West Clubs North

Wootton Bassett Ladies 0

Cirencester Ladies 8

CIRENCESTER Hockey Club’s Ladies’ 1st XI, newly-promoted to West Clubs Women’s Hockey League North, enjoyed a confidence-boosting victory in their seasonal opener at Wootton Bassett.

Unbeaten last season, and having scored 15 goals in two pre-season friendlies, Cirencester Ladies laid down a marker in their new division with an 8-0 victory.

The victory was even more impressive as Bassett had also been promoted after finishing second in their league last year The hosts dominated the first 10 minutes, holding possession and making Cirencester work hard for everything.

Having overcome this initial pressure Cirencester opened the scoring via Jess Weston following a well-worked run and strike by Alex Nielson.

Cirencester dominated the remainder of the match with Elly Whitehead, in particular, providing a great pivot role and allowing her side to mount wave after wave of attacks.

With industrious work from Tash Cook, Hannah Denning and Kathy Jackson, the Wootton Bassett defence found themselves overloaded and unable to prevent goals from Kath Fry (2), Weston (2), Mich Cobb (1), Jules Finn (1) and league debutante Jess Robins (2).

Perhaps most pleasing of all were the penalty corner routines that resulted in scores from Cobb and Finn.

Severn Division Two

Cirencester II 3

Evesham and Badsey 2

CIRENCESTER Ladies’ 2nd XI ensured they were not left out, securing a 3-2 win in a hard-fought game against Evesham and Badsey.

There were goals from Izzy Clifford Holmes, Amber Birkett and Matilda Dean and an outstanding player of the match performance from Alice Moss. Unfortunately, the Ladies’ 3rd XI were unable to complete the hat-trick of league wins, losing 3-1 away at Ross-on-Wye.

The men’s league hockey season starts this weekend, and the final pre-season friendlies provided ample learning opportunities for all four men’s sides.

Friendlies

Cirencester 3

Swindon 5

THE Men’s 1st XI welcomed back Swedish international James Rydborn and having secured two earlier emphatic wins were brimming with confidence against Swindon HC.

Swindon are one of the premier sides in Wiltshire and compete in a higher division than Cirencester. Cirencester started the first half with great promise and following goals from Joel Brace and Rob Carmichael were comfortably ahead 2-0 at half-time. However, the young and hard-running Swindon side altered tactics and the second half became a one-way affair.

Persistent pressure on the Cirencester goal saw them concede five second-half goals and despite a contender for goal of the season from Carmichael, the final score-line ended 5-3.

Captain Jacob Elliott, reflecting on the performance and looking ahead, wasn’t fazed by the result.

“We have a strong squad this year and having convincingly won two previous games, this was a timely test for the squad,” he said. “We will build and learn from this.”

Swindon II/III 3

Cirencester II 1

THE senior men’s result set the tone for the rest of the section, with the Men’s 2nd XI – who were promoted to the De Cymru & The Marches Division Two last season – also playing Swindon in a game that ended another unbeaten run.

With Cirencester one down at half-time, the game remained tight. However, two quick strikes saw the hosts go 3-0 ahead.

A well-worked penalty corner allowed Oscar Snowball to reduce the deficit and the final result was a 3-1 loss.

However, captain Chris Pollard is positive as his side prepare for their first league game next weekend.

“We are blessed with many talented youth players. Four of the team – Max Pengilley, Ollie Jones, Alex Dennett and Marcus Grinnell – are part of the Junior Regional Performance Centre squads,” he said.

We have a unique combination of youth and experienced senior players and hope to provide many upsets with our combination of energy and know-how.”

Elsewhere in the men’s section, the 3rd and 4th XIs also lost with the third team being overwhelmed by a rampant City of Bath side who found the goal seven times without reply. A last-minute game for the fourth team against Chippenham saw them conceding five goals without reply.

CIRENCESTER Hockey Club celebrates its 30th anniversary this year having been founded in 1986, and now boasts four ladies and four men’s sides as well as a thriving junior section.