Ladies 1st Team
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Sat 05 Oct 2019  ·  Investec Conference East
Broxbourne Hockey Club
Ladies 1st Team
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Bromley & Beckenham Ladies 1st XI
Broxbourne Women’s 1stXI fail to capitalise on old rivalry for first national league home game

Broxbourne Women’s 1stXI fail to capitalise on old rivalry for first national league home game

Laura Wills13 Oct 2019 - 15:07
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https://www.broxbournehockey.c

Broxbourne 0:1 Bromley & Beckenham

By Alice Brown

Broxbourne hosted its first National League home game this Saturday as it welcomed old rivals Bromley and Beckenham to the Badger Den. Both teams have achieved back to back promotions over the past two years; however, the Badgers have only ever managed one win in four games back in 2017/8 season vs. the Kent natives, and were keen to continue winning ways after a solid performance at Ipswich last week.

Broxbourne were back to a full squad as Wilkens and Banahan returned to the field after putting contracting clashes behind them. Fans were concerned that Pip Evans would be a doubt for the game after Broxbourne media team incorrectly linked her to NIKE; Evans confirmed her show contract has switched to Adidas due to a continued clash over post-match merchandise, but rumours were triggered that she is distancing her self from the American sponsor due to previous links with the Oregon Project, after missing drugs test during training this week.

The team were left to improvise their own strength and conditioning as Becky “Bench” Scarrott cancelled Sunday’s cross fit session: members of the squad were spotted squatting with the hot water urn in preparations for Saturday’s game. Bench and husband Ben made a rare appearance together at the match, after holding a press conference on Friday evening to deny any involvement in the localised crime impacting the Broxbourne club during the week. The media team became alerted when co-director Lisa Banahan was targeted during recording of Badgercast, fortunately all podcast related equipment was left untouched, prompting suspicion that the thief was in fact a fan.

Match preparations continued to get underway with Claire “Cat” Cattermole attending a specialised dog training class to have pup Oscar perfectly bringing the match ball onto the pitch. Unfortunately, he was too distracted by veteran Gemma Wilkinson’s matching undergarments to complete the act.

The first production of the match programme commenced with Alice Brown utilising her connections with the stationary industry to ensure the glossy pages made it to print; Brown was late for training on Thursday after her boss was alerted to the high activity of the printer in the paper free office. Despite denying connections to the programme, her boss applied the facial recognition process to identify her from the player photograph section and has subsequently put the player on probation resulting in her missing next week’s clash against Southgate. Players expressed their concern, although Kay Finch was quoted in the bar stating she had “absolutely no idea” what Brown does for a living.
Alas, the programmes made it to the game and were well received by the crowd who donated a total of £22 ahead of the match commencing.

As expected the match started competitively, with Brom Becks the more aggressive team winning a short corner from the push back. Given they had scored all three goals the previous weekend from corners, the Badger defence was as prepared as ever and shut out the straight strike with minimal fuss. However, the pressure continued from the away side whose Argentinian midfield line were quick to intersect a Broxbourne midfield build up and catch the defence off guard with a goal inside the first three minutes of the game. Despite giving away an early lead the Badgers were quick to dust themselves off and establish strong possession for the remaining quarter with Em Wilkins doing as she does best down the right-hand side of the pitch linking up with the forward line to create a succession of attacking plays. Unfortunately, the first quarter closed out without the Badgers capitalising on the possession and after the short break Brom Beck regained their aggressive counter play to pile on the pressure to the Broxbourne defence with a series of corners. Youngster Izzy Gardiner continued to show her confidence in the Badger goal as she stepped up to deny Brom Beck extending their lead, and a superb save off the line from Pip Evans ensured the home team went into half time chasing only a one goal deficit.

As the second half resumed, the Badger midfield struggled to make their usual seamless connection with the forward line, and Brom Becks continuous counter through the middle of the pitch left for desperate tackling from centre mid Alice Brown who was shown a green card and 2-minute sin bin going into the final fourth quarter. Broxbourne pressed on with ten-women on the pitch, as the forward line demonstrating their fitness levels with Kerri Marshall and Meg Boxall putting in the leg work to track back and keep the Badgers in the mix. The home side continued to push and were rewarded with two corners late into the game, curtsey of excellent stick work from veteran Gemma Wilkinson. With the first corner blocked by a Brom Beck first runner, and the second corner dubiously was called foul by the umpire after perceived lifted ball, Broxbourne were unable to pull back a goal, and the game ended with three points for the opposition.

Despite feeling frustrated with their performance, the Badgers will take away the positives from the match as they look toward next week’s away game at Southgate where they look to get back to winning ways. The team have not yet commented on if they will refund the £22 match programme profits.

Media team note: The media team would like to extend an apology for the delay in publishing this match report due to conflicts with media dictator Will Fradley

Match details

Match date

Sat 05 Oct 2019

Kickoff

14:30

Meet time

13:15

Instructions

In blue

Competition

Investec Conference East

League position

1
Bromley & Beckenham Ladies 1st XI
5
Broxbourne Ladies 1st XI
Team overview
Further reading