Hinckley Ladies had two inter club derbys this week. The first was on Monday evening when Hinckley B met Hinckley C in the Coventry & Warwickshire league match.
Both teams came out fighting and wanting a win with home supporters watching. The C team pulled away in the first quarter but with strong shooting from Darcey Arrowsmith and Denise Ibbetson, the B’s managed to pull it back and at half time they had a lead of 26-21. Continuing to make an impact the B’s pulled away a little more setting out at a fast pace, with their defence working hard. The C’s tried to fight back and managed to reduce the gap but ran out of time as Hinckley B team saw their first win of the season 49-46. Player of the match awards went to the C team GK Jo Oakes and the B team GD Caron Ogden.
The second derby was in the midweek league on a damp and drizzly Tuesday evening where Hinckley G and H were pitted against each other. The wet ball wasn’t conducive to a high scoring match and at quarter time the score line was a very low 3 goals each. Hinckley G were missing their tall GS this week so were unable to feed in the high ball which has been a signature of their game this season and with the H team Player of the Match, Goal Defence, Steph Morton, snaffling up every loose ball and taking many interceptions, the teams could still not be separated at three quarter time with the score line locked at 12 all. However, in the last quarter, good linking play from the G team POM Verity Skelton into the attacking end allowed the G team’s young substitute Katie Eaves, to net a couple of vital goals pushing the G team to get their noses ahead on the final whistle 17-15 and take another 5 points.
Hinckley Ladies A team held Jets at home this week. Both teams kicked off to a great start with Hinckley edging the first quarter by 1 goal. With consistent effort, good attacking chances and Jo Oakes and Kate Chamberlain managing to keep the Jets attack out, Hinckley stretched their lead to 36-29 at the end of the third quarter. Tiredness hit the Hinckley side and Jets won the fourth quarter 8 goals to 6, but this wasn’t enough as Hinckley held their lead to win 42-37. POM was Ashleigh Oakes.
The D’s were away this week against the strong, competitive Henley D. From the offset Hinckley were being pushed for every pass and shot but they managed to hold out for a one point lead. The second quarter saw a change of line up with the E team’s Anita King coming on for Hinckley’s injured WD. Henley capitalised on this, taking back the lead by one goal, but undeterred Hinckley kept pushing for every interception. The second half saw the return of the WD and in the final quarter Hinckley dug deep and fought hard . Defence was tight and controlled, competing for rebounds and turnovers from Henley’s strong shooters. Henley’s defence stood strong but the Hinckley attackers were stronger, taking advantage of small errors made in the goal third and support from centre and wing attack on the goal circle. Final score was 39-34 to Hinckley D with POM going to GA Holly Hemsley
Hinckley E started off their match against Keresley B missing their normal WA but play was positive and with crisp passing and movement they took an early lead finishing the first quarter 10-7. Keresley managed to capitalise on a few mistakes in the second and brought the score back to 16 all at half time. It went goal for goal in the third quarter and despite all of Hinckley’s defence intercepting many balls they could not do enough to stop Keresley’s GA , who with some fantastic long range shots helped Keresely to then take the lead. In the last quarter Hinckley’s heads went down and despite their shooters getting some good angled goals, they could not do enough to close the gap. Hinckley lost the game 30–40 with player of the match going to Heather Fraser at GD.
Hinckley’s F team were finally able to play as a full team this weekend which had generated a lot of excitement. They started off strongly away against Jaguar Landrover, with strong team-work and unwavering determination from the whole team. Some fantastic work in defence by Jade Isaac kept the score very level for the duration of the match. Unfortunately Jaguar just pulled away in the final quarter and the Fs were unable to pull it back, the final score 18-15 to Jaguar with Katie Eaves once again named POM for her fantastic work at GA.