After losing our umpire/driver to illness and managing to squeeze into 3 cars the team arrived at Winchester with the 90s tunes blaring.

An impromptu changing room karaoke session proved useful as the Island started the far stronger of the 2 sides, and were unlucky not to score in the first 5 mins as the post got in the way. The 1st half was ours with some silky hockey on show, Winchester couldn’t get close to us, and tireless work by the forward line of terriers (Emily Lord, Harriet Mack, Emmy Breach) meant they couldn’t get out. Katy Ednay with the best chance poaching the ball off the defence in the D but unable to find the net. Any balls that did get through were dealt with by the team and swiftly turned from defence to attack (Wightlink Player of the Match Georgia Whittle, Megan Turner, Claire Caddick, Daniela J Devenish, Kirsty Fraser, Nicky Richardson), Gabrielle Morgan making sure their player who did squeak through didn’t make it far before she was upended! Unfortunately, an interesting umpire decision that nobody including the other umpire understood led to a couple of short corners and Winchester found a gap between defenders stick and keepers pads – 1-0 to Winchester at the break.

Winchester came out hard and some one touch hockey led to their second, finding the smallest gap at the far post past goalkeeper Sophie Bruce. The defence continued to deal well with a barrage of attacks and repelled the opposition many times over. The 3rd goal came through a defensive error leading to a 3-on-1 for the goalie, with Saffron Phoenix Hart unable to get her feet in the right place to clear the goal line. The game ended with multiple short corners after the whistle, so the 4 defenders and 1 keeper faced the army of 5000 Winchester players and managed on the 3rd attempt to clear the ball. Final score 3-0 to Winchester.