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.

Wilmslow Men’s 3s 3 – Whitchurch Men’s 1s 2

Whitchurch travelled to Wilmslow this week to face the top-of-the-league side in a match that could have narrowed the gap in the table considerably, but went down to a narrow defeat from a last minute goal. The game opened brightly, but it was to be Wilmslow to get on the score sheet first – their constant pressure down the right wing eventually paid off with a strike into the Whitchurch dee deflecting off Alex Fry’s fine block, and a Wilmslow striker managed to get enough on it that Paul Leigh’s excellent parry looped up and struck the crossbar – but unfortunately the underneath, so it bounced back down and landed only an inch over the line.

The Wilmslow pressure continued, and Whitchurch struggled to get the ball up the pitch enough to trouble the Wilmslow defence, but eventually the ball was fired up field and Ben Kimberley latched on to it and went one-on-one with the keeper, slotting the ball away to add to his total for the season. Tom Forster, James Partington and Ryan Murtagh were able to mark the Wilmslow attack more ably after the game had settled and the opposition were more on the back foot, and the half ended 1-1.

The second half started with more strong pressure from Wilmslow, and Whitchurch were caught waiting for a whistle that never came for a foul, and the Wilmslow attack drove into the dee and got their second. Frustration showed, and green cards were shown to both teams, but Whitchurch came back to control the game more, with Rob Chappell, Jack Barnes and Ben Fry holding the middle with Alex Fry, and the passing game was much improved, spreading out well to Kimberley and Jake Wood on the wings who then caused the Wilmslow defence some real problems with Tom Leonard’s strikes kept out only through the excellent work of their goalkeeper who was brave in coming out and athletic in ability.

The Reds managed to get their second with some good link-up play: an aerial clearance from Partington found Kimberley, whose shot was deflected wide. The resultant corner was quickly taken by Fry, who got it to Kimberley who passed to Leonard who put it away.

However, in the dying minutes, Wilmslow again drove down the right and across the baseline, and managed to get it to the top of the dee where an onrushing striker put away a good shot to take the game 3-2. Whitchurch play Brooklands MU 6s at home next week, and will look to make amends and get back to winning ways.

Whitchurch Men’s 2s 3 Llandudno Men’s 2s 1

Whitchurch 2s entertained Llandudno 2s on a sunny Saturday afternoon at SJT. With the Welsh side struggling for form and only able to field 10 players, the Reds were looking to build on their entertaining draw with Neston the previous weekend.

Whitchurch took control of the early stages. They moved the ball sensibly around the pitch to exploit their numerical advantage. Their play was erring on the side of caution however and didn’t really trouble the Llandudno dee.

When the Welsh side did gain possession of the ball, their attacks were broken up by good work from the Whitchurch defence of Doug Buckeridge, Danny Foulkes, Rupert Yeoward and Matt Brooks.

As the half wore on, the young Whitchurch players became more adventurous and pushed Llandudno back towards their own goal. With Craig Hockenhull’s driving runs through the centre of midfield a constant threat and good interplay on the left between Fred Egerton and Josh Parry, the Reds looked most likely to open the scoring. However, from a rare foray forward the Welsh side won a short corner that was beautifully flicked into the top corner of the Whitchurch goal.

The Whitchurch response was immediate. As Llandudno messed up a restart from the top of their dee, Josh Parry was alive to the lose ball, driving the ball back into the dee before feeding a neat pass to Fred Egerton, who fired in the equaliser.

Whitchurch continued to push forward as the half drew to a close, but were unable to convert any further chances, including a number of short corners.

In the second half, Llandudno changed their shape and pushed two players upfront and put an extra player in midfield. The changes led to a much more open game of hockey. Whilst Whitchurch were able to find more space going forward, the Welsh side were also able to push more players onto the Whitchurch defence and create chances of their own.

Keeper Neil Jones made a number of good saves during the second period and the Whitchurch back four were resolute in their defensive duties, ably assisted by the midfield tracking their runners, including James Page who diligently followed the Welsh right winger up and down the pitch.

At the other end of the pitch, Euan Morris and Joe Coburn followed up their excellent performances in the morning for the under 14s with some great interplay down the left and Airan Jones was a constant threat on the right with his pacy runs.

Midway through the second half, Whitchurch took the lead when Craig Hockenhull drove in fiercely from the edge of the D after good work from Fred Egerton. This was quickly followed by a goal by Euan Morris, who poked home after a melee in the Llandudno D.

Whitchurch continued to push forward but missed chances from short corners, the Llandudno keeper made a number of good saves and Whitchurch failed to convert a penalty flick late in the game, but ultimately the Reds were well worth the 3-1 win.

This was a good win for this young Whitchurch side. At times they moved the ball well and they worked hard tracking back, when required, to help snuff out the Llandudno attacks. Again the opposition were full of praised for the younger players after the game. The win moves the 2s up to 7th in the table.

A special mention to umpire Jess Kimberley who was excellent throughout and had to deal with a couple of feisty moments in the second-half, when her decisions were questioned a little too vehemently.

Whitchurch 2s travel north to Lymm 3s next weekend.

Whitchurch ladies 3s 0 Golborne ladies 3s 0

This week Whitchurch 3’s were pleased to be not playing in the pouring rain and thrilled to keep a clean sheet.

The team started well having grown in confidence from past matches and now becoming more familiar with their positions. Evie Whatmough, Annie Buckeridge, Amelie Morris led the attack with Whitchurch keeping most of the possession in the first half and making many runs into the Golborne dee.

Kate Buckeridge and Izzy Huxley supported on the left and right wing respectively and tracked back to help in midfield both showing some stick skills learnt from Wednesdays training session. Huxley was very accurate with her feeding to Whatmough at short corners and Annie Buckeridge and Morris demonstrated some good driving runs into the attacking half.

The few times Golborne did break they were quickly broken down by Helen Apperley and Emily Lister in defence who quickly sent the ball back to midfield and also took some accurate hit outs.

Holly Jepson had an excellent debut bossing the centre of the pitch and drove forward to support the attack. She had a few narrow misses on goal and ran tirelessly back to help the defence.

Despite having no subs and down to 10 men in the second half, Whitchurch showed that they have improved their fitness by maintaining their dominant possession. We made many more attacking runs into the dee and won a couple more short corners, which we sadly failed to convert.

For once, our brilliant goalkeeper Maddy Sugden didn’t have much to do but saved some key goals when they caught us on the break and saved a vital penalty flick in the second half.

Wilmslow ladies 3s 1 Whitchurch ladies 1s 0

Whitchurch ladies 1s played away against Wilmslow 3’s. From the start Whitchurch had most of the possession and control of the game. It was fast and Whitchurch had the pace to keep Wilmslow on their toes having lots of opportunities. Wilmslow’s runs were broken down by Helen Machin and Millie Edwards passing the ball back up the pitch to Laura Workman and Hayleigh Busby. Every attempt for Whitchurch seemed to just slightly miss the goal.

Wilmslow were awarded a shot corner and scored. Whitchurch kept their heads high and kept pushing up with some great runs from Charlotte Lawder and Grace Berry. Whitchurch worked together with some fantastic passes into the Dee from captain Catherine Winter-Gresty and Laura Workman. The Wilmslow keeper covered their goal well and saved every shot.

After the half time whistle Whitchurch kept the pressure on Wilmslow wanting a goal to equalise. Defence Hebe Dixon and Catherine Reece-Gresty pushed up the pitch to help the team but as Wilmslow wanted to hold onto their lead all their players held back in defence. Many more chances were there for Whitchurch but time ran out. Player of the match was awarded to the captain.

Ladies 1s play Oxton 2s next week at home.

Whitchurch ladies 2s 1 Neston ladies 4s 4

Whitchurch ladies 2s entertained Neston ladies 4s this weekend. Whitchurch knew that they had to try and redeem themselves after the previous weeks score.

Whitchurch started off the stronger of the two teams by applying pressure from the off, Tracy Tolhurst passed the ball to Emily Vernon who just slotted the ball wide of the goal. Despite having many short corners Whitchurch were unable get the critical touch. Neston then broke through the Whitchurch midfield but the strengths of Captain Emma Clarke, Jess Kimberley, Martha Teggin and Natasha Foster stopped Neston in their tracks but despite all of their efforts Neston slotted the ball past goalkeeper Shola Bailey and brought the score up to 0-1.

During half time Whitchurch had a positive talk which boosted everyone back up. A run from Phoebe Jones and Helen Hocknell picked out Stephanie Stanton who then slotted the ball past the advancing Neston goalkeeper to bring the score to 1-1. Neston then broke through the tired and unfocused Whitchurch team and scored a further three goals. Whitchurch had many opportunities but could not convert into any more goals.

Whitchurch will be travelling away to play against Crewe ladies 4’s at 16:30.

Helen Hocknell was awarded players player.

Whitchurch Men’s 1s 0 – 3 Liverpool Sefton 3s

Wrexham Mens 2s 14 Whitchurch Mens 2s 0

Storm Brian was the least of their worries as Whitchurch 2s were blown away by a rampant Wrexham 3s side in North Wales.

Whilst the 2s fielded another young and inexperienced side, Wrexham, fresh from four impressive wins at the start of the season, lined up with a full complement of experienced hockey players. Right from the start their quick movement and one-touch passing was causing the 2s no end of problems.

Penned back on the edge of their own dee, the 2s defence of Luke Davies, Danny Foulkes, Iain Bones and Doug Buckeridge did well to weather the Wrexham storm for the first 10 minutes of the game. They were eventually undone by a slick passing move that left keeper Neil Jones exposed and helpless for the opening goal.

With Sam Conway and Craig Hockenhull swamped in midfield and the younger players struggling to get involved in the game, Whitchurch were finding it hard to make any progress higher up the pitch. When they did gain territory it was quickly won back by Wrexham and the 2s were exposed on the counter-attack.

Despite a number of good saves by Neil Jones and the best efforts of the defence, Whitchurch found themselves 6-0 down at half time.

The second half played out in a similar fashion. Whitchurch tried to block up the large spaces that Wrexham were exploiting and defend in greater numbers, whilst the Wrexham players seemed keen to add to their own personal goal tallies.

With Fred Egerton sidelined during the first half after a stray stick to the face, Joe Coburn and James Page took turns down the left-hand side in the second half and both worked extremely hard at both ends of the pitch.

Locki Price had a brilliant second-half on the right constantly offering himself as the out-ball for the defenders, he showed great maturity in knowing when to drive with the ball and when to pick an attacking or conservative pass. His performance again drew praise from the opposition after the game.

Josh Parry worked tirelessly up front. Badly isolated in the first half, he dropped a little deeper in the second-half and was involved in all of the 2s most promising attacking moments.

Craig Hockenhull, Airan Jones and Sam Conway worked hard to supplement the defensive efforts and drive Whitchurch forward when the opportunities presented themselves. Ultimately, however, the 2s were up against a very fit, capable and experienced Wrexham side and despite their best defensive efforts they struggled to repel the attacks from the Welsh side.

Wrexham ran out 14-0 winners in the end, but there were still positives to take for the 2s. It was also an eye-opening lesson for the younger players in how to move the ball quickly and play one and two-touch hockey.

Next weekend the 2s look to bounce back when they entertain Neston 8s.

Buckley Ladies 1s 5 Whitchurch Ladies 1s 0

Whitchurch ladies 1s played their first away game of the season at windy and rainy Buckley.

From the first whistle Buckley put pressure on the Whitchurch defence with some very big hits into the dee. Whitchurch fought hard but Buckley scored their first goal within 5 minutes. Mid players Grace Berry and Millie Edwards pushed the ball up the pitch to centre forward Becks Morrissey but Buckley defence were very strong.

Ellie Windsor and Charlotte Lawder had some good runs up the right wing but Whitchurch just couldn’t make their opportunities count. Buckley were all over Whitchurch when they entered the dee leaving them with no time and space. Before the half time whistle Buckley fired their second into the Whitchurch goal.

After the half time talk Whitchurch came out with a little more fight, having a good run of chances at goal.

Buckley continued to defend strongly and Whitchurch’s spirits lowered. Buckley made a run into the Whitchurch dee to smash another shot but as captain Catherine Winter-Gresty got to the ball the shot rose into her hand putting her out for the remainder of the match.

Buckley kept the pressure on and had a run of short corners from which they scored another two goals. Whitchurch player Morrissey was carded leaving Whitchurch with ten players for the last 10 minutes; this gave Buckley time and space to score their 5th and final goal.

Sandbach ladies 2s 2 Whitchurch ladies 3s 1

The day started badly when we lost our sweeper and experienced defender during the warm up due to injury.

Whitchurch started well but Sandbach got a very early goal putting them one up. The remainder of the first half saw Whitchurch have the majority of possession. Ellie McEvoy and Izzy Huxley made fine runs on the wings creating lots of shots at goal but not able to convert. Wendy Cooper and Jan Teggin defended well along with keeper Phoebe Jones to keep the score the same at the end of the first half.

The second half saw Whitchurch start a little slow and again Sandbach took advantage scoring an early goal. This rallied the team and they got back on track with Annie Buckeridge and Milly Carruthers were excellent through the centre and left wing.

Not long before the end, a great shot in from Wendy Cooper picked out Izzy Huxley and her shot was tapped in by Ellie McEvoy for her first goal for the club, making it 2-1. Not enough of the game remained by the time Whitchurch had found their confidence and the game ended without any further goals.

The team were really pleased but tired after playing a full match without being subbed; they continue to grow in confidence the more games they play.

Annie Buckeridge was awarded player of the match.

Whitchurch ladies 2s 1 Golborne Ladies 2s 9

Whitchurch Ladies 2s played top of the division Golborne Ladies 2s this week.

It was evident from the first few minutes that Whitchurch were in for a tough match as Golborne started off strong, scoring, taking the lead by four goals. By the end of the first half however, Whitchurch managed to gain composure, and the resilience and determination from the defence and great goalkeeping by Shola Bailey meant Golborne were unable to add any more goals to their lead for the time being as Whitchurch gained possession.

After their half time talk, Whitchurch realised they needed to step up their game if they were going to score. Unfortunately, during the second half, Golborne took advantage of their tiring opposition, gaining another five goals. However, Whitchurch didn’t back down as great efforts from the mid-field and attack allowed Stephanie Stanton to get past Golborne’s defence and score, meaning Whitchurch were able to finish their difficult game on a high.

Player of the match went to Jess Kimberley.

The 2s have a break next week before their next league game against Neston Ladies 4s at home.