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After a nice break in fixtures and 2 very productive training sessions it was time to hit the road to Warwick University. The day got off to a bad start when the mini-bus and 2 cars got stuck in traffic as some poor bloke lost his pride and joy jaguar to a fire on the motorway so the team ended up arriving late which ultimately interrupted our warm up and pre game routine. This showed as Warwick took an early 1-0 lead. Staffs managed to shake off any jitters and stormed to a 7-1 first quarter lead mainly thanks to Samantha Bloor’s brilliant centre ability and the goal scoring of David Drysdale, Dimi Chambers and Shane Hall.
Staffs dominated proceedings from then on and showed so much ability all over the field especially short passing, shooting and movement. Mention for David Downs very cheeky little lay off in the 3rd for Shane Hall. Every member of the team played brilliantly and it was great to see the ever improving Chris Hopkins bag a hat-trick, Suzy Tompkins and Ben Bradley bag their first goals and Vice Captain Rhiannon Lettey doing a very solid job in goal. Moment of the match though had to be Captain Shane Hall stealing the show with a run round from behind the goal, spinning to put his back to goal a with one hand cheekily sweeping the ball through his legs to hit the back of the net……illegal yes but the ref let it go. The game ended 27-2 to Staffs though Warwick submitted 23-2 and it was man of the match for Shane Hall and woman of the match Sam Bloor with Jinks picking up dick for chasing a butterfly…..or feather as he claims! Next up is a huge game v Leicester at home. A win here hopefully puts us in line for a shot at winning the mixed league! This is your new blog post. Click here and start typing, or drag in elements from the top bar.
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Well after last week I was looking for the team to bounce back and in the first half of this very close encounter we did brilliantly, finishing the first half 7-3 up! Craig Broomfield and David Drysdale spear headed our very dangerous looking attack which looked like it could have scored from every attack! New faces also helped with the likes of Olivia Galliver and Sam Turner playing their first games and playing them very well. Sam Bloor also did a very good job in her new role of our draw/face-off player winning most of her draws with the bigger Birmingham girl.
The down side to our games so far have been bitching at the ref (and yes I know it’s my big down fall too!) but today it could have cost us. At half time the team were told to just play their game (which was far superior) but the second half we seemed more interested to playing the dirty game with Birmingham and the medics, much to their credit, really rallied together to out score us in the second half but Staffs just held on for a 10-9 victory. Dimi Chambers put in another man of the match performance in goals with vice-captain Rhiannon having a great game to secure woman of the match. Due to some slightly aggressive behaviour Chris Hopkins got dick of the day but he did play another quality game and is one of the freshers to really look out for this season. The team now have a week off before a trip down to Warwick to play their 2nd team. This is your new blog post. Click here and start typing, or drag in elements from the top bar.
Sadly I wasn’t able to play this game due to running the Birmingham Half Marathon so there isn’t a lot I can say about it.
The score I was disappointed with when I found out seconds after crossing the line. It finished 24-2 with some players telling me a lot of it was down to Loughboroughs pure skill and speed and others saying it was down to Loughborough’s ref “skills”. Either way it gives us something to work on and gives us the determination to beat them back at Staffs. Mention goes out to Tom Chandler for waking up early to pick the bus up and bagging his first mixed goal of the season. This is your new blog post. Click here and start typing, or drag in elements from the top bar.
IF I WERE CAPTAIN.......
A disappointing start to a new a season of men’s lacrosse with a 19-1 loss at the hands of Birmingham, who took control of the game and played well to keep the men’s team from starting the season with a win. However despite the loss a lot of positives can be taken from a game that was hard hitting and a baptism of fire for the fresher’s amongst the team. This year’s team has taken in a large amount of new blood for the team to attempt to fill the holes from the players lost since last year’s hugely successful season. Judging by the performance of the freshers from Wednesday the team will be just as strong as last season’s team. Not only was this game a first for the fresher’s of the team but it was also a first game as captain for David Drysdale who made the jump from vice captain to captain for this year’s team. As a hugely respected and influential member of the team it’s only a matter of time before he leads the team to victory. So on with the game itself. A strong starting line up picked by the captain compiled of mainly oldies to show the fresher’s how it’s done. Birmingham themselves sending out a very strong team of oldies with very few fresher’s in their entre team. Staffs went down to an early goal put past Dimi who has stepped up in goal replacing Simon Hart who is no longer a member of our team. Birmingham continued to attack and despite the best efforts Staffs were trailing. This was the story of the first quarter mainly down to nerves and the fresher’s and oldies settling into the game. After a rallying team talk from Drysdale the Staffs boys came back out in the second quarter with more focus showing the Birmingham boys what it means to put some body in with some huge hits coming from Shane Hall and Stephen (Roids) Hamilton. A notable big hit coming from a Birmingham player on fresher Sam Turner was a nice 'Welcome to Lacrosse' moment for the fresher; however it was nice to see that he wasn’t disheartened by the hit and continued to fight for the ball. Defence this year for Staffs will be tough having lost some good defensemen over the summer, however new vice captain Dan Courtnage stepped up to the game putting in some heavy stick checks and blocks showing the new d-men how it’s done. Despite the lack of attacks, Staffs put in when the ball was in the Birmingham end veterans in attack Sam Page, Nathan Villiers and 'Pingu' set up quickly and got shots off at goal more of this and it won’t be long before the Staffs boys are on the score sheet. A mention to another player that showed some versatility in the game was Chris Hopkins who adapted well to being both in midfield and attack and shows good potential for the game. As for myself a well deserved “dick of the day” awarded for my over committing in the body checks, maybe it’s time I called “got ball” and left the hits for the big hitters in the team. A disappointing highlight of the game was in the final quarter after a huge hit on the keeper from Pingu the open goal was scored by Birmingham number 11 in a move that despite his motives, the Staffs boys saw as disrespectful. Overall despite a loss, it seems that captain Drysdale can take a lot from the game and has things to work on before the next game. By Andy Bettaney CAPTAINS BLOG First game of the season is always going to be tough. But I am dead proud of each and every one of my squad that day. We had a lot of nerves which is understandable. But the Staffs Lax boys played till the very end and showed so much heart. We have a few teething issues but at the start of the season, this was always going to become apparant. I want to thank everyone who came to play against birmingham and I hope to be on the field with you all again soon. By David Drysdale Staffs mixed lacrosse today played their first game of the 2011/12 season with the short trip to Birmingham University’s Metchley Park fields. Before the game I was wary of the threat Birmingham could pose but upon arrival I was told that they hadn’t had any training sessions and only 4 players were playing that played before!
This I did mention to the team but at the same time I wanted to keep them grounded. The game started very well for Staffs and we finished the first quarter 3-0 up. The momentum was carried through into the 2nd quarter and we went into half time 6-1 up, mainly thanks to the hard work of David Drysdale. The second half of the game became quite a scrappy affair as Birmingham came into their element slightly and would have scored more had it not been for Dimi Chambers keys saves for which he later earned Man Of The Match. At times the game did get slightly feisty and Staffs players started to lose it slightly but still managed to keep their heads to finish the game with an 8-1 victory. Overall I was really happy with the result and especially the freshers. Chris Hopkins bagged a debut goal and Kelsey Purnell earned a Woman Of The Match award. Sadly my own brother earned Dick Of The Day for what was apparently annoying the Birmingham ref! Spirits were high after this game and the team were looking ahead to playing Loughborough the following week. |
AuthorMy name is David Grice, I am currently running this blog as well as the rest of the website. I am doing this not only to make it easier for the team to find out information, but also it's part of my Sports Journalism degree. Archives
November 2011
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