The Ladies Ones took a bare eleven players to Derby.
Saturday 25th Feb
Ladies 1’s v Derby
The ladies 1s played second in the league Derby away on Saturday, with the bare 11 players, two of which had already played that day, the team were under pressure and were unlucky not to come away with any goals, final score 2-0 to Derby. Player of the match Dani Ashwell.
Ladies 2’s v Ladies 3’s
There was an early start for the L2’s and 3’s in the All Newark Notts Championship league tie, with the 2’s looking to take another step closer to promotion and the 3’s save themselves from relegation. Going into the game the 3’s were very much the in form side picking up points at North Notts, where the 2’s had failed the previous week.
The 2’s started the more confidently of the sides, with the early pressure paying off, after they moved it nicely round the back from Amy Crouch, to Hannah Beckett, who pushed the ball towards goal. The 3’s defence scrambled to clear and after a goalmouth scramble the ball eventually landed at Shanade Bradley’s feet, to convert from a yard out on her strong side to make it 1-0 to the 2’s after 3 minutes.
The 2’s continued in much the same vain, moving the ball nicely round, but lacking a decent final ball into the D. The 3’s looked dangerous on the break when they did get the ball, through nice link up play between Ann Crockett-McLean and Sophie Chambers.
Anna Kempster was comfortable for the 2’s in the middle, moving the ball nicely as pivot player from side to side, supplying Sara, who carried the ball strongly into the D, to win a short corner as the ball came up dangerously off Jackie Nullis’ stick. The 3’s defence stood firm and Freya blocked the shot well.
The 3’s picked up on loose play in the 2’s midfield, with Hannah Bond intercepting, passing off to 3’s duo Sophie and Ann, who worked the ball nicely into the 2’s D to with the short off the foot of the 2’s Defence. The resulting short pushed out by Chambers to Ellie, whose drag flick went straight towards 2’s keeper Lily Dean, who dealt with the ball confidently clearing the shot onto a 3’s foot for the hit out.
The 2’s continued to dominate and won a string of short corners, but failed to convert, due to excellent goal keeping from Freya and 3’s defence of Emily Crisp, Rachel Copson, Hannah Bond and Jacky. The 3’s continued to battle and were getting more into the game, but as with the 2’s lacked the quality final ball where it was needed. Sophie and Ann continued their 1 to 1 first time link up play down the middle of the park, with Crockett McLean finding a green foot for another short to the 3’s. The resulting short followed the same routine, with chambers pushing out to Ellie who drag flicked the ball straight at 2’s keeper, who pawed the ball away to her left.
Freya was having an excellent game in the 3’s goal, with Hannah Beckett combining well with Amy Crouch, who fed the ball to Bea in the D, who forced Freya to make a good low save to her left, to finish the first half.
The 3’s started the second half on the front foot, with nice passing down their right from Jacky to Felicity, but yet again the final ball didn’t make it through the 2’s defence. Then it was the turn of the 2’s to hold possession, with Shanade and Sara linking well, leading to the ball being fired across the face of goal, with the 2’s failing to get the final touch towards goal. The 2’s continued to pressurise the 3’s D, with Hannah Beckett sending a dangerous ball into the D, only to be blocked by 3’s captain Crisp.
There was a short break in play after Hannah Bond took a painful blow to the knee cap, meaning she had to leave the field. It was the 3’s who took the initiative after the unexpected interlude, with Alex striking at the 2’s goal after Crockett McLean pushed the ball dangerously across goal. Jackie made a driving run down the right and after the 3’s worked the ball round the edge of the 2’s d, the ball fell to chambers, whose reverse stick effort went wide past the left post.
The 2’s regained their composure and held possession through Beckett onto Jackson who swept the ball across goal for Bradley to slip the ball into the open goal on her favoured reverse to make it 2-0 to the 2’s with only 10 minutes left to play.
The 3’s continued to battle and their efforts were rewarded when Ellie took the ball down the 3’s left on her own, trickily and skilfully around several of the 2’s defenders, passing the ball cooly into the far side of the goal to make it a tense 2-1. By this point the nerves were beginning to show and the game was end to end, with the almost unbeatable Freya making a double save from Shanade and Hannah Beckett. However it was the 3’s who had the last laugh, when in the final minute, Crockett-McLean was put clean through on goal 1v1 with the 2’s keeper. With experience and composure she put the ball low to the left of the oncoming Dean, to even the score at 2-2, with the final whistle being blown a few moments after the restart.
The point for the 2’s keeps them in 2nd in the table with 3 to play, 3 points ahead of nearest rivals Beeston and the 3’s securing 7th spot, now a point ahead of Players, who have a game in hand over them.
Newark Ladies 4s v North Notts Ladies 4s
Last time Newark made the trip to Mansfield, they came out victorious in a snowstorm against ten players - this time the sun was shining and both teams were evenly matched with eleven players. Newark quickly took the initiative and most of the play was in the attacking half, but yet another new line-up took a while to settle in and understand the flow of play. We were unable to capitalise on an early penalty corner after five minutes, but play was still going Newark’s way, however disaster struck when the first time North Notts made a run, they beat goalkeeper Holly Ainsworth to get onto the score board.
Solid defending from Polly and Moira cleared the ball to the wings and forward towards goal, but unmarked players were left floating and took advantage of the space they were given and North Notts took advantage of this and scored again, much to Newark’s annoyance. Kanky Andrews stepped in as a defender whilst a return from Vicky Jones in midfield was very welcome, with her pace having been missed over the past couple of weeks. Hannah produced some great runs forward from the wing but had to leave the pitch following an injury. Newark trailed 2-0 at half time, which was disappointing as they had retained possession for over 70% of the time.
A regroup at half time and some great observations from newcomer Eliza with some calm advice from coach James Barker saw a rejuvenated Newark side go out strongly after the break. The second half started much as the first and some great runs forward from both Jess and Lucy seeing the ball in the D time and again, with Amelie having several shots on goal but unable to beat the keeper. Finally, Sam Wade found herself with only the goalie to contend with and after controlling the ball and keeping calm, managed to manoeuvre the ball round the keeper and firmly into the back of the net.
North Notts soon retaliated with a third goal and a seemingly impossible task now faced the Newark Ladies. With the score at 3-1 against them, Newark were not willing to give up against a team they should be beating and they dug in for the long haul. Great runs down the wing from Lucy Wade finally managed to find space, but Lucy was quickly closed down by the only defender and with a quick-thinking cross to Sam Wade, it was soon slotted past the keeper to bring the score back to 3-2 against Newark. With the clock fast running down, Newark were determined to salvage a point from the match and a last gasp run from Jess saw Newark equalise with less than two minutes to go.
The final score was 3-3 and joint players were Sam Wade (for finally getting on the score sheet) and Lucy Wade for assists in all three Newark goals.
Men’s 1s v Nottingham University 4’s
The men’s 1s played at home against the university and managed to retain the 2019 unbeaten run of matches drawing 2-2 with goals from Kian Hunter and Ryan Foster. Player of the match was Sam Smith
Men’s 2s v Mansfield 1s
The men lost 12 – 0, a hard match but a good performance from the team who never gave up, man of match Ben Bradley.
Sunday 24th Feb
Congratulations to the U10 girls and U12 girls who have each qualified for the Midlands In2Hockey finals after a long and enjoyable day for five Newark junior teams. 