Ladies Hockey Smash Pompey

Hockey was one of the success stories at this year’s Varsity, as Wessex continued to dominate! Thanks to the Wessex Ladies for the match report.

Portsmouth v Southampton 1^st XI Hockey:

After defeating Portsmouth 4-1 in pre-season, Southampton Ladies Hockey 1st Team started confidently against the home team, with solid defence from Sally Stewart-Moore and Jenny Bains in the back, and above par goalkeeping from Gaby Gavins keeping Pompey from scoring in the first half. Captain Jo Madeley dominated the middle of the pitch, distributing the ball left and right well and making some great reverse stick tackles. Emmie Giles initialised the domination by generating some brilliant dribbling down the left wing and slotting the ball straight past the keeper. Southampton continued to control the game, with a further 3 goals from Varsity debut freshers Lucy Scales scoring 2, and another from Rhian Stephens. Keeping the pressure on, Wessex gained several short corners, with Ellie Piper narrowly missing a straight-strike shot. Portsmouth unfortunately managed to grab a lucky goal in the last 5 minutes, but their attempts remained futile as Southampton emerged victorious once again, winning 4-1.

We had some tremendous support from both the men’s and ladies’ club members throughout the day.  The flags were waving, the spirits high, and the stands were a definite crowd pleaser with the adverse weather conditions. Nothing could dampen our mood with an overall win for both Ladies and Men’s hockey smashing Portsmouth out of their own park!

Written by Natalie Price

Portsmouth v Southampton 2^nd XI Hockey:

After some initial hiccups with the buses running half an hour behind schedule from Southampton, the 2nd XI and our supporter squad eventually arrived at Pompey, with just enough time for a very quick warm up and an enthusiastic team talk from Club Captain Kate Williams; she even had a colourful diagram! The team was made up of an amalgamation of 2s, 3s, 4s and 5s players. Most of the team were committee members or seniors in their final year, given the opportunity to represent at Varsity. The match commenced 5 minutes late but there was a fiery start from the attack with Tiffany Arnold scoring the first goal of the match with ease. This was much to the annoyance of the opposition, and the umpires…as they were also Portsmouth Uni students! Portsmouth did not give up; there were a few chances where they had the ball on the wing and proceeded to run up the pitch, but Wessex’s great strength in defence soon put a stop to any of these attempts, along with a few heroic saves from Katy Parsons in goal. The first half saw the Wessex 2s start as they meant to go on with 3 more goals from Hannah Venning, Niamh MacCaoilte, and Rachel Ibbotson which were quickly put past Portsmouth’s goalie. She threw her stick across the pitch in response (no reaction from the umpires…). Just before half time another short corner was again awarded to Southampton, and 4th team Captain Bex Smart scored an awesome goal; however, unfortunately it did not quite go out of the D, so was disallowed (although, the scorecard seemed to reflect a change of mind from the Pompey umpires as Wessex ended up with an extra goal… This probably reflects the rest of the day with Pompey’s general lack of ability to count up scores… see Athletics!).

Half time saw a mass consumption of jelly babies and Haribo to keep excitement levels high.  Our Coach James Morris was on hand to give us a pep talk to keep us focused, so we could maintain our strength and hold off the Portsmouth advance in the final 35 minutes. Although the second half saw no more goals for TeamSoton, there were a number of comedy displays from Clio O’Sullivan on the pitch, as she clearly thought our Varsity title was secure – falling over and sliding around the water pitch seemed like more fun. Also, Aimee Pink decided to debut in her last game for the club as a forward, seeing as Soton’s ball possession was so frequently in Portsmouth’s half. All of this meant no more goals, despite many, many chances – but continual possession by Wessex meant that only one goal was conceded in the second half. The whistle blew for full time and Kate Williams rushed to the side-line and produced the Ladies Hockey Varsity Cup for a team snapshot to capture the moment.  Initially there was doubt as to whether this was a good idea, but it was inevitable the 1sts would also secure a second win against the Pompey team this year. Well done to everyone who played, a fantastic way to finish the season for those seniors who are leaving, and a great chance to see some Pompey bashing and yet more Wessex domination!

Written by Katie Bunce

Ex Wessex Boy Ravi Shankar K Ghowry took great pictures capturing the determination of our players and the atmosphere of the event. You can see all of his photographs of the event here.

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