SENIOR TEAMS
The top game of the weekend saw Timperley Women’s team entertain reigning champions Oxton at Stockport Road. Oxton are a team stacked with internationals and for Timperley to be successful Oxton needed to have a bad day and Timperley be at their best.

Unfortunately, with England players Sophie Brett and Liv Wimpenny to the fore, the visitors were quickest out of the blocks and took an early 3 goal lead. Timperley battled hard to get back into the game but with Oxton’s dominant draw control this proved difficult. At half time the score was 8-4 and Timperley went into the second half with a positive attitude.

Timperley matched Oxton well at the start of the second half and kept them to a 4 goal lead and became more threatening towards goal. With 15 minutes left the score was 10-6, but an unfortunate injury to Timperley’s England star Jane Brierly saw loss of focus and a drop in confidence which allowed Oxton to go on a scoring spree to take the final score to 19-7.

The score did not represent the closeness of the contest and Timperley need to bounce back as they face a tough trip to Stockport next Saturday.

For the Men’s 1st and B teams it was a week without a fixture so the only senior game saw A team entertain a very good Sheffield University team.

Timperley Men's A team gave a performance that was similar to previous weeks and again they gave the opposition a start before they showed that they could compete with anyone. The 11-13 defeat reflects a close and competitive game.

Sheffield University had the huge advantage of being led by former Timperley junior Tom Bracegirdle who is turning into one of the country’s top face off men. Tom dominated possession winning 90% of the face offs.

The journey across the Pennines did not affect the students who took a 5-1 1st quarter lead which they extended to 10-4 by half time with the Timperley defence giving the opposition attack much too much room.
It was a different story in the second half with the Timperley midfield led by Andy Brickell and Myles Anderson dominating the game. Timperley won the second half 7-3 with the defence giving a much tighter display.

Timperley goals came from Andy Brickell (4) Myles Anderson (4) Rick Cain (2) and Oli Loveland (1)

There were no U18 fixtures this week as it was County Trials. Timperley players will be well represented on the County squads. Congratulations to the following girls:

A Squad Georgia Greenhalgh, Lexi Molnar, Emilly Hall, Erin Pollard, Lauren Cheyne, Sarah Bailey

B Squad Hope Cooke, Ellie Racle, Hannah O’Donnell, Lucy O’Donnell, Saoirse Gribbon

The Boy’s U16 again fielded a full squad when they entertained Mellor/Cheadle (or is it Cheadle Mellor –see my later comments on this situation) at Stockport Road.

Timperley gave their least impressive display of the season so far going down to an 8-11 defeat.

Timperley were below their best with handling errors creeping into their game.

The scores were level at half time. In the second half the visitors took control and Timperley always looked like ending up second best.

Timperley scorers were Pat McGowan (5), Ed Loveland (2,3), JD Bulmer (1,1) Will Greaves (0,1)

The Boy’s U14 recorded their first victory of the season with a convincing 11-8 win over local rivals Brooklands.

Jack Lee played well in goal in the absence of the injured Gregor Allen and he was supported by a much improved display from the defence.

The Timperley midfield and attack were impressive despite the absence of Dan Flisk, Will Hurst and Seb Page. With a full squad the U14 have the potential to develop into a good team.

Timperley goals came from Harry Alty, Ewan Ginger and Ollie Lee.

The Boy's U12 travelled to Aigburth to take on U12 new boys Liverpool. Timperley, although missing star middie Joe Tomlinson (the curse of school sport) are developing into a good team.

The home side were more competitive than the score suggests and their heads never dropped but Timperley were well worth their 19-4 win.

They opened strongly backed up by great goal keeping from George Jenkins and an improved defensive display led by Joe Edwards.
The Timperley midfield and attack were dominant. Matt Fazal is developing into a top class midfielder and there was good support from Jim Hartley. Angus Gilchrist has great potential fighting hard for ground balls and hitting well above his weight.

Timperley led 7-2 at the end of the 1st Q and had extended this to 13-2 by half time. 4 unanswered goals in the 3rd Q saw Timperley lead by 17-2 but Liverpool kept fighting and shared the spoils in the final period 2-2.

Timperley scorers were Cai Alty (4,1) Jim Hartley (4,1) Josh Spinks (3,1) Owen Shuttleworth (3,1), Angus Gilchrist (2,0) Matt Fazal (1,1), Tom Allen (1,0) Toby Podbur (1,0)

The Girl's U15 had a squad of 15 for the visit of Stockport and despite going down to a 4-15 defeat gave an improved performance. Timperley made the slow start which is becoming too prevalent amongst the clubs teams. However, better focus and some good movement and passing saw Timperley getting much more into the game but they were let down by some poor shooting. The Timperley defence fought hard but they were let down by a failure of the midfielders to track back and they were left exposed too often. Nina Ilhan in goal made some good saves.

The final score did not really reflect Timperley’s performance and they were not far behind Stockport in performance. Some shooting practice will see better results.

Timperley goals came from Elena Rink, Ellie Racle, Kelly Cheng and Elise Humblet (all one each).

The game MVP and MVP midfield was Elise Humblet. MVP defence was Aly Ashcroft and attack Jodie Pollard.

MIXED POP LACROSSE PRIMARY SCHOOL TOURNAMENT
If you want to appreciate what Timperley is all about you should make an effort to get down to one of the monthly Primary school tournaments.

Last Tuesday (6th Oct) Timperley hosted the first Primary School Tournament of the 2015-16 season. This event was a mixed Lacrosse tournament and over 110 enthusiastic young Lacrosse players from 13 local schools (14 teams) turned up at TSC.

Torrential rain between 3pm and 4pm looked like it might disrupt things. However, for once the weather forecast was right and the rain cleared leaving a pleasant evening for Lacrosse.

All the children played with great enthusiasm putting into practice the skills they had learnt from Timperley Coaches (and from some Lacrosse capable teachers). The tournament was split into 2 divisions and Bollin PS emerged as winners of Div 1 and Navigation PS won Div 2.

The next event will take place on Tuesday 3rd November and will be a helmeted and gloved boy’s field Lacrosse Tournament. Volunteer support would be gratefully appreciated particularly in the area of refereeing. This is a really important tournament for recruiting players to the programme.

The schools taking part were; Altrincham C of E, Bollin, Bowdon C of E, Bowdon Prep (2 teams), Cloverlea, Forest School, Hale Prep, Heyes Lane, Navigation, Stamford Park, St Hugh’s , St Vincent’s and Wellgreen. Unfortunately the Willows, a famous Lacrosse Primary School had to drop out at the last minute but we hope they will be able to play in later tournaments.

MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY LACROSSE
For the last 7 or is it 8 years one of Timperley Lacrosse Club’s major partnerships has been with Manchester Univ. It has been a successful partnership which has been hugely beneficial to both the club and the University.

The University has provided players and administrators, coaches and officials (refs and umpires). The two most recent Chairs of Lacrosse have been from the University-Alex Short and Tom Slater.
Timperley provides coaching for practice and games for all the University teams. Additionally the club provides the officials for home matches.

From the point of view of on the field performances over the last few years the University has over-performed. It is one of the few Universities to currently having both it men’s and women’s teams playing in the BUCS Premier Leagues. The club runs 2 men’s and two women’s teams and a vibrant development programme which attracted over 100 new players at Fresher’s Week (we know everyone joins everything in Freshers’ Week !).

The success of Lacrosse has led to it being nominated as one of the University focussed sports (along with netball). The University Sports Dept works very hard to run a top class sports programme but the funding for sport seems very small considering the size of the institution. The standard of the facilities is very poor, certainly worse than comparable Universities such as Durham, Edinburgh, Nottingham, Birmingham, Exeter, and Surrey. Since MMU have taken over the old Man City facility it is arguable that the University do not even have the best sports facilities in Manchester!

The result has been that Manchester Univ slipped to 17th in the overall BUCS table –the lowest they have been for many years and certainly not a performance of a University with aspirations to being considered world class.

One of the great challenges to Lacrosse in maintaining its Premiership status is the recruitment of players. Many of the players who sign up for lacrosse are new to the game so converting them into decent performers in just a few weeks is a challenge.

The last thing a Manchester team wants is to face Durham in the early weeks of the season. Durham, who have invested heavily in lacrosse , (that means actively recruiting American players on subsidised post graduate courses!) have been dominant in both men’s and women’s lacrosse in recent years. So when the fixture list gave Manchester an away trip to Durham for the first match of the season it was a real challenge and a 24-4 defeat for the Purples was perhaps what could have been expected.

This Wednesday (14th Oct) sees a full programme for Manchester teams. The men’s and women’s 1st teams entertain strong Loughborough teams with 2 time All American Javon Miller from lacrosse powerhouse Syracuse University playing for the men’s squad. Whilst the 2nd teams both entertain Lancaster. All games will be played at Stockport Road so if you want a lacrosse bonanza the entertainment starts at 1pm.

INTERNATIONAL LACROSSE
2016 is a big year for men’s International Lacrosse with the FIL U19 World Championship and the ELF European Championship both taking place.

The U19s will return to Coquitlam, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada . The event will run from 7th -16th July. The European Championship will be held at Godollo in Hungary from 25th July until 3rd August .

At the moment players are in big squads which will be cut for the final teams. Timperley players are well represented with Mike Armstrong , Tim Blower, and Tommy Kirkland along with Tom Bracegirdle who we have loaned to Sheffield Univ for a few years and last year’s LDO Josh Roden on the senior squad.

On the current, enlarged U19 squad are Josh Blower, Freddie Atkins, TJ Burgess, Dan Walker and Grady Jackson-Fayle.

If people are considering a trip to support England in either of these events both venues are great. Vancouver is a city which should be on everybody’s bucket list with wonderful side trips possible to Vancouver Island and the Rockies. Godollo is only a short drive from Budapest which is one of Europe’s great cities.

18th OCTOBER REFEREES COURSE / REFEREES TROPHY
Because of a clash of dates the course has had to be postponed. On that Sunday the annual Referees Trophy will take place at Wilmslow LC. The event will feature an U17 Lancashire and Cheshire (Face 12 noon) followed by the senior Lancashire v Cheshire game (Face 2pm). Timperley players will be playing in both games so it would be good to get along to support. There will be a small entry fee to the ground.

NATIONAL LACROSSE COMMITTEE
English Lacrosse have introduced a new committee to oversee the grass roots game (what we are all involved with). This committee is called the National Lacrosse Committee and replaces the Men’s and Women’s Playing Committees.

Congratulations, if that is the right word, to Dani Skelly who has agreed to serve on this new committee. Dani has shown herself to be a very capable and committed administrator at club and regional level. She will be a welcome voice on the new committee for women’s, North and proper club Lacrosse.

OKTOBERFEST 17TH OCTOBER
Timperley Sports Club will be holding a social night this coming Saturday 17th October . Clearly a beer and Bavaria theme which is only £10 for a first drink and food .For further information contact John Allen on john@abinsurance.co.uk