WEEKLY ROUNDUP OCTOBER 11TH

TIMPERLEY LACROSSE SEASON 2017-2018
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER WEEK 3 7/10/17

INTRODUCTION

All in all last week was a decent one for TLC.

Our Women’s team made the difficult trip to reigning champions, Oxton. Although they went down to a 10-14 defeat there was much in the performance to suggest that the return fixture could be interesting.

For our men’s and boy’s teams Saturday was, as far as I can remember, a unique day. I cannot remember a day when Timperley teams finished with a 100% record.

Our Men’s 1st team entertained Sheffield at Stockport Road and gave a convincing display of power from the first whistle to the last coming up with a 23-5 win.

As important as the win, was that the game was the first that our senior team had played on our “new pitches”. They look in rapidly improving condition. On Saturday the game was played in appalling conditions. As CBO I have rarely been wetter as heavy rain was the general position for much of the game. When the game ended the pitch looked in great condition with few signs of a game having been played. The view of the players was that the pitches passed the test and were judged to be “great” and “fantastic”. We look forward to a season of few cancellations (snow?) and good playing surfaces.

I was particularly interested in comments from U19s that the Brooklands pitches were very muddy. In recent years we have cast envious eyes at Brooklands where their pitches were usually in good condition when Timperley’s were unplayable.

We are lucky at Timperley Sports Club to have an Executive led by Alan Holdsworth supported by John Allen and which protects the interests of all its sports. The summer has been a difficult one for the club and in particular for the cricket section. After the basic work had been done for the drainage in April we needed a bit of rain to encourage the grass seed growth, which you would have thought could have been guaranteed in Manchester! Unfortunately, we had the driest spring in living memory. The pitch was unplayable for most of the cricket season with the teams having to play their “home“ games away.

The A team continued its unbeaten start to the season with a win over Cheadle B, but it was not the easy game Timperley expected. Timperley were far from their best in taking a 14-9 win. The game was even tighter than the score suggests and it was only a second half surge which saw Timperley over the line. At least some character.

For those who are not familiar with Lacrosse foibles a 1-0 win to the Bs does not mean that skipper Martyn Henderson played a blinder in goal. It means that Heaton Mersey C conceded the match because they could not raise a team. A small consolation is that we take the points.

All the Boy’s teams recorded wins which, if not unique, was certainly unusual.

The U16s travelled to Mellor, one of our great rivals, with our strongest team for the first time this season and in a tremendous game of Lacrosse took a nail biting 8-7 victory.

It was always going to be a difficult season for our U14s, mainly because of a shortage of numbers. However, under the inspiring leadership of manager Matt Robinson they have trained hard and played with determination. On Saturday their efforts were rewarded with their first win – an 11-4 home win over Rochdale.

Our U12s have the makings of a decent team and on Saturday we took a combined A and B side - 20 players – to the unbeaten Heaton Mersey and came away with a convincing 18-10 win with everyone playing their part.

Our girl’s section this year is by far the biggest that has ever been seen at any Lacrosse club and on Sunday we fielded two U18 sides – one win, one loss and an U13 team which enjoyed a comfortable win over Brooklands.

Sunday also saw the opening of the U19 season with the Ted Donnet Trophy at Brooklands. In a tournament with some high quality Lacrosse being played. On a tough day Timperley fought through to face Stockport/Norbury in The Final. In a nail biting game they went down to a 3-4 defeat. Stockport/Norbury were worthy winners but the problem of mongrel teams is becoming one which needs addressing. The reality is that could be seen as cheating. The 2nd place finish for Timperley means they have secured a place in the top division for the Autumn Floodlit League. Timperley are a team full of young talent so the Autumn games will be worth seeing.

MATCH REPORTS
Sat 7th Oct
Women v Oxton Away Lost 10-14
Oxton took the lead from the beginning and Timperley just couldn't quite catch up despite scoring several goals before half time and late in the second half. Both teams were missing key juniors for the North Schools' tournament so their rematch later in the season will be one to watch!

MVP went to Diarra Franks for her outstanding season début in goal for the blues, at one point seeing off 9 free positions in a row! We look forward to welcoming her to more games!

Final score 10-14 to Oxton

Men’s 1st v Sheffield Home Won 23-5
After the slow start against Stockport the previous week Timperley were quickly out of their blocks and soon controlling the game.

At the end of the 1st quarter Timperley had a 7-1 lead which they extended to 13-1 by half time. Timperley dominance was founded on sound defence. With only 3 long sticks in their 15 man squad the close defence was superbly marshalled by England International Tommy Kirkland and there was impressive defence from the short stick midfielders.

Timperley’s dominance continued in the 3rd quarter and going into the final period Timperley held a 19-2 lead. To their credit Sheffield did not let their heads drop and the final quarter was their best with Timperley edging it 4-3.

In modern Lacrosse the role of the face off specialist has become increasingly important and Timperley are lucky to have England face off man, Tom Bracegirdle. Most of the game on Saturday was played in persistent rain so the accuracy of the statistics kept on a water soaked note books may not be fully reliable. But it is true that Tom Bracegirdle domininated the face offs losing 1, at most 2 of the 32 faces in the game. A truly impressive performance.

Scorers
Jack Brook 6.2
Brendan James 4.3
Taylor Wallace 2.1
Cam Leslie 1.0
Ollie White 2.1
James Bates 2.2
Tom Bracegirdle 2.1
Chris Leeming 2.0
Mikey Armstrong 1.1
Billy Kershaw 1.0
Jay Armstrong 0.1

Men’s A v Cheadle B Away Won 14-9
This weekend saw Timperley make the short trip to Cheadle for what was expected to be an easy victory. Unfortunately, this was not the case.

During the first quarter the defence was none existent. Although the man on man defence wasn’t too bad, with little to no communication and some unforgivable periods of ball watching Timperley conceded 2 sloppy goals from men cutting to the crease and catching feeds totally unchallenged. At the other end of the field the attack did look threatening but failed to convert on too many occasions meaning the quarter ended all square at 2-2.

Disappointingly after some stern words in the team talk things would get worse in the second quarter for the defence. Failing to improve on any of the troubles of the 1st quarter and looking totally lost in multiple man down situations Timperley conceded 5 goals. In response the attack did create some well worked team goals however still wasted too many chances only scoring 4 meaning for the first time this season Timperley ended the half behind 7-6.

During a very competitive 3rd quarter the defensive issues of the 1st half started to be sorted out. With communication improving and having finally woken up to the back door cuts Timperley kept Cheadle to only one goal. After a Cheadle goalkeeping error allowed Tim Holdsworth to fire into an open net, Louis Humblet and Sam Hirst piled on the pressure to give Timperley a narrow 8-9.

Continuing in the same vein of intensity shown in the previous quarter Timperley again kept Cheadle to just one goal. The attack also did their part putting another 4 past the Cheadle keeper to eventually earn Timperley the win they expected.

Louis Humblet(4, 0)
TJ Burgess(3, 0)
Tim Holdsworth(3, 0)
Greg Sandy(1, 3)
Sam Hirst(1, 1)
Marius Robinson(1, 1)
Ed Loveland(1, 1)
Conor Turner(0, 1)

Men’s B v Heaton Mersey C Home Won 1-0
It was good to see that faced with a blank Saturday virtually the whole of the B team turned up at Stockport Road for a practice.

Boy’s U12 v Heaton Mersey Away Won 18-10
This week a joint a and b team took on Heaton Mersey at the Heatons sports club. Timperley got off to a flying start when Jim ran straight through from face off and scored. This was followed with goals from Ben Edwards 2 and Owen. Score at end of quarter 4-0. Mersey had a small resurgence scoring 3 before goals from Owen 3, Jim, Jack and George saw the end of quarter score 10-3. Timperley let off the gas and with the introduction of a few of the younger players saw a closer fought quarter with some good play from both teams Mersey scoring 5 to Timperley’s 3, with goals again coming from Owen 2 and Jim. The final quarter was more of a one sided affair with Timperley dominating play and the goals. Goals from Owen 3, Jim and Jack saw Timperley run out comfortable winners 18-10.
Well done to all the younger players who handled themselves well and enjoyed their first experiences of competitive lacrosse.

Stats
Owen Shuttleworth 9-2
Jim Hartley 4-4
Ben Edwards 2-1
Jack Dearden 2-1
George Rommel 1-0

Boy’s U14 v Rochdale Home Won 11-4
Game 3 of the season home to Rochdale

Another day where we were still unable to field a full team, once again caused by injuries, with Callum Legg now added to that list after a trampoline bit back. Joe Tomlinson away & Alfie Jenkins still conquering the home nations. This week saw him in Wales & not a Lacrosse pitch in sight!!!

That though is where any slight frustration I had prior to the game was washed away with a fantastic performance by the U14's. Our first win, in the end a comfortable 11-4 success.

There is always room for improvement but to a man the attitude shown by each player was pure brilliance. It started from the back with George as a captain he leads by example if there is a better GK of his age in the league I have not seen them. With Callum in the treatment room it was left to Graham & Ollie as our only two long poles. An opportunity for Ollie Hancock to step up, he did not need asking once he just did it. He marshalled our defence superbly, with Graham also playing his best game of the season. The pair were simply excellent. In midfield we had Josh, Angus, Matt & Laurie and while they all need to get their heads up and move the ball quicker, all 4 were simply amazing. They dominated midfield and ably supported both defence & attack when required. Upfront we had Mackenzie & Kai Alty. Kai once again stepping up an age group to help provide numbers was not out of his depth. While Mackenzie did not score, his off ball movement was great to see and truly appreciated by Marius & I, he set up so many opportunities for the midfield, who chipped in & for Kai Alty, who was our MOTM with 5 goals & 2 assists.

Marius & I are delighted for them. The game understanding, the communication, the awareness and team spirit that was on show was for me the icing on the cake. It's only one game and no one is getting carried away, we now must show the same levels in every training session and game going forward.

Boy’s U16 v Mellor Away Won 8-7
A trip to Mellor at Junior level is always a tough game. With a full squad for the first time this season it would be interesting to see how the boys performed. We couldn’t have asked for a better start! Seb dominated the face offs giving us good possession which we didn’t waste allowing us the opportunity to score 4 unanswered goals by the end of the quarter. With Ollie man marking Mellor’s danger man Dan Jones our defence was hardly troubled. Mellor’s strength was there to see in the next two quarters as the found their rhythm and found holes in our defence 7 -5 to Mellor going into the last quarter. Some clear instructions from Taylor and Sam around our defence allowed us to play a perfect end to the game. Scoring three times through Harry 2 and Ewan while our defence tightened up allowing us to finish the game strongly and win 7 -8. Hopefully this will give the boys the confidence to have a strong season. Some points to work on in training – positioning in defence and with only 1 assist movement in attack. Overall a great day for the U16 boy.

Harry Alty 4 goals
Ewan Ginger 3 goals
Will Hirst 1 goal
Jack O’Mahoney 1 assist.

Sunday 8th Oct
Girl’s U18 Blue v Brooklands Home Won 13-12
Any derby games against Brooklands always end up close and this was no exception. We went into and early lead with some great passing a movement which is always the key.At 5-1 Brooklands called a time out which changed the momentum but we still came in at 8-4 at the half way.

We lost our focus in the second half early and even when we won the draw we lost possession and with Brooklands in the ascendancy and leading 9-8, we called a time out to restructure the defence and pass our way out which we did with great affect.
A nail biting Finnish saw the game end 13-12 to Timperley.

Special mentions for Gabrielle in goal who was superb and our U15 Maddie and Elise who are embedded in the team and shone throughout.

Well done girls we showed great character .

Cathy
Sarah 1 goal/ 1 assist
Millie 1/0
Emilly H 4/2
Emily R 1/1
Erin 0/2
Lauren 2/4
Lucy
Hannah
Josie
Saoirse
Lexi 0/1
Gabrielle
Maddie L 1/0
Elise 1/1

Girl’s U18 White v Mellor Home Lost 6-15
No rain and did our first Risk Assessment prior to the game! Mellor told us they would come with 10 but turned up with 13 so we had to poach a player (Emma Whitley) from the Blue team, who luckily were playing home too.

First half of the first half, Mellor were all over us with quick attacks and passes. We were quiet and not hungry enough to win the balls. We were trailing 5 - 0 at half way mark. We had a time out and the team responded to what we discussed and pulled back to 5 - 6 by the end of first half. More talking in defence, more movement in attack and a great response to pull back so close.

Second half. Before we went back on the pitch we said we need to do what we did at the end of the first half, but once we were on the pitch we did not. Mellor made use of this loss of wanting to win and pulled away to a 6 - 15 win at the end.

Could we beat them, yes but we then need to make less mistakes with our passing, increase our win rate at the draw, be hungrier and talk more in all parts of the pitch. We need to learn our lessons from this game and make sure we do not repeat them in coming games. I believe we have a great team, that does not believe in themselves yet.

Man of the match: Ellie Racle - as always worked hard and helped out in defence.
Defence: Daisy Kay - worked hard and wanted to change the way we played.
Midfield: Jodie Pollard - goals and good runs.
Attack: Emma Coghlan - goals, assist and spurring others to do better.

Scores and assist.
Emma Coghlan 2/1
Jodie Pollard 2/-
Sophie Hurlstone 1/1
Kelly Chang 1/-
Daisy Kay -/1
Ellie Racle -/1luckily

Girl’s U13 v Brooklands Home Won 13-1
On Sunday 9th of October the U13 Timperly Girls played Brooklands and they won with a convincing victory of 13-1.

The whole team played excellently especially Franzi and Emma who stepped up from the U11's with great composure and awareness.

We demonstrated strong teamwork throughout the game and our passing and catching was always to a high standard.

Franzi scored the opening goal. We then continued to score a high number of goals in the first half. In the second half we played a possession game with some very tactical passing around the fan.

Occasionally the opposition went into our half but were swiftly met with some strong defending from Jasmin, Natalya, Angela, Elsa and Amelia Lees.

We also had some great saves from Charlotte Wynn.

In summary the team started to play some excellent and intelligent lacrosse - well done girls -it was a pleasure for all the parents to watch.

Goals were scored by: Katie, Tilly, Jasmin, Elsa, Zofia, Jess, Franzi. Well done to all the players and the coaches/ manger Jo, Brett and Maria and to Lucy who refereed for us.

Person. Goals. Assists
Jasmin Ellaby. 1. 0
Elsa Hopley-Catalan 1. 3
Zofia Jenkins. 3. 0
Katie Young. 1. 4
Tilly Young.. 3. 3
Jess Haywood. 2. 3
Franzi Christian. 2. 0

Boy’s U19 Ted Donnet at Brooklands
U19 Ted Donnet Tournament
This tournament is used to seed the teams for the U19 league, so it was important for Timperley to reach the semi final which would guarantee a place in Conference A. This was duly achieved by coming second in the round robin, with victories over Rochdale and Sheffield, plus a draw against Mellor.

We opened up with a 5-1 win over Rochdale on the wettest / muddiest October pitch I have seen at Brooklands for a long time. We played pretty well, and should have scored more. Next up were Mellor, who are now reaping the benefits of their solid junior programme. We didn’t do ourselves justice in this game, and circumstances conspired to allow Mellor to equalise in the final few seconds to take a deserved 3-3 draw. This left us having to beat Sheffield to guarantee a semi final place, which we duly did (on the muddy pitch that was getting heavier with every game). We showed some real fight in this game, and played hard, controlled lacrosse and won 4-1.

After all the scores were in, we were down to play Mellor in the semi final. Again, it was a tight affair, and it ended with Mellor scoring towards the end to take it to 2-2 and into the golden goal period. After a turnover by each team we took the first scoring opportunity of the extra time period to get ourselves to the final, winning 3-2.

This brought us up against an unbeaten Stockport / Norbury combination team in the final, and the first half ended 3-3 after the teams traded goal for goal. Timperley conceded two on transition and a scrappy one from a groundball in front of our goal so we felt well in the game, with improvements to come. However the second period started with a goal straight from the face for SNL, and then it was end to end lacrosse for the remainder. Timperley created chances, some good, some not so good, we hit the post and the SNL goalie made some decent saves; equally Timperley tightened it up at the back and defended well. No further goals however, and SNL ran out 4-3 winners.

If nothing else, it has shown that there are a number of decent club sides out there for U19, plus the usual combination squads, and this season’s competition will be a tight, exciting affair.

Updated 16:05 - 1 Sep 2019 by Tom Slater