Broxbourne vs Bishops Stortford

The Badgers were back on home turf this weekend as they hosted old rivals Bishop Stortford at the den in front of a social distant raucous crowd.
As always the match day build up had been brimming with speculation on availability and fitness across the squad. The majority of home fans were delighted to see Lisa Banahan make her first public appearance since completing her isolation. Banahan was keen to follow on from her 2nd XI pre-season performance against Shefford and Sandy where spectator Katie Boxall admitted she as “surprised” at Banahan’s normal inclusion in the 1st XI. Bahanan has denied any further bad blood between herself and the Boxall clan after older sister Emily confronted the attendance of Banahan’s partner at the Broxbourne sports ground this weekend. The club have confirmed that no positive cases were present at the weekend, and the person in question was in fact previous media dictator Will Fradley who was maintaining social distancing to the Media Team this weekend out of spite due to an overdue DVD return.
There was also concern mid-week that Em Wilkins had suffered a fast food relapsed after being papped leaving McDonalds with three full bags of purchased goods. Just 12 months on from her previously public incident at a cinema, the midfielder has responded to critics by signing up to fellow teammate Kerri Marshall’s bootcamp. Boss-woman Marshall set up the bootcamp over the summer, which was initially targeting over weight dogs; however, she felt Wilkins ticked the majority of the criteria.
Elsewhere, Gemma Wilkinson's outreach work with the NHS has backfired this week following reports that the gifts she was bringing to hospitalised athletes had been offensive and medically dangerous. A number of male athletes have reported that being bought extra small boxers was embarrassing and unnecessary. Hospital staff have noticed a flurry of stomach issues following Wilkinsons visits, reportedly due to excessive amounts of double decker bars being given to patients. Local hospitals have contacted Broxbourne to request Wilkinson’s extraction from the program, and have requested a higher profile name that had at least earned one POTS award in the last ten years.
As the Badgers assembled for the warm up, it seemed new joiner Kathryn Rollins was keen to make a statement following frustration that people were still not able to tell her and non-identical twin sister Emily apart. Kathryn made a strong statement this week by refusing to bring her stick to the game, in the hope it would differentiate her on the day; however, the school-girl error was quickly noted by team member Charlotte Skipp who inflicted her infamous eye roll on the situation. Unfortunately, Alice Brown did not recognise the missing stick issue, in a string of erroneous observation errors from the co-captain, leading to her counter park Reb Scarrott taking charge of the warm up.
As the game started, the old rivalry between the two teams fired up quickly, with end to end battles in the quest to get on the score sheet. The Badgers’ fort was broken first, with Bishop Stortford firing away two quick goals half way through, and despite some heroic saves from Izzie Gardiner, who was learning to channel her inner road rage, a third was conceded just before half time as a short corner seemingly put the nail in the coffin for the home side. However, after a half time shake out the Badgers came out with fresh perspective and immediately put the pressure on the opposition, resulting in an early goal after a cracking top-of-the-D strike from Gemma Wilkinson. With momentum on their side, Broxbourne followed up by executing not one but two silky short corner routines from Em Wilkins and Reb Scarrott to get the crowd pumped for the final few minutes, where a sliding reverse stick effort from Laura Wills was just wide of the post. As the final whistle blew, the home side were delighted to claim their first point of the season and seemingly with a point to prove in a league they have previously dominated.
This weekend the Badgers are back on the M11 to face Sudbury, where they look to continue their second half performance and regain momentum in the East Prem.