Match reports 6th March 2010

Bromley and Beckenham Ladies 1s vs Cambridge University, league, away, Saturday 6th March 2010
Won: 2-1
Scorers: Emma Greenway, Charlotte Davies

On Saturday BromBeck edged a close encounter with Cambridge University to get the three points and retain their fifth place in the league. Having beaten the bottom-of-the-table team 9-0 in the first round of matches, BromBeck were keen to repeat that performance but this time they were met with a much stronger opposition than before.

There may have been a certain element of complacency heading in to the match and when the students completely dominated the opening twenty minutes or so, BromBeck didn’t know what had hit them. Cambridge were playing some lovely hockey whilst BromBeck struggled to string more than two passes together, and it was to no-one’s surprise when Cambridge took the lead. This fortunately seemed to wake BromBeck from their reverie somewhat and they began to play some better hockey and began to create issues for the Cambridge defence. Shortly before half time then BromBeck capitalised on their improved play with a hard fought equaliser. Liz Hawkins had ventured forward from the centre of defence and was found by Sophie Mitchell just inside the attacking twenty five. Hawkins looked up and then played a beautiful ball in to the D where Emma Greenway stepped in front of her player and deflected past the keeper.

The second half saw BromBeck lift their game somewhat and even though it still wasn’t pretty at times, it was a much better performance than in the first half. They attacked with increased intent and defended doggedly. Alison Fox in goal and Jo Reed at left back were having particularly good games and shared the man of the match award for a couple of excellent saves and some superb tackles respectively. As the students began to tire, BromBeck drove forward and won another short corner. This time it was converted courtesy of an excellent ball from Mitchell that Charlotte Davies deflected in to the roof of the net for a brilliant finish. This seemed to take the wind out of Cambridge’s sails and from then on they never really looked like scoring again. It was BromBeck who had the best chance of increasing their tally when they were awarded a penalty flick after a Cambridge defender stopped the ball with her foot on the goal line. Mitchell bravely strode forward to take it but unfortunately hit the post. Thankfully this didn’t have any impact on the final result and BromBeck saw the remainder of the game out with relative ease to finish with a two one victory.

Not the team’s best performance it has to be said but a win nonetheless and it’s a good sign that they can still get the three points despite not playing to their full potential.

Man of the match: Ali Fox and Jo Reed shared it this week. Fox for making a couple of excellent saves at important times in the game. Reed for being consistently strong in the tackle and for thwarting several attacks by their quick forwards.

Dick of the day: Jo Reed – for having a momentary lapse and passing it straight to the Cambridge centre forward to leave her one-on-one with Ali!

Squad: Ali Fox (GK), Chris McNeill, Liz Hawkins, Vicky Taylor, Jo Reed, Tara Woodward, Katie Burr, Lucy Shepherd (capt), Sophie Mitchell, Louise Fox, Emma Greenway, Charlotte Davies, Natasia Wisniewska


Ladies 2's v Canterbury won 3-0

Ladies 3's v Cliftonville won 2-1

Ladies 4's v Sevenoaks lost 4-0

Ladies 5's v New Beccs won 2-1

As seems to be the norm now, the 5s got into the game straight away, and so did New Beccs. There were attacking moves from both sides, but New Beccs managed to score in the first half from a shot that went into the goal at head height. In the second half our game stepped up a level, and we made a number of attacks on their goal. In due course, a pass was made from the right of the D to Alex Bezant waiting near the left hand post which she slotted in safely. A short while later, we were awarded a penalty flick which Sue Scott took, and scored our second. For the last 20 minutes, both sides tried to score again, but neither team managed to do so, making the final result 2 – 1 to Bromley & Beckenham.

Joint MOM – Angie Wild & Alex Bezant

Match Reports 27th Feb 2010

Bromley and Beckenham Ladies 1s vs West Herts, league, home, Saturday 27th February
Won: 2-0

Scorers: Charlotte Davies x2

The battle for league positions continued on Saturday as sixth placed Bromley and Beckenham took on fifth placed West Herts. BromBeck were eager to get revenge for a narrow defeat to them earlier in the season and knew that a win would see them leap frog their opponents and regain the fifth spot.

BromBeck started strongly with several advances in to the West Herts D but it was the travelling side who forced the newly recruited England Under 45 keeper, Alison Fox, in to making an awesome diving save to her left. From then on however, it was BromBeck who were in command. Man of the match, Sophie Mitchell, controlled the game from the centre of midfield with some driving runs and lovely through balls, helped by some excellent support from captain, Lucy Shepherd. It wasn’t long before BromBeck took the lead as Mitchell drove towards goal before slipping to Charlotte Davies who was on hand to put the ball in to the back of an empty net from a yard out. The lead was then doubled soon after with almost a carbon copy of the first goal. This time Mitchell’s intended pass ricocheted off of a West Herts defender and landed at Davies’ feet for her to once again put the ball in from close range.

Even with a two nil lead going in to the second half then BromBeck knew that they couldn’t be complacent. It was important that they continued to dominate the game straight from the re-start and not let West Herts have a sniff of a goal. And fortunately they did just that. It perhaps wasn’t as smoothly done as in the first half but ultimately West Herts very rarely looked like scoring. BromBeck had the lion’s share of the half chances and also had several short corners that they were disappointed not to convert. Shepherd and Mitchell continued to control the centre of the pitch and Davies continued to run the defence ragged up front. When the final whistle blew then BromBeck had gained a deserved two-nil victory and regained fifth place in the league.

Man of the match: Sophie Mitchell – controlled the centre of the pitch from start to finish

Dick of the day: Tara Woodward – for bringing a rat dog to the game

Squad: Fox A (GK), Woodward, Hawkins, Taylor, Read, McNeill, Shepherd, (Capt), Mitchell, Fox, Greenway, Davies, Burr, Wiskow, Wisniewska,




Ladies 2's v Sevenoaks lost 1-0

Ladies 3's v Maidstone won 4-1

Ladies 4's v Herne Bay lost 3-0

Ladies 5's no game

Match Reports 27th Feb 2010

Ladies 1's v Dereham lost 2-0
On a cold and frosty Saturday morning a bunch of us headed on a 3 hour trip to the dark depths of Norfolk to play one of the top teams in our league. We arrived with plenty of time to spare and a warm welcome by the Dereham ladies.

Going into the game we knew it was going to be a tense and tough one to win. For the first 15 minutes we were mostly on the back foot with pressure coming mainly from a quick and skillful centre half that they had. We soon re-arranged our format to mark her out of the game, which seemed to help us settle into our stride and start to push forward with some attacks into their D. But before the break Dereham had scored a well rehearsed short corner and we were going into the half-time team talk 1-0 down.

Now in the second half the game was even and there was some good plays from both sides, with some excellent and text book defending from our own Jo Read, Liz Hawkins, and brilliant saving from (England) Ali Fox, we kept them at bay. Up the other end we also had some good attacking runs from Charlotte Davies and Emma greenway, but were unable to penetrate their goal with an equaliser. With 15 minutes remaining a decision for a 16 yard hitout was overturned, which resulted in a shortcorner against us. With another conversion it was now 2-0. Even with some late chances we were still unable to get back into the game and unfortunately came away with a loss.

It was an unlucky result for us as it was a long way to go, but we put in a reasonable fight and stuck in till the very end. It was a good team effort and we go into next week with even more fire in our bellies for a showdown with infamous West Herts who we are desperately looking forward to giving a good thrashing to.

MOM - Ali Fox and Jo Read
DOD - Liz Hawkins

Ladies 2's v BBHC won 3-2
Ladies 3's v New Beccs lost 2-0
Ladies 4's no game
Ladies 5's v Remnants lost 1-0

The 5s played Remnants at Eltham College. It took some of us a little while to find the entrance to the car park, and Keren was slightly late for unconnected reasons. Sam Gillett went in goal for the first few minutes until Keren arrived, and then the game was stopped while they changed over. We had some chances in the first half, and Charlotte had one saved by the corner post. Brombecks again showed a lot of good passing and there were good runs by the forwards. We gained some short corners, but were unable to score. Remnants also had some chances, but Keren and the defence worked well and the score remained at 0 – 0 until the last quarter of the game. Remnants were awarded a penalty flick (wrongly in our opinion and that of some of their players). The ball went in the net, but was disallowed (again wrongly in our opinion). With a few minutes remaining, Remnants managed to score, and despite Brombecks winning another penalty corner on the final whistle, we were unable to reply.

Final score 0 – 1 to Remnants.

MOM – Angie Wild followed by Keren and Sue Scott.

Match reports 13th Feb 10

Ladies 1's No game

Ladies 2's won 3-1

Ladies 3's v T Wells won 5-0

Ladies 4's v New Beccs lost 4-2

It was very cold! Definitely 2 pairs of gloves and thermals required!
True to form it took us the first 15 minutes to settle down - that
unfortunately was when they scored a couple of goals! A further goal
in the first half took us 3-0 down at half time. (all sounding very
familiar...). A team talk and a couple of tactical changes in the
second half saw us ready for action. Juliet was complaining she was a
little cold so decided to warm up by running up the left wing all the
way up the pitch crossing the ball into the D which Charlotte
converted. New Becs scored a further goal but that didn't put us
off. Inspired,we played a better second half and Ellie managed to
score a second goal on the whistle from a short corner.
Man of the match: Juliet Underwood
Scorers: Ellie Ferguson & Charlotte Walker-Jones

Ladies 5's v Anchs won 2-0

Despite the cold, we started well, and had most of the possession, but could not convert this into goals in the first half. After the half time talk from Sue Scott, we began to attack their goal more and gained some short corners. After a while, Emily Dodds managed to touch the ball in from the left hand post. A little later, Mandy Hoad scored another goal by getting the final touch on a shot from Eleanor Smith. Although Anchorians did manage some attacks, with Keren making some good saves, they were unable to score. Another good game from the 5s who are really playing as a team. The final result was a 2 – 0 win for Brombecks, which was sweet revenge for the 1-2 loss away.

As a further demonstration that it was a team effort, MOM was shared by four players who each received the same number of votes – Eleanor Smith, Mandy Hoad, Angie Wild and Helen Arnold.

Match reports 6th Feb 10

Ladies 1's v Thurrock won 6-1

Ladies 2's v Basildon lost 3-2

Ladies 3's v Ladies 4's won 3-0
Match report from the 3's:-

The time had arrived for the game both teams dread the 3’s Vs the 4’s. We started well from the whistle, quickly getting into our stride and playing a great passing game. It wasn’t long before it paid off with a cross from Jo and a tidy flick into the net from Amanda. Daisy despite having starved herself for three days in order to enjoy a slap up meal after the game was full of beans (quite literally) energetically running up and down the pitch. It eventually paid off with a thundering shot at goal which almost shattered the back board. Jo was to make it three shortly after, carefully positioned at the post to flick in a cross and beat their excellent goal keeper who had saved some great shots at goal. We were unable to capitalize on the score in the second half and despite a very open passing game the score remained at 3-0. Another great game from Tina, Alison and Alex down the middle and the defense held back all attacks with great confidence. Special credit goes to the youngsters on both sides (no not Gail and Jo) who put in great performances and have a great hockey future ahead of them.



Match report from the 4's:-

The first 15 minutes sped by at a rate of knots so details are a bit sketchy. The last 20 of the first half the 4s really pulled together and several attacks transpired but alas we were unable to finish it off. Second half was lively really, great play by us & the opposition and a very friendly enjoyable game to play. Charlotte & Stacey attacked the ball fantastically & Alice created some superb chances up the right wing. Keren made lots of brilliant saves at the back earning herself man of the match & without her we would have let quite a few in. As it was we drew the second half and if it wasn't for a
few early goals we might have got a point!!! Final score: 3-0 to the 3s.

Ladies 5's v T Wells lost 3-0
In spite of the early start (10.00 am) we all arrived wide awake in good time and the sun even put in a short appearance. We started strongly, but T. Wells also had a strong side out which meant the defence had a lot of work to do. Although we passed well and made some attacks in their half, they were good at getting the ball back and spent a lot of time in our half of the pitch which resulted in them scoring one goal in the first half. After the half time talk from Sue Scott, we were able to attack more and gained some short corners. Their defence had to be warned several times about coming out early, and one person was awarded a yellow card. We thought we should have had a p.flick! However, we could not stop their forwards from continuing to attack, and they scored two more goals from wide on the right hand side. The whole team worked really hard throughout the game; the mids and forwards trying to score, while the defence, especially Keren, trying to stop T. Wells from scoring any more.

Final result 0 – 3. MOM Keren, followed by Angie Wild and Helen Arnold

Match reports 30th Jan 2010

Bromley and Beckenham Ladies 1s vs Maidstone 1s, league, home, Saturday 30th January 2010
Lost 0-1
Saturday’s game saw Bromley and Beckenham Ladies 1s drop points for the first time in six games, with a one nil loss to Maidstone 1s. Both sides started hesitantly but it was BromBeck who had the first real chance of the game. A good through ball gave Charlotte Davies a one-on-one with the keeper but her well struck shot went agonisingly wide. It was however a game where play was mainly focussed in the middle of the pitch and both sides struggled to create many clear cut chances. Man of the match, Liz Hawkins, was having an outstanding game in the centre of defence with excellent support from Tara Woodward and Jo Read. Any forays by Maidstone in to BromBeck’s defensive twenty five, were dealt with efficiently and by half time the game remained a stalemate.

The second half continued in pretty much the same vein but once again it was BromBeck who came closest to breaking the deadlock first. This time Davies and Emma Greenway used their pace to break through Maidstone’s defence but Greenway’s final shot hit the post and the rebound was scrambled clear. As the play returned to the middle of the pitch, BromBeck’s midfield quartet of Lou Fox, Lucy Shepherd, Chris McNeill and Katie Burr were having to work increasingly hard and did extremely well to contain Maidstone. Unfortunately though it was the visiting side who eventually made the breakthrough, courtesy of an unstoppable short corner strike by their captain. Shortly after then Maidstone thought they had doubled their lead with another well struck short corner but it was dubiously disallowed for being too high. This seemed to boost BromBeck a little and they pushed everyone forward in a bid to get the equaliser. Time was not on their side though and when the final whistle blew it was Maidstone who walked away with the three points.

Man of the match: Liz Hawkins – some brilliant tackles to keep Maidstone’s attempts on goal to a minimum, as well as a goal line clearance.

Dick of the day: Lou Fox – going out with Maidstone in Maidstone for the evening instead of coming to Liz’s birthday drinks!!

Squad: Alison Fox (GK), Tara Woodward, Chris McNeill, Liz Hawkins, Jo Read, Lucy Shepherd (capt), Lou Fox, Charlotte Davies, Emma Greenway, Natasia Wiszniewska, Sophie Mitchell, Katie Burr, Charlotte Ridout


Ladies 2's v Maidstone won 3-1

Ladies 3's v Sevenaoks 4's won 2-0

On a bitterly cold afternoon we had fielded a team of 13 to play Sevenoaks - a young and fit attacking team. They were up at our half very quickly from the off, but we soon got in our stride and it became an end to end battle from start to finish. Alex and Alison both had strong games in the middle and fought hard to get the ball up the field to the forwards. After the first fifteen minutes the hard work paid off. Amanda ran almost the entire length of the pitch before passing the ball across to Jo who smacked in a great goal at an acute angle into the back of the net.

Rose, Kim, Lauren and Jess worked liked Trojans at the back halting and frustrating the opposition from making their numerous attacks count. Jo was on fire up front and got another touch to a cross to make it 2-0, where the score remained. We were sure she could have made it a hat trick if she hadn’t needed to leave the game slightly early. Our thanks go to Sue Scott for ignoring her hyperthermia symptoms setting in to help with the substitutions. Another great result for a cold and frosty winter’s day.


Ladies 4's v Canterbury conceded so 4-0 walkover to Canterbury

Ladies 5's Edenbridge lost 3-1

After all the hassle during the week, we started the game with spare players, courtesy of the 4s who had to cancel. There were some apologies made to the 3s players who had agreed to double up. After discussions with the umpires, it was agreed we would play, but there was some snow lying on one corner of the pitch, so Debbie found the groundsman and got a couple of brooms so it could be cleared. After I got my head around the revised team, we started fairly well, but top of the league, Edenbridge, made lots of attacks and scored two goals in the first half. After a team talk from Sue Scott (seconded from the 4s and who played most of the game!), our play stepped up a level. We managed to attack their goal on a number of occasions and gained some short corners. There was some very good passing play, which eventually resulted in a goal scored by Mandy Hoad. However, Edenbridge managed to score another and we were unable to reply. There was some excellent work from the defence, and very good saves from Keren in goal which denied them any more, but the final result was a loss of 3 – 1. MOM was Keren, with Rachel and Debbie as runners up.

Match reports 23rd Jan 2010

Bromley and Beckenham Ladies 1s vs Wapping 1s, league, away, Saturday 23rd January 2010
Won: 4-2
Scorers: Charlotte Ridout, Katie Burr, Julia Wiskow, Emma Greenway

After a six week break, courtesy of Christmas and postponements due to the snow, Bromley and Beckenham Ladies 1s were raring to go in their game against Wapping. With Wapping one place and four points behind BromBeck in the league, the travelling side were eager to resume the season as they had finished it and extend the gap between themselves and the bottom half of the league.

With Wapping winning a short corner straight from their push back, BromBeck knew that they were going to be in for a tough game. The defence were awake though and cleared the early threat convincingly, allowing the team to then settle in to the game and begin to dominate. There was some beautiful inter-linking play between the midfield and the forwards and this soon resulted in a short corner. After the initial strike was saved, the rebound found Charlotte Davies who in turn found Charlotte Ridout unmarked and in a good position. ‘The Bullet’ Ridout doesn’t miss an opportunity from there and swept coolly across the keeper and in to the far corner, to give BromBeck an early lead. For the next ten minutes it was completely one-way traffic with BromBeck utilising their pace and skills to devastating effect. Wapping really didn’t know what had hit them and it wasn’t long before BromBeck had doubled their lead. This time a powerful short corner strike by Liz Hawkins was stopped on the line by a Wapping defender but Katie Burr was on hand to pounce upon the half clearance and bundled the ball over the line from close range. A few minutes later things were to get even worse for Wapping as Davies was crudely brought down by a defender, having been clear through on goal. Julia Wiskow stepped up to take the resulting penalty flick and slotted the ball calmly in to the far corner. Three nil up and the game should have been in the bag but as we know from the first half of the season, BromBeck for some reason never seem to like to make it easy for themselves! I don’t know if they became complacent or Wapping just lifted their game a lot but the remainder of the half belonged to Wapping. They began to use their strong pivot player to good effect and when they won two short corners in quick succession, they converted both with strong finishes to leave the game on a knife’s edge going in to the second half.

The thirty five minutes that followed were rather fiery to say the least. Three yellow cards were brandished to Wapping and one green to BromBeck. Despite the tempestuous nature of the game, both sides continued to play some good hockey in patches and it was an exciting game for the neutral to watch with play continuously yo yo-ing back and forth. Half chances came and went at each end but both sides defended well and even when Wapping went down to nine players, BromBeck were unable to find the break through that would give them a two goal cushion. As time wore on it began to look like any further goals were going to evade both sides and that BromBeck would walk away with the three points. In the end then the latter was correct but not before they had scored their fourth with the final touch of the game. Again this was the result of a short corner, with a practiced routine working beautifully as Sophie Mitchell swept strongly for Emma Greenway to deflect in to the roof of the net. Final score 4-2 to BromBeck.

A super result, and an extremely promising performance for BromBeck to resume the season with. They are now lying in 6th place with 7th placed Wapping now seven points behind and fifth placed West Herts just two points ahead. Next week they are at home to 4th placed Maidstone, where three points would put them in an excellent position to push forward and look for a top four finish. 2pm push back at Langley – all supporters more than welcome as always!

Man of the Match – seven different players got votes for this this week which shows what a great team effort it was. However, the joint winners in the end were Charlotte Ridout, Charlotte Davies and Emma Greenway who all got three votes each for their hard work and problems that they caused the Wapping defence.

Dick of the Day – Lucy Shepherd for the sock incident prior to the game… Shep ‘loses’ sock… Everyone has a little look but no sign of it…
Burr: ‘You haven’t put both socks on the same foot have you?’
Shep: ‘Oh yeah, so I have…!!’
BLONDE!!!

Finally, many thanks to Graham Butler who was designated coach for the day and once again did a sterling job.

Squad: Ali Fox (GK), Jo Read, Liz Hawkins, Vikki Taylor, Katie Burr, Lucy Shepherd (capt), Sophie Mitchell, Lou Fox, Emma Greenway, Charlotte Ridout, Charlotte Davies, Tara Woodward, Chris McNeill, Julia Wiskow

Ladies 2's v Wapping lost 3-2

Ladies 3's v Herne Bay drew 1-1

Ladies 4's v Cliftonville lost 6-0
We were all a little apprehensive at the begining of the game against Cliftonville, not only because they were top of the league table and we were at the bottom, but also because some of our key plyayers were either playing for other teams this weekend or unable to play. However we played probably the best we have all season, despite going 1 -0 down within the first 5 mins, we were all over them. In fact so much so that they started to argue amongst themselves. We showed some brilliant man to man marking and some supurb passing between ourselves but unfortunately could not get back on terms. The second half started again with the oppo. scoring quickly but again we played some good hockey until the last 5 or so minutes when they scored a further 4 goals in very quick succession. Despite the score we had a good game and played some very good hockey. Final score 0-6.


Ladies 5's v Faversham won 3-0

We all arrived with plenty of time to spare (except for one!) and began well with lots of attacking play. However, there were a number of near misses, until Delyth managed to score our first goal towards the end of the first half after having her earlier goal disallowed. Faversham did manage to counter attack on a number of occasions, but the defence worked really hard, and Charlotte in goal made several good saves. In the second half, we continued to press their goal and were rewarded with a further goal from Alex Bezant, and another from Delyth. Although Faversham had several more attempts on goal, Charlotte and the rest of the defence managed to deny them. The final result was 3 – 0 to BromBecks. MOM was Angie Wild.