The season so far…

First of all I would like to offer up my sincere apologies for both the tardiness of this report and also for the horrific use of English throughout. English students please don’t judge me!

The first game of the season saw a Warwick fielding an experienced side with the addition of a couple of fresher’s to take on Leicester, one of the weaker sides of the tournament. We started strongly; cutting through what was largely a fresh side at ease, with Jimbo Aris scoring more goals than I have clean underwear, which I think is about 9. When defending Leicester struggled to get it into our half and when they did so where munched by the experienced defensive line of Kayne Johnson, Aimee Mcgrory and Louisa Mitchell. Mitchell deserves a special mention for her ground balls and transition play, often being the start of a trademark Warwick fast break. Another honourable mention has to go to Jess Hartley, who started this game without ever having properly played Mixed Lacrosse before, and was also crucial to Warwick’s transition play with her precise passing. The final score was 22-1; however this was not enough domination for Warwick, who then slotted away two pints leaving Leicester struggling with the fizziness of their beverage and feeling utterly beaten all round.

Having dominated Leicester the week before, we came up against our old rivals Loughborough in our first away game of the season. This was to be Warwick’s biggest test so far and possibly for the entire season. The team fielded consisted of a mixture of experience and fresh, and the anticipation lay heavy in the air on the journey up. Well it did until Seb Croft threw a banana on Aaron Fox’s windscreen, unsafe and uncool Seb Croft(!) We came out flying in the first quarter, cutting through Loughborough’s defence at ease and taking the early lead. Again Aris featured strongly, with his darting runs through large numbers of defenders on the edge or inside the fan and clinical over the top of the keeper finishing, but even he must have felt the presence of another talented goal scorer behind him. Alice Williams showed her adept finishing in front of goal, and offered an alternative option in offence to scoring. Her height coupled with a wicked and accurate quick stick gave us a fantastic feeding option that was utilised often in our early surge of goals. I believe we came into the 2nd half 9-3 up and there were smiles all round, especially from myself as I was very proud! In the second half Loughborough began to show their evident talent, as they began catching Warwick out with their own trademark fast breaks. With the ref negating the restrainer rule, many of Loughborough’s men broke fast from defence and caused difficult man up situations for our Defence who managed to their credit to deny many of these opportunities long enough for Warwick to recover. Once settled though Loughborough could not find any gaps in our defensive armour and were repeatedly denied goals through stalwart defending. Special mention goes to Aaron Fox for his use of both great body position and a threatening stick position to deter even the most dodge happy players! However the large number of fast breaks coupled with our lack of a single men’s sub left the score line closer than we had hoped going into the final quarter. However, Warwick controlled this 4th quarter, and began to play some sensible lacrosse. On defence we began tracking back and marking those men that broke from defence so effectively that they began hanging back in fear of a quick clinical Warwick counter attack. When the ball was won in defence there was greater support in transition to attack, allowing for greater possession and more goal scoring opportunities. Special mention goes to Seb Croft for great ground ball work and quick passing to set up the offence. We also settled the ball in offence as we ran down the clock and waited for the best opening to score, with Michael North passing the ball well and slowing done the attack. The final score was 12-8 to us and we again denied them any chance of happiness as Seb Croft and Alice Williams finished both their pints before they had managed their first…rinsed!

Feeling on top of the world after beating Luffbra, we arrived the following week at Cryfield ready to take on Nottingham! Straight away it was clear that Nottingham where going to be a very difficult side to beat. All their players where very adept with a women’s stick, resulting in a reduced number of ground balls, an area of the game we usually dominated and relied on for possession. The problem of tracking their players breaking from defence re-emerged, especially as their number 7, an England U19 player, was exceedingly quick and very skilful. Failure to communicate quickly who was marking whom led to a very close first 3 quarters. Offensively we managed to break them down and score once we got the ball up to our homes, but too often we found that passing through sticks was not going to be an option against them and they consistently knocked down any bad passes. Coming into the final quarter, Warwick where ahead but only just. After a team talk, where the team was reminded about having to support the man/woman with the ball, greater movement and more sensible passing, i.e. avoiding passing through the defensive sticks, whilst also making sure that each man or woman was closely marked, even if they were breaking from defence, Warwick came out ready to play. What followed was the best lacrosse Warwick has played so far this season. Everything asked of them they not just executed but exceeded on. Goals flowed like the juices of an erotically charged woman on heat! We tore the best team we have played to shreds, cutting through their defence at will and denying them constantly on defence! The final score was 17-10 and again Mike North, who had a sensational game with fantastic passing and playmaking, and Millie slotted their pints quicker than their opponents resulting in an all round victory for Warwick and a very very very proud captain!!!!