Carol Scearce writes:

On a day more suited to sitting on the beach with a nice cold drink, P&R took to the field for their 1st league game of the season.

A bright start saw us winning a flick in the first 5 minutes after a defender cleared the ball off the line with her foot. This was well slotted away by Dee. P&R were in control for much of the first half limiting the opposition to some break away attacks which were largely smothered by the defence of Yvonne, Dee & Jenny. Any shots on target were well saved by Danni.

Just before half time we made our continued pressure count scoring our 2nd. After the initial short corner shot was saved, Charlie picked up the ball on the left and angled her shot past the keeper into the far corner with her new stick.

A&C came at us hard after the break and we found ourselves under some pressure in the defending 25. Good team work and hard tackling helped keep A&C at bay while we worked ourselves back into the match. Rachel (on the right) and Alice (upfront) with their youth and pace (remember what it was like to be young?) proved a very useful outlet, relieving us of pressure and keeping the opposition defence on their toes. We finally wrapped up the 3 points after a rebound from the keeper fell to Alice in the middle who calmly found the backboard and made it 3-0.

A great start to the league season. Well played ladies.

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Carol Scearce writes:

With a team all sorted out and raring to go against the league leaders (they scored 1 more goal than us last weekend), the message came through at 11.38am on Friday that our opposition couldn't get a team together and were conceding the match. That's our 2nd 3-0 win in a row and another 3 points in the bag.

That's 2 wins from 2 matches. Bring on next week and Sonning.

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Carol Scearce writes:

We went into this match top of the league with a 100% record and full of confidence and thoroughly enjoyed getting ready as for some reason there were 25 fit rugby men using the ladies changing rooms at the Uni. More of that please ! Things started to go downhill from there when we realised that we didn't have any shirts. A quick phone call found that the shirts were in Tilehurst (last washed by someone who'd gone to Leicester for the day) and we were at the Uni. Thanks Vicki and Ashton for getting them to us on time! The next worry was where was our keeper ! Danni was a tad late and had gone straight to the pitch. Phew, all there and ready to go.

I don't remember much other than Yvonne soon scored our first goal from close range which unfortunately, was quickly followed by an equaliser. We restored our lead before half time with Yvonne slotting home our and her 2 nd picking up a rebound from the keepers pads.

Sonning started the 2nd half strongly and before we knew it, we'd conceded our 2nd equaliser following a short corner but our pressure and youth (well, some of the team are under 35) soon started to tell and good team work created us several chances. Yvonne finished off her hat-trick with a beautiful reverse flick across the goal which nestled in the far corner. Fluke Sonning were heard to claim. Fabulous we thought as Yvonne ran back to the half way line waving her arms in the air. Come on, she hasn't scored a hat-trick since she was 17 !

Aless playing in an unfamiliar position as sweeper had a great match snuffing out much of Sonnings play and our defensive line up of Jenny, Dee and Kat were solid. The result was put beyond doubt when Carol picked up a loose clearance and from the top of the D, fired a shot in which beat the keeper thanks to a deflection off a defenders foot.

This match saw the league debut for P&R of both Kat and Jo. Welcome to the club both and thanks for your contribution to the result.

We're still top of the league and only 15 matches to go !

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Carol Scearce writes:

There's not much I can say about this match as I'd skived off to Lisbon for the weekend. What I can say is that I was very happy and jumped around when the text came through saying we'd won 4-1.

Dee Merry did her best to convince me that she is a fine centre defender when this week playing up front, she put away 3 goals with Lauren Mountain adding the 4th.

Well played ladies, 4 league wins out of 4. We're still top of the league and only 14 matches to go !

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Carol Scearce writes:

This week we had a break from the league and took on Oxford Hawks with a much changed team from the previous week.

Good pressure at the start saw us win a short corner which Tracey Averies - returning from an injury layoff - put away with a fine shot from the top of the D easily beating the keeper.

Shortly after Tracey added our and her 2nd with another shot I'm sure the keeper didn't see.

The main problem that Hawks gave us was from their quick breaks out of defence mainly driven by their no. 22 who Indian dribbled nearly the entire length of the pitch time after time. Lower ladies, we must tackle lower ! Still, any efforts they did have on goal were well saved by stand in keeper Judy Buck. Her clearances were firm as I can confirm from the one that struck me on the left knee cap from 5 foot away.

Rachel Elven scored our 3rd from a rebound after a saved shot, calmly slotting the ball past the keeper.

Back to the league next week with a top of the table clash against Scarlet Runners.

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Carol Scearce writes:

A top of the table clash this week saw 1st and 2nd place play each other. Scarlet Runners would have gone into the match confident as they had yet to concede a goal in the league this season. Would we be able to do anything about that ?

P&R started strongly putting the Runners defence under pressure winning a couple of short corners. The pressure told midway through the 1st half when a shot from the top of the D (Charlie or Jo) was intercepted by Dee Merry on the penalty spot who calmly controlled the ball before flicking it past the keeper who could do nothing but watch.

Runners attacks were fairly limited to quick breaks which were dealt with well by the defence.

Just before half time we scored a great team goal. Carol broke up a Runners attack, playing the ball back to Jackie Cobner. Jackie, under some pressure waited to draw the Runners player before passing the ball back to Carol who pushed a pass through two defenders for Alice Wainwright to run onto. Alice ran a good 30 metres before firing in a cross from the right beautifully turned in at the far post by Charlie Rixon using her lucky stick.

The 2nd half saw Runners put us under more pressure and Danni (in goal) had a bit more to do. At one point she made a fantastic triple save before we managed to clear the ball. The Runners keeper was also playing well, making a couple of saves to keep them in the game.

We held out to the end to stay top opening up a 5 point gap at the top of the table. Well played ladies.

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Carol Scearce writes:

Scorers:
Dee Merry - 2
Carol Scearce
Sally Ilderton

P&R started this match strongly and had good possession in the first few minutes. Kidlington though were no pushover and caused us some problem in defence mainly from quick breaks. Any shots on target though were well saved by Danni.

It took us a while to get going as several people were playing in unfamiliar positions but mid way through the 1st half it started to come together. We scored our first from a quickly taken free hit just outside the D. Dee Merry controlled the ball and with her back to goal, reverse flicked the ball past the keeper.

Carol thought she had scored the 2nd when her strike from a short corner deflected off a defenders stick and flew into the top of the net over the keepers head only to have it harshly (sorry Sue) disallowed. The second actually came before half time but no-one can remember anything about it other than Dee scored that one too.

P&R were the dominant team in the 2nd half although it took a while to add to the scoreline. Carol got the 3rd from a short corner strike across the keeper into the corner and set-up Sally Ilderton for the 4th again from a quickly taken hit outside the D. Sally had taken up a great position on the far post and beat her defender and the keeper. This capped a storming performance which included a fine impression of a 7 year old excited at Christmas, jumping up and down, waving her arms with lots of squeaks and yells - and all because she inadvertently fouled someone!

Unfortunately we didn't manage to keep a clean sheet when we failed to clear the ball after a Kidlington short corner. We can take great heart from the way Kidlington celebrated their goal as you can see what it meant to a team to score against us.

Dee had an ideal chance to score her 3rd after picking up a through ball, using her skill to round the keeper and with an open net beckoning, somehow managed to push it wide to howls of abuse from the sideline. Something to do with not buying the beer I think !

So, still top of the league although there's a long way to go yet and there's another important match to look forward to next week.

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Carol Scearce writes:

Scorers:
Carol Scearce 3
Rachel Elven 2
Heather Clements 2
Charlie Rixon 2

This is the only place I've ever been where the changing rooms were colder than outside and as it was around 4° outside, the changing rooms were perishing !

Anyway, less than 5 minutes to go and only 10 players at the pitch (2 lost heading for Milton Keynes) and with a goal keeper so cold her hands were blue, it was all looking a bit dodgy. The lessons we can learn from this is that Danni needs some gloves and Heather C needs lessons in map reading although to be fair, she didn't have any trouble finding the net later twice in the match.

Anyway, our lost 2 players turned up just as we started and within 2 minutes, Jane Bailey caught a ball on the chin. Blood someone shouted and off went Jane to Stoke Mandeville for treatment (luckily not stitches in the end) leaving the rest of us trying to stay warm and becoming increasing confused with the decisions the umpires were making and not making. With one umpire reluctant to blow the whistle at all (I'm not giving a short corner even though it hit someone's foot in the D because the shot was going wide), the other blowing in her 'D', before he was replaced by someone else. It was all so confusing we just decided to get on with it.

The match turned out to have so many goals, it's just best to say that we scored all 9 although Aylesbury did offer some threat to our goal with Danni needing to be on her toes and make some strong saves. Several of our goals came from short corners and at least 4 were deflected into the net by anxious defenders standing in-front of their keeper.

Both Rachel Elven (playing through the middle) and Alice Wainwright (on the right) terrorised the Aylesbury defence with their pace and skill creating many opportunities and both had a fine match. We restricted Aylesbury to some breaks (which we do leave ourselves vulnerable to) but as the score reflects, it's a match we dominated.

So we're now half way through the league season with a 100% record scoring 37 goals and only conceding 4, 8 points clear of 2nd and 11 points clear of 3rd. With one league match to go before the Christmas break, we're in a strong position and looking good for promotion.

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Carol Scearce writes:

Scorers:
Dee Merry - 2
Isobel Wise
Sally Ilderton

Despite the result, this was probably the toughest match of the season so far and for the first time, we fell behind. What was encouraging though was the way we responded which was 2 goals (both from Dee) in the next 5 minutes. The first came from a long corner on the left hit into the D which Dee controlled nicely before slotting home. The second came from the right wing after from some nice build up play and Dee picked her spot to the right of the keeper.

At half time, the result was no way a foregone conclusion and we had to work hard for our win. A&C put us under pressure in our half and closed us down quickly when we attacked with some tough tackling.

We welcomed back Jane Bailey sporting a neat cut on her chin from the injury she got in her 2 minutes on the pitch last week. She made a difference in midfield for us with her determination and persistence to win the ball.

The speed that we managed to move the ball though told in the end and after a nice team move down the right involving Bridget Chapman and Sally Ilderton, Dee Merry took the ball along the back line before pulling back to Isobel Wise unmarked in the middle who made no mistake.

Sally Ilderton rounded off another fine performance with the 4th when she got to a hit into the D with her stick on the floor to flick home from close range. Hope the knees are OK Sally !

So that's the last league game before Christmas before we start again on 19 th January. We're now just over half way through the season and are 8 points clear of 2nd and 13 points clear of 3rd place, still looking good for promotion.

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Carol Scearce writes:

On a day when all 3 ladies teams were playing back to back in Wootton Bassett, the Ladies 3's had the honour of starting at 10am. This meant leaving just as it was getting light for a quick trip down the M4. On the way we only lost one car to a breakdown and sympathetically waved as we all drove by saying, oooh, that looks like Lynne Newell, ooooh, it was Lynne Newell ! What team spirit !!

Unsurprisingly the first match after a 4 week Christmas and New Year break found us a bit out of sorts to start with. It didn't take too long though for us to put some good moves together which resulted in a number of short corners which unfortunately we were unable to convert. After getting her early morning service from that nice man at the AA, Lynne Newell arrived to the relief of our standby sub (thanks Vicki).

We scored our goal from a short corner. A shot from the top of the D found it's way back to Carol who put it past the keeper into the corner, well nearly as it was just rolling over the line when Jane Marriott decided to make sure and had the final touch.

The goal we conceded came from an opposition 16 hit. It only took about 5 passes before it hit the backboard as unfortunately we were all stranded upfield and couldn't get a good enough tackle in.

At half time, the match was evenly poised at 1-1 and it could have gone either way. As it turned out, that's the way it stayed despite the best efforts of both teams in what turned out to be very end to end, mostly I think from tiredness after eating too much turkey and Christmas pudding. We played some nice hockey at times moving the ball across the pitch and down both wings, just lacking that final touch in the middle infront of goal. Still, I've no doubt that will come once we've had a few practice sessions.

This was a stern test, coming a couple of weeks before the league starts again.

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