A full day of hockey
Saturday 12th October
Men's 1s v North Notts
The men's 1's beat North Notts in a convincing 7-0 win with Goals from Tom Mayhew (3), Benjamin Smith (2) and Harry Beedham (2). Tom is currently the highest goal scorer in the league with 5 goals to his name at this early stage in the season.
Men's 3s v Mansfield 4s
The 3's beat Mansfield 3-0 with goals from Logan Tustin, Tim McManus and a penalty flick from Craig Joynes. Man of the match - Ciaran Logue.
Ladies 1’s v Northampton Saints 2’s
The ladies 1’s went into the match sensing that only a win would do, given that Saints had failed to pick up any points so far this season. They started well, building on last week’s second half performance. The momentum was halted slightly, when Hayley Chaplin took a nasty blow to the finger, leaving her in considerable pain and unable to continue. Newark were forced into an early change with Lauren ‘Magz’ Gray coming in at Right back in a like for like swap.
This didn’t upset the home side, who soon after went on to take the lead, when Rosie Staniforth took the ball down the right and crossed the ball flat and hard into the D, for ShanadeBradley to coolly deflect into the Saints goal making it 1-0.
Saints were not deterred and almost immediately levelled with a shot fired high into the goal, from an impossibly narrow angle to make it 1-1.
Newark remained composed and managed to pass and move the ball from left to right patiently, via Megan Cocker, to Captain Rachel Vickers, to Anna Hall, on to Magz and Staniforth. Newark’s patience was rewarded when they were awarded a short corner, the Saints defence failed to clear the strike on goal resulting in a goal mouth scramble. Hall eventually got the final touch on the line to make it 2-1 Newark.
Whilst Newark looked the stronger side throughout the game, Saints capitalised on Newark’s mistakes, scoring their second goal in an almost copybook fashion as their first, making it 2-2 at half time.
Coach Paul Halfpenny’s halftime team talk meant some adjustments to the short corner set up for the second half. The team again started strongly and were first to break through, with an almost perfectly executed short as per instructions, pushed out to Susan Tate, who delivered the ball out to Bradley. Bradley fired the ball low and hard towards goal with Hall deflecting the ball into the goal for 3-2.
The pattern of the game did not change, with Saints equalising yet again from a well worked short corner, that Magz could unfortunately only manage to direct past Newark keeper Georgina Barrett and into the goal to make it 3-3.
Newark’s 4th goal was a carbon copy of their 3rd, with coach Halfpenny’s short corner instructions working a treat, this time Staniforth got on the end of Bradley’s ball at the far post to tap in, making it 4-3.
Newark finally managed to get a 2 goal cushion, with their best move of the game, starting from a hit out from Hall to Magz, who passed inside to Katherine Hawkins, who then directed the ball out to Staniforth, who used her pace, running the ball to the baseline one handed on her reverse stick. Staniforth accurately pulled the ball back to Trish Trafford, who made no mistake in tucking the ball calmly away first time past the Saints Keeper, making it 5-3 to the home side.
Saints continued to battle, putting Newark’s defence under pressure, Northampton pulled one goal back in the dying moments, to make it 5-4. Newark hung on to their lead to take a deserved victory and a vital 3 points, taking them to 5th in the Midlands Feeder East League. Next week see’s the 1’s travel away to Belper.
Ladies 3's v Notts Uni 4's
The 3's faced a well-drilled team away at Nottingham Uni and lost 11-0. Player of the match: Hannah Bond
Ladies 4s v South Notts
The strong South Notts team had joined our league from the league above, so were always going to mean a tough game. However, Newark made a strong start taking the visitors by surprise.
Before long, South Notts had sorted themselves out and taken command of the game and managed to score from a penalty corner. With the Newark defence missing some key players, Moira Chambers and George Redican found themselves with a lot to do and some tight marking by South Notts left them with few options on hit outs.
There was some great play by the newly formed Newark team – perhaps a hint of things to come? All too often, stand-in goalkeeper Jane Stead was called into action but against a well-drilled South Notts team, Newark were found lacking.
Before half-time a great break from Georgia Sheldon got us into the attacking D, but Newark were unable to capitalise. The half-time score was 4-0, with two lucky conversions and another goal from a penalty corner.
After the break and a set of new instructions from coach James Barker, returning player Susie Gray along with team stalwart Vicky Jones managed a great 1-2 and Susie managed to find the back of the net. Sadly though, the South Notts goals kept coming and although there were a few breaks from Newark, South Notts kept control of the game until the end, with the final score being Newark 1, South Notts 7.
Player of the match was well-deserved for George Redican – who was kept busy at the back for the entire match.