Whitchurch Hockey Academy continues its summer programme alongside the Back2Hockey sessions.

The Back2Hockey and Academy enjoy the most of the sun.

The academy pick the name of the new club mascot “Ben the bear”

Whitchurch Ladies were very upbeat after the last match against Wrexham.

Whitchurch started the match strong and early into the first half were dominating the match. The ladies had an early goal with a penalty corner strike from Emma Harper at the top of the dee. Whitchurch were eager for more and were soon two up as a Nina Hodges swept in a deflection from another penalty corner.

Whitchurch didn’t finish there and soon after Sarah Field scored a contender for goal of the season whilst running away from the goal, turning and striking the ball into the top of the net. Oxton came back and scored a penalty flick beating keeper Sarah Latham just before the end of the first half.

Whitchurch scored their fourth goal in the second minute of the second half as Nina Hodges swept in her second goal on the back post. As Whitchurch tired Oxton scored and the game became very evenly matched as Nikki Ellis converted a rebound from a Whitchurch penalty corner. Oxton scored their third in the final minutes.

The ladies are away on Saturday against top of the table Lymm. Whitchurch would like to thanks Steve Glover for umpiring the match.

We had a great day yesterday at Telford where both the U10s and the U12s performed brilliantly.

The U10s won their section overall, beating Telford and Bridgnorth (twice) and only losing one game narrowly, despite having most of the play and loads of opportunities to score.  As most of you know, our U10 girls did very well last year in the Midlands competition at the end of the season, and I have high hopes for both our girls and boys this year based on yesterday’s performances.

The U12s managed a win, two draws and one loss finishing on a high with a 3-0 win over North Staffs. And lots of positives to take out, especially the way they got more focused and determined, even as they were getting more tired, by the end of the afternoon.

An early goal scored by Laura Chesters, gave Whitchurch the start they wanted but Whitchurch sat back on their early lead and allowed Timperley too much time and space to play the ball around. As they started to tire Timperley took full advantage and despite numerous saves by the Whitchurch keeper Gwyneth Thomas-Rees Timperley soon had scored three goals.

The second half saw Whitchurch regroup and stop the Timperley runs that caused so many problems in the first half. Jess Kimberley and Laura Chesters began to find space leading to Jess having the best chances of the half. Whitchurch finished the stronger of the two teams but failed to score and were punished when Timperley scored again on the break.