Guernsey’s Ladies 3rd XI were the first game of the day. Despite a thorough warm up, it was Jersey women’s 3rd XI that started strongly and immediately put pressure on our defence. The Guernsey back line were a little shaky with nerves but some strong tackles from Chloe Gibson and Bea Rowe kept it goalless. After 10 minutes on the back foot, Kath Guille began to find some space in the middle and threaded some balls through to both Summer Chamberlain and Sophie Brooks on the wings.
It was Jersey who made the first breakthrough, scoring a scrappy goal which appeared to have hit a jersey foot in the build up but stood after a short protest. This seemed to get Guernsey going and they started to link well with some subs making an instant impact. Guernsey won their second short corner which was played to Helen Richardson (our adopted Jersey-girl) on the left who slapped the ball powerfully across the D with the angle fooling the Jersey keeper, much to the delight of her teammates and supporters.
It remained 1-1 at half time. The second half saw Guernsey on the front foot and they got the next goal through Fi Beeston at the far post. With both umpires signalling a goal, a Jersey protest followed and the goal was subsequently disallowed.
The game could have gone either way at this point and some excellent saves from Soph Findlay kept the game level. Guernsey broke well through Guille to Brooks who played a fast one two with Beeston and Brooks was unlucky to narrowly miss the goal whilst running in at pace. There were a few more good chances for Guernsey with Chamberlain coming close on two occasions but no one could find the back of the net. A couple of injuries and green cards for the Guernsey side, saw Jersey’s pressure amounting in a second goal, where a run by one of their youngsters along the byline took an unfortunate deflection off a Guernsey defenders stick which took it in on the near post and gave Findlay no chance.
Guernsey rallied hard with Amy peacegood using her long legs to get the ball forward and the girls persevered and worked tirelessly to try and find an equalizer. It wasn’t to be, with the game ending 2-1- the closest Guernsey women came to a win on the day. The players and coaches can be proud of the oldies that made it through unscathed and the juniors that made their Senior Inter Insular debuts. Jersey awarded Soph Findlay a much-deserved player of the match for some fantastic saves.

Big thanks to our sponsors Hfl and Versa for their continued support of Guernsey Ladies Hockey this season.

Match Report provided by Kath Guille + Helen Richardson