Ladies 2nd Team (East)

• v. City of Peterborough 2
• Written by Caz May
• Result: Drew 1-1

I could go through a long winded story, but I am too excited!! We drew today, our first point!! It may not sound like a lot, in other seasons I would agree, but we are battling like crazy and it is really nice to see improvement and get something for it!!

Today we went to Peterborough. Following last week’s efforts we had confidence that we could do it. Self belief really does help! We did not play as well today, but it was still a very good team performance. I promise not to reveal details but we were even able to say that we were the only team to score goals!!! One in our own end was simply to make life harder for ourselves!!

The first ten minutes of the game was end to end, rather nervy hockey from both teams that didn’t actually lead to any shots, but we went one down, in fairness due to an awkward spin from a clear that let’s say went wrong! However heads were immediately on, and we pushed straight to the other end gaining a penalty corner, the only one we had in that half due to some good defence from City of Peterborough. It was cleared well but we soon pushed back up and in went the ball, one all!

The rest of the first half played out fairly similarly, lots of movement from both teams, good team work but no real other goal scoring opportunities.

The second half started in the same fashion, but it was apparent quite quickly that City of Peterborough did not want to lose. They spent a lot of time attacking our D, and we defended well, sometimes sticks, Kerry’s feet, stick, leg, chest, arm, or any one of our defenders clearing the ball from the line. We made it down to their end several times but weren’t able to hold the ball up for long enough to get numbers to transfer pressure into goals, but it will happen if we continue. We made good use of the first aid bag again this week, as Olivia took a nasty knock to the head, however, after five minutes on the side determination showed through and she was back on the pitch, using her speed to sneak around the defence.

The final score was probably a fair result, this week my disappointment being that we could have won it in the first half, and City of Peterborough probably feeling they they should have done the same in the second. So honours even one a piece, and on we go. Next week we play St. Neots at home. Let’s hope we can improve the score line from last time, maybe another point or more. We have to believe that we can or else we won’t!

Ladies 4th Team

• v. Bridlington 2
• Written by Jo McGrath
• Result: Won 4-0

Match report 1, (its been a while since I was press secretary for Gainsborough Roses Ladies 1997, but here goes):

A sunny but cold morning at the Lindum saw old Roses team mate, (my sister) Rosie Lees come back from the seaside in a Roses bobble hat to check out this new club she’d heard of.

And what a refreshing start, with returning mum Alex Carlin showing us how much she’s missed playing, by making a quick break for goal and scoring in the opening minutes. This gave the rest of us the boost we needed to switch on to some fast passing, find good positions and make the ball do the work. See girls, we can do it! It was all strong attacking play, which saw Jo McGrath take another early goal. 2-0.

The Bridlington side didn’t like this much and were determined to stop us in our tracks, breaking down our attacks, but great team work enabled us to keep working it through, with midfield tracking back and forth, supported well by defence. With midfield opened up, the team could easily find each other and we were soon to be rewarded by a swift cross to Cathy Burgess who knocked it past the keeper, for a well deserved 3-0.

So as the second half started we were in high spirits, but the opposition, keen to change the score line, came at us hard and fast. We lost our shape for 10 minutes but I am always proud to see that when the other team start to put the elbow in we stand strong and just keep playing our game. It works, and they soon started pinging off us, with Amber Jenkins keeping that stick on the ball and getting round them, and Rosie Thomas pushing through from strong tackles. Brid blamed the bounce of the pitch, ( they like a bit of sand), but it was more like determination and hard work that kept us on top.

As the Bridlington keeper kept our short corners and other (many) attempts out of the goal it was end to end play for a while. Our keeper and defence remained strong, with Trish Halmshaw calmly doing her stuff and repeatedly feeding it back out to midfield.

Eventually they realised they couldn’t run through us and we were able to pick up the game again zigzagging down the pitch. With some impressive positional play from Judy Strawson, Jo McGrath was allowed to meet her sister at the top of the D, only to sweep it round her and lift it into the back of the net. Yes! 4-0.

This was a real team effort from a strong team, which allowed us to turn the tables after our away defeat earlier this season. Well done team, its looking good, from a very proud captain.

Mens 4th Team

• v. Slazengers 2
• Written by Alex Cooper
• Result: Won 9-1

It would be very easy for Kirky to come across as smug. With Grandad earning / awarding himself promotion to the 3rd team on Saturday, Acting Captain Kirk was put in charge of the team sheet. Reading Grandad’s instructions very carefully on formation, play and which positions people were playing in, Kirky duly ignored everything he was provided and instilled his own formation. 70 minutes later, a 9-1 scoreline to the advantage of Lindum 4, the best result of the year to date, proved that decision to be a sound one.

It was a great turnaround from a 7-2 loss, away, at Slazengers back in October. This time Lindum were composed, played some absolutely beautiful hockey and managed not to lose players to anyone’s over-use of the three cards in their pocket.

Despite his best efforts Ben Nicholson only handed the opposition a single goal when he decided that he was far more qualified than the keeper, Jake Sales, to stop an attacker getting the ball over the line. You’ve got to feel for Jake, who didn’t exactly have a huge amount to do all day, just to be robbed of any entertainment and a clean sheet by the player at right-back. Thankfully a Slazenger player took an opportunity in the first half to attack him – not in the hockey sense of the word but an actual, physical attack, which I’m sure brightened up his day. Ben had another go at balancing the scoreline for the opposition when he rolled a ball incredibly slowly across the top of the D but thankfully it came to nought.

With ten minutes of the game remaining Phi Harrison, controlling the action from centre-back, took a ball / stick combo to his knee resulting in a trip to A&E and a couple of stiches – one of a handful of incidents that saw players from the Lindum giving the NHS something to do on Saturday afternoon.

Goals came from Stu Kirk (2), Ant Gorman (2), Mike Higginson (4) and 4th Team debutante Lewis Downes.

It would be very easy for Kirky to come across as smug. He’s probably earned it though.

100% captaincy record for @LindumHockey with a 9-1 win against slazengers! Bagged 2 goals and 4 assists as a bonus #hockeyweekend #winners

— Stuart Kirk (@stuartjkirk) January 31, 2016