INTRODUCTION
As per usual a bit of a mixed week. The high spots were cup wins for our Men’s A and B and our U14 Boy’s. The pick being a 3-6 victory for our A team at Heaton Mersey. We usually find Mersey A tough nut to crack so the win was a great one and a sign of the growing maturity of our talented young team.
The B have a mixture of the very old-Noel Harrison and Cengiz Ilhan and the old James Shuttleworth and some enthusiastic and skilful young players. The B team have had the measure of Boardman A this season so the win was hoped for.
The U14 entertained Brooklands in the Plate and played some great lacrosse to take a comfortable 18-6 win in the Battle of the Roundabout. The visitors had an extremely talented middie who caused some real problems early in the game before Timperley defence, particularly Angus Gilchrist and Alex Moulden got to grips with the problem.
The two best teams at U12 this season have been Timperley and Mellor and 4 meetings have ended with two wins apiece. On Saturday it was not Timperley’s day and Mellor were fired up to get revenge for their recent Cup defeat. The game was fairly equal except for a disastrous 2nd quarter when Mellor scored 6 unanswered goals but Mellor’s 13-3 win was well deserved.
The big negatives from the weekend were that our Women’s team and Boy’s U16 and U19 teams all had their matches conceded. My impression is that the priority for the games leadership is the promotion of increased participation. At junior level we are plainly short of quality and quantity with the rash of combination teams and many teams turning out low on numbers. At men’s and women’s senior levels many teams and clubs just view it an achievement to get ten people who can hold a lacrosse stick onto the field.
In my view there has been a significant change in attitudes in the last twenty years in respect of the relationship between people and different organisations such as sports clubs or other community clubs. The link requires the people involved to accept that being part of a group brings obligations and responsibilities. It always was the strength of a group. Nowadays people seem more to have a view that then giving up time to play is them doing the group, if anything, a favour. The obligations and responsibilities do not have the same degree of importance as they used to have.
Lacrosse has always been fortunate to have some very capable volunteers-never enough but that is life. Not sure where Junior Boys Lacrosse would be without the likes of Alison Cara. The new fixtures secretary, Dean Moharab, seems to me to have a grip. The only suggestion would be to seed junior tournaments. Flags Final Weekend is a shop window and the teams in the finals should be the best teams. At U12 the two best teams have been Timperley and Mellor, by far. On their day they can each beat each other but they ending up playing each other in the quarter finals. An excellent game which would have been a fitting final. If another teams beats one of the seeded teams they would deserve to get into the final. You would think that the organisers of Wimbledon were mad if Djokovic played Nadal in an early round!
I have seen a fair bit of senior lacrosse this year and there are some excellent young people involved. We need to get some of these people into leadership roles and take on responsibility.
The basis for lacrosse success is, in my opinion, a very strong club system. The basis of this is in Manchester. Forever the England team has been based on a very small group of clubs in Manchester. The ambition should be that this is not the position but we need to maintain the base while hopefully expand the game to other part of the country.
The failure of the growth of University men’s Lacrosse to produce quality players shows in my book how difficult lacrosse is to play at the highest level . The other side of this coin is that to reach the top you really need to start playing in year 4 or 5.

MATCH REPORTS
SAT 9TH FEB

WOMEN V STOKE POSTPONED

MEN’S 1ST NO GAME

MEN’S A V HEATON MERSEY (A) CUP WON 6-3
This week Timperley faced Heaton Mersey in a bid to reach the semi finals of the cup. This was a real challenge for the team to start producing results against the ‘big three’, showing how much they have progressed during the season.
The first quarter started as how the game would go on: fast paced, end to end and tightly contested. The defences from both teams looked tight and rarely gave the other team a clear sight of goal. When the defence did, both keepers did well to shut up shop. Gregor possibly played his best ever performance for the team, making save after save making it look nearly impossible for the opposing team to score. It would take a great deal of time for the deadlock to be broken, with Conor Turner able to isolate his man from X and beat him topside to take Timperley into the lead. However, this lead was short lived, as Heaton Mersey was able to find a man on the crease, who skilfully buried it to bring the game level at the end of the quarter.
The second quarter was goalless. On part due to the sloppy play that crept up into both teams’ gameplay. However, this was down to how tight the game had become. Both teams were desperate to get the next goal, resulting in frequent turnovers, resulting in a fast-paced quarter. Timperley were able to match the physicality of Mersey but in some parts just lacked the composure to put the ball in the back of the net. However, going into the second half at 1-1, gave the team optimism that they could go on to win the game.
Inspired by the first half performance, the team turned up another gear in the third quarter. The team were able to match their first half efforts but added to it the composure and quality to start converting the chances they created into goals. Good team goals from Patrick McGowan(2), Billy Kershaw and Sam Hirst, meant that all of a sudden, the game momentum switched in favour of Timperley. The team looked inspired to record their first win against this team for a long while with a 5-1 lead going into the final quarter.
The final quarter became scrappy. Both teams were desperate to gain control of the ball, with ground balls becoming hotly contested by both teams. There became a real sense of treasuring the ball from Timperley, who knew that they were in no rush to work some good chances. We knew the next goal would be important, and up steps Harry Alty to hopefully seal the game, but unfortunately this goal was ruled out as his stick was illegal. The game goes back into the balance, with the team suffering a 3 minute penalty, but the defence stayed strong, coupled with some point blank saves by Gregor, to win back possession and run down the penalty. Mersey managed to get another goal, only for Conor to get his second of the day to bring back some comfort for Timperley. Even though Mersey was able to score a goal in the last few minutes, it was too little too late as Timperley sealed the 6-3 win to progress to the semi-finals.
It was refreshing to write something different in the reflection part of the report this week. Usually in these games I would write how we played well but we are still growing as a team to compete with the likes of Mersey. Well this week has just proved that the team are on the cusp of achieving just that. I’m hoping as long as the team can keep focusing and improving on this performance, we can keep up these surprise results and strive to reach the cup final. Hopefully this can go on to inspire the team that they are capable of achieving anything when they bring performances to the table like we’ve just seen.
Goalscorers
Patrick McGowan (2,0), Conor Turner (2,0), Sam Hirst (1,0), Billy Kershaw (1,0), Nathan Walker (0,2)
In the semi finals Timperley will entertain Mellor A at Stockport Road – a big game !

MEN’S B V Boardman & Eccles A (A)CUP WON 15-8
The B team travelled to Monton for a David Beesley Cup game. So far this season Timperley have the upper hand against Boardman but the games have always been close and competitive.
On Saturday Boardman took an early lead but Timperley had their noses in front taking a 3-4 advantage at quarter time.
The second quarter was nip and tuck with both teams sharing 4 goals to give Timperley a narrow 5-6 half time lead.
Timperley defence was in great form backed up by Isaac Tweedale in goal and in the 3rd quarter they took a 1-3 advantage to lead 6-9 at the break.
In the final quarter Timperley had the better legs and outscored the home side 2-6 to take a deserved 8-15 win.
For Timperley Jamie Southworth was outstanding with a couple of goals. In attack Owen Atkinson with 4 goals and James Shuttleworth with 4 led the way.
Timperley B face a tough game against Wilmslow A but one they can win if players are available.

BOY’S U16 V SHEFFIELD B (H) CONCEDED

BOY’S U14 V BROOKLANDS (H) CUP WON 18-6
This week the U14s took on Brooklands in the quarter final of the plate competition.
Brooklands got off to a flying start with a goal in the first 2 minutes but Timperley struck back soon after with a great run and pass from Leon in to Owen who finished well. Timperley continued to create chances with Jim and Cai coming close before Laurie breaking at pace on to Angus who sets up Cai to calmly slot it home. Great work at the back from Alex and Leon kept Brooklands at bay before goals from Owen and Ben saw Timperley lead 4-1. Brooklands hit back again with a run and goal from 11. Timperley stepped it up again with Alfie running the length of the pitch and sets up Cai who adds to his tally.
Once again 11 breaks quickly and scores. 5-3 end of first quarter.
Second quarter Timperley start to dominate possession with Jim winning most of the face offs which led to a goal from Jim with an assist from Ben. A break from Laurie leads to a goal from Angus and straight after that Owen strikes before a great move with Angus running up on to Cai behind goal who comes round switches hands but keeper saves, lose ball picked up by Angus goal. Jim again wins face and moves it on to Owen who converts again. Brooklands managed to pull two goals back before halftime.
10-5.
The third quarter saw Timperley dominate and creating numerous chances playing some great lacrosse. First up Cai from an assist off Jim then a goal from Alfie before Two more from Cai. Brooklands only had one good chance with the defence shutting them out and a great save from Tom. 14-5 Final quarter Timperley again had the best of the play and a early goal from Owen increased the lead before some good defence from Angus and a solid stop from Tom to keep Brooklands out. Brooklands eventually managed to break through and score. This goal caused a reaction from the blues and goals from Alfie and Owen 2 killed off the game. Final score 18-6.

A great all round performance with some stand out players but this week’s man of the Match was Angus Gilchrist. Great job.

Stats
Owen Shuttleworth (7,0), CAI Alty (5,2), Angus Gilchrist (2,2), Ben Edwards (1,2), Alfie Jenkins (2,0), Jim Hartley (1,1), Leon Read (0,1)

BOY’S U12 V MELLOR (A) LOST 13-3
An unremarkable game for Timperley boys who faced a Mellor that were clearly more fired up after their Cup defeat. Noah Brennan opened the scoring and his brother Lukie was unlucky not to score soon after. Mellor spent much of the first quarter a man down for one reason or another but this didn’t mean our defence wasn’t tested with Ben Lawton working hard as ever but Mellor still pushing through to score. Lucca made a great save shortly afterwards, and we were fortunate that Mellor were disallowed a goal for stepping into the crease, ending the quarter 1-1
Q2 was a disaster for Timperley with an early Mellor goal giving them the lead. Well organised passing by Mellor needed a well organised defence but they scored a total of 6 in the quarter, unanswered by Timperley – most through well controlled passing and their 6th by a fast break with our middies and defence too slow to react. Half time 7-1
Q3 was more even though first blood was taken by Mellor who literally ran rings around our defence to score, Another goal for Mellor was followed by a long pass from Kuba Jenkins to Sam Ginger to turn and score. Q3 9-2
The final quarter was more competitive and despite a strong lead by Mellor, Timperley still battled for the ground balls but the game was lost through the midfield and Mellor were stronger at rotating the ball. Mellor scored another 3 and Lukie’s hard work was rewarded with a goal to end the game 12-3 (Mellor ref had 13-3 but me/Nathan had 12-3 – poss confusion on the disallowed goal but with a comprehensive win for Mellor either way).
Nathan says we need training on Weds, and poss Saturday if there is interest and enough boys available.
Noah Brennan – 1, Sam Ginger – 1, Lucas Brennan - 1

SUNDAY 10TH FEB

BOY’S U19 V SHEFFIELD (Win as Sheffield conceded)
Disappointingly, we found out mid-afternoon Sunday that Sheffield were declining to travel to fulfil their U19 league fixture, citing an inability to raise a team due to injuries. Sheffield has two U16 teams, so I find it hard to believe that they don’t have enough players who are 15 or older (the age at which you are eligible to play). Timperley themselves only had 11 players, 9 of who were fit, so it might have been an interesting game had Sheffield turned up and given it a go…..

GIRLS U11 V CHEADLE (H) WON 13-2
Massive congratulations to all the team who showed strength in all areas: defence, midfield and attack with good passing and stick skills. The only special mention went to Sophie Gregory who has managed to score in both of her first 2 games for the U11 team.