Whitchurch ladies 1s 2 Oxton ladies 2s 3
Whitchurch started strong this week with some great passing allowing them to dominate the first 20 minutes of the game. A great move by Laura Workman crossing to Becks Morrissey in the centre narrowly missed the goal early on.
Whitchurch continued with strong passes from Jess Kimberley being picked up by Millie Edwards who was unlucky not to get a shot in. Then captain Catherine Winter-Gresty passed to Grace Berry in the box who managed to cross it for Sue Read to tap in for a 1-0 lead.
This seemed to energise Oxton who then came back strong and Whitchurch endured 15 minutes of pressure, with Catherine Reece-Gresty, Vicky Price and Helen Machin in defence having to work hard alongside goalie Gwyn Thomas-Rees.
After half time Oxton continued to push hard and shortly after the break equalised from a short corner. Whitchurch then re-grouped and with Charlotte Lawder pushing up and passing to Sue Read in the box who got the second goal.
After that, Oxton fought back and again equalised. The play continued end to end with both sides wanting the win, unfortunately Oxton managed to grab another goal near the end. Whitchurch were unlucky not to score again in the last few minutes, but the score finished 2-3 to the visitors.
Whitchurch Men’s 1s 2 – Brooklands MU 6s 3
Whitchurch Men’s 1s slipped to another frustrating 3-2 defeat this season at home to the Brooklands 6s, who are outplaying their own 5s team this season and showed great skill across the board, and especially from their younger players.
Whitchurch started strongly, and Tom Leonard added to his tally for the season with some good passing around the dee from Ben Kimberley and Jon Chappell (on his return to the team after several years) leading to a pass to Leonard which was buried into the Brooklands goal. However, Brooklands struck back almost immediately, putting together a number of strong attacks down the wing and driving the by-line to claim a number of short corners, and a strong route-one strike snuck into the corner of the goal to level the scores. Jake Wood, Tom Forster, Ryan Murtagh and James Partington rotated around the defence, but were stretched by the quick runs and movement of the Brooklands forwards who broke their marking too easily and a second scramble in the dee with players running free let the Brooklands striker lift the ball over Sturge in goal.
The pressure was relentless on the Whitchurch defence, and another strike was deflected over the bar by an excellent save from Murtagh, but finally another goal frustratingly slipped through the closing feet of keeper Sturge to make the scores 3-1 at half time.
The second half was much stronger from Whitchurch, with the defence marking the Brooklands forwards better, making it much more difficult for them to launch attacks. The midfield of Alex Fry, Ben Fry, Rob Chappell and Jack Barnes worked the ball through the middle with more time on the ball and good runs from Kimberley and Wood spread the play out in the Brooklands 23.
This led to Whitchurch’s second goal, when the keeper ran out strongly to block an attack, but was then out of position as the ball was recycled it via Rob Chappell to Jon Chappell who calmly slotted away his first goal in his first game back.
The rest of the second half was end to end, with last ditch efforts from Murtagh, Forster and Partington, and a diving save from a one-on-one by keeper Sturge ensured no further goals were scored, and the game ended 3-2.
Lymm Mens 3s 3 Whitchurch Mens 2s 1
Whitchurch 2s travelled north on Saturday to face a Lymm 3s. With a number of senior players unavailable, the Reds were only able to field 11 players and the team were ultimately undone by their youth and inexperience.
Whitchurch started well and other than a dangerous Lymm attack in the first minute, they dominated the early stages of the first half. Craig Hockenhull was winning the ball in midfield and driving the play forward, Euan Morris and Locki Price were interchanging well on the right and Fred Egerton was a constant threat on the left. Josh Parry continued his good work up front and although unable to get his own shots away, his presence and hold up play created chances for his teammates.
Eventually, after a number of missed chances, the deadlock was broken midway through the half when Egerton broke into the D from the left and squared the ball for Morris to fire home from a tight angle.
Whitchurch continued to push forward looking for goals, but with a lack of substitutes available, the younger players began to tire as the half wore on. The Whitchurch defence was becoming more exposed and increasingly outnumbered as Lymm grew into the game and counterattacked more frequently.
After a couple of near misses from open play and short corners, Lymm finally found an equaliser. Very soon after they took the lead when again the Whitchurch defence was left badly exposed.
The 2s seemed shaken by the quick turnaround and with tired legs struggled to get back into the first half.
Lymm made some tactical adjustments in the second half and began to swamp midfield. Craig Hockenhull was denied any space and the Whitchurch wide players and Josh Parry upfront struggled to get into the game at all.
The defence of Doug Buckeridge, Wyn Morris, Matt Brooks and Iain Bones were constantly fending off Lymm attacks and with Craig constantly coming back to help, Whitchurch were pinned in their own half and struggled to get possession of the ball higher up the pitch.
The defence fought a very committed rear guard action during the second half and restricted Lymm to very few shots on goal. However they were undone when a hit from the top of their own D went wrong and they were caught on the counter attack. Keeper Neil Jones had no chance as the ball crept in off the far post.
Whitchurch frustrations boiled over as the second half wore on. Airan Jones was green carded for a number of miss-timed tackles and then Iain Bones was yellow carded for a clumsy challenge in midfield.
For the periods with 10 men the remaining defenders, assisted by Hockenhull dropping even deeper did exceptionally well to snuff out the eager Lymm attacks.
Ultimately Lymm thoroughly deserved their 3-1 victory.
Alderley Edge ladies 4’s 10 Whitchurch ladies 3’s 1
Whitchurch travelled over an hour to the very nice suburb of Wilmslow playing a predominantly young 4th Alderley Edge ladies hockey team. The weather was calm and sunny but the pitch felt very different to our home turf. Unusually, we started with 14 players this week which were rolled on and off very fairly by Kate Goodwin our captain.
Whitchurch started well but were quickly overwhelmed by the attacks led down the left wing. It was clear we were up against a much coached and well organised team and they had the better of us throughout the first half.
We were grateful to have Mel Reid back in defence and Maddy Sugden our goal keeper was awesome as usual, saving many short corners and frustrating Alderley’s frequent attacks. Our defence battled hard with Emily Lister, Annie Buckeridge, Edina Jones, Holly Gilbert and Ellie McEvoy tracking back well and facing some hard hit shots into the D.
Towards the end of the first half a well-executed wing movement by our star player Millie Caruthers resulted in a short corner which led to our one and only goal scored by the superb Becky Brookfield leaving us 1-6 down at the whistle.
In the second half, we were shooting into the sun but managed to battle hard and only let a further four goals in with Victoria Corlett, Evie Whatmough, Kate Goodwin, Kate Buckeridge and Caitlin Shaw desperately trying the break ahead to give our defence a much needed break from the onslaught.
Maddy Sugden was the player of the match and in one memorable moment, despite being laid out on the ground, continued the keep the ball out with her outstretched arm and stick. Without her and the valiant efforts of Ellie McEvoy who also took a good dive across the side line earlier in the match we would have been at least 30 goals down.
Despite being well beaten we all had fun and were treated to a much needed tomato and basil soup plus fries and sandwiches at the Alderley Edge hockey club afterwards.
Crewe ladies 4s 1 Whitchurch ladies 2s 2
This weekend, Whitchurch Ladies 2 travelled away to Crewe Ladies 4. After observing a minutes silence at the start of the match, Whitchurch started out strong. Good passing between Izzy Huxley and Holly Jepson on the right wing, created many chances in the D, but Crewe’s goalie managed to hold off all attempts. However, after a sideline hit taken by Phoebe Jones, the ball found Amy Fry in the D and she passed to Jepson on the post, who scored the first goal on her debut. Unfortunately, after a few minutes Crewe equalised to end the half 1-1.
The second half started much like the first, where Whitchurch had many unlucky misses. After about 15 minutes, the ball ended up in Crewe’s D, and a pass from Jones to Fry resulted in Whitchurch’s second goal. After that, Crewe came back hard, but good defending from Gayle Ladd and Martha Teggin, and more attacking play led by Hebe Dixon, held off any more goals. The match ended 2-1 to Whitchurch and Dixon was awarded player of the match.