A mixed bag this week, so we’ll start with a positive one from Anna Howbrook with the 4ths:
On Sunday we had another eventful journey down to Exeter and another win, beating Exeter Uni 11-7.
We started well with 2 goals from Lewis and Pav, both disallowed but still a promising start.
By half time we were leading 5-2 and in the second half we were going just as strong getting to 10-7 when Eleanor took a hard elbow to the temple. She has now made a full recovery but at the time we had to leave her on courtside with an icepack on her face and play the last few minutes down to 7 players. One of the highlights was in the very last second, as the ball was mid-air the ref blew the final whistle and Chester got the 11th goal!
MVPs Ellie and Chester Burbidge
Slightly less upbeat were the 2s with Alex Webb:
Saturday became a day that the seconds would rather forget as they lost 14-19 to Exeter. At times we played well but a few lapses in concentration at key parts cost us. We all wish Chris Rainforth (who got injured after 5 mins) a speedy recovery. Feelings were improved by the thirds thumping Exeter the following day and the encouraging words of coach Jake Cooper. We will come back fighting this weekend, Bristol city better watch out!
The 1s had another hard NL game at the weekend, from which Rebecca Fitch has this to report:
On Sunday the Firsts travelled to play the mighty Bec. With absolute heroes Webby and Kyran Evans-Beale making the journey to sub for us! Thank you so much, we really really appreciate it! Bec started off strong but after the first ten minutes of settling in, our defence was strong too! However we were shocked in attack, Bec’s defence is so zonal and full on that the opportunities that we managed to get were rushed. We managed to score just the one and finish the first half 13-1. We had a bit of a reality check at half time, recognising that we were playing with bad mentality – with a defeatist attitude and not giving the attack our all. So with renewed vigour we went into the second half determined to score more. It turns out we also upped our defence, as the score in the second half was 11-5 – perfectly respectable. Ur due to our poor first half the score was 24-6. Just to note, Ky came on 10 minutes towards the end against an England U21 player and absolutely smashed it! Cheers guys, we’ve got a week off this week and then Kingfisher on the 10th. Bring it on!
And to finish on a GREAT note, Tom Franks with the 3s!!
The 3rds won SWKA 2 this weekend with an awesome 32-5 victory over Exeter! And that’s without mentioning Samuel’s three missed penalties in a row. MVPs were Stephen Wood and Abby Fryett but really everyone should’ve been as I thought we all genuinely played brilliantly. It was the first game I’ve ever played when every single player got on the scoresheet! Even more rare than this was Michael Greenland not celebrating smugly for even one of his six goals! It was also to nice to have Philip in the team being classic Phil. Same as last week, a big thank you to Ben Smith for his great coaching and Beth Ryan for reffing & the celebratory drinks! The next challenge for us is to win our last 3 games and finish the season with a clean sweep of victories!
Club training is back on this eve, see you all there!!