some rhythm in their play and with Jo Hartley back on the pitch they tied the game up when Susie forced a mistake on the 25, took a touch into the D and hammered the ball into the bottom corner.
Only minutes remained when a consolation Bebington attack put the ball onto Kate Arber’s foot. With the umpire certain that it denied a clear goal-scoring opportunity he awarded a flick. Bebington’s captain stepped up and Lymm felt justice had been done when Amy Heywood saved it.
Credit to the umpire who took the time at the final whistle to explain his yellow card decision, however unsatisfactory it turned out to be.
It’s hard to sum up a match like this, but the quicker we all realise no-one in this league is going to hand anything to us, the better. For periods of the match we were just plain poor and seemed unable to deal with the lack of time and space on the ball we have become accustomed to. Despite this, several individual performances stood out; Amy, Sarah, Lisa and Jayne in midfield, Hollie and Susie, and Jess Dorman on season debut.
Perhaps the best thing to take out of the game is that under pressure, team spirit really came through, and when pretty hockey went out of the window, we battled hard for a result instead. This may be a priceless experience for the future.
Special mentions go to Chris Hunt, our travelling supporters, Amy Heywood for a terrific save, Rachael Jacko Jackson, and this week’s guest star- Elly Davy. Watch out though kids, Elly’s armed with a hockey stick and she’s been known to hold it threateningly!
This week’s MVP was chosen as Sarah Hunt.
Player’s player was chosen as Helen Weston.
D of the D, despite a desperate last ditch effort from Jayne Buck and a bottle of tomato ketchup, was not selected from the Lymm team.
Goal Assists Table
Susie C 3
Helen W 2
Hollie 1
Jayne B 1
Lisa H 1
Lynne P 1
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
©Lymm Hockey Club 2008. Lymm Hockey Club. Crouchley Lane, Lymm, Cheshire. WA13 0AT. 01925 753212