Ladies 1s rise to glory on the Olympic pitch

By Megan Boxall

Broxbourne Ladies 1s are not known for the strongest of starts against Crostyx. And, with Em Wilkins away and a mutual friend of Gemma Wilkinson and Laura Wills failing to take the hockey calendar into account when organising his wedding, we were three midfielders down. So as we travelled to the Lee Valley, there were reasons to be nervous. Crostyx clearly thought they had it in the bag. Before the match they were overhead saying, “we’re not worried about Broxbourne”.

But our first game of the season at the famed Olympic Park did not disappoint. In fact, there were so many goals, I am having to return to the excellent mid-match commentary (provided on the WhatsApp group by Georgina for the sake of absent players) to remember exactly who scored what.

The nerves were nowhere to be seen with the first whistle. Within Matt’s two minute target, we had won our first short, neatly slotted into the right corner by Alice Brown. Crostyx were quick to follow up with a short corner goal of their own, but this only spurred the badgers to greater heights. Becky Watkins' straight strike found the backboard and Brown’s perfect post positioning gave her another goal before half time.

Watkins’ second short corner smash widened the gap to 4-1. But Crostyx found some space with about 15 minutes to go, putting away open play and short corner goals in quick succession.

The badgers attacking game was best it has been all season and we were able to score two goals from open play, one from Megan Boxall and another from Charlotte Skipp. As the full time whistle blew we managed to win yet another short, scored again by Brown.

Stepping into the centre midfield role and scoring a hat-trick made Brown a worthy player of the match, while keeper Freya Green earned herself another donkey.

The resounding victory has propelled Broxbourne into second place on the league table and taken our total goal tally up to 25 – the highest of any of any ladies team in East Division 1. A home grudge match against East London awaits on Saturday. Bring it on.