Ladies of Wessex!!

It is with mingled sadness and joy that I write this entry to the blog; sadness that it is now Christmas and I am at home, away from all your beautiful faces... But joy of all that I am about to write as I look back at the past term.

The seniors all came back during freshers’ week for pre-season training. Some days were hotter than others and some days we were more hungover than others but all the same everyone worked very hard so we could hit the ground running when the season began.

Then, as always, at the bunfight and trials we picked up another outstanding bunch of freshers. I must thank you all, without you our club wouldn’t be what it is and your enthusiasm and dedication at training, on the pitch and every Wednesday night is incredible so keep it up!!

Pre-season games proved an enormous success; the 1st XI started with a 3-3 draw to a very strong Chichester 1s side and then beat Portsmouth 1s 4-2. The 2nd XI had 2 incredible wins – a 12-0 win over Chichester 2s and an 8-1 win over Portsmouth 2s! The 3rd XI played against the 4th XI winning 2-1 and then beat the medics 3-1 and the 4th XI also played against Portsmouth 3s and won 8-0.

Socials a plenty have taken place this term and there has maybe one out of 12 weeks where we haven’t dominated with our songs in Clowns or taken over Wessex corner in Jesters. Keep up the attendance levels ladies we can’t have any of the other clubs thinking they’re better than us can we?! Highlights include the annual 3-legged pub crawl where many of you seriously did get to know the men of the hockey club, others include freshers’ circles, team Halloween socials, the American football pub crawl, the Christmas social and that’s without even mentioning the Christmas Ball – an absolutely fantastic night in itself! Thanks must go to our social sec Miss Buckley for all her hard work and hangovers she has put in for all us over this term, dedication and love for Wessex = still vomiting at 4pm on a Thursday whilst planning the Christmas Ball!!

Actually on the pitch now; all teams have got off to a cracking start and for this we must remember all the hard work Bakes has put in, for all the nights in the freezing cold and pouring rain where he has stood for 2 hours in his little bobble hat, we must say thank you!!

The 1st XI captained by Helen Brook currently sit at 2/6 in 2A, with a record in BUCS that reads: played 6, won 5, drawn 1 and lost 1 and are now due to play Bournemouth in the 3rd round of the cup.

The 2nd XI captained by Clio O’Sullivan currently sit at 3/6 in 3A, with a record in BUCS that reads: played 6, won 3 and lost 3 and are also through to the 3rd round of the cup and will face the local rivals of Southampton Solent.

The 3rd XI captained by Harriet Clarke currently sit at 5/6 in the same league as the 2s, with a BUCS record that reads: played 5, won 1 and lost 4 and unfortunately were knocked out of the cup in the 2nd round by Bournemouth 1s who are in the league above them.

The 4th XI captained by Emma Parker currently sit at 6/8 in 4A, with a BUCS record that reads: played 4, won 1 and lost 3 and are through to the 3rd round of the cup, beating Bath Spa 1s away 3-2.

The 5th XI captained by Emma Layton are facing their first competitive season in Hampshire division 6 and have so far played in 9 games, drawing 1 of these and scoring 8 goals, a great start to the season for a team made up of many ladies who are beginners to hockey.

Saturday Squad remains the place to be on a Saturday afternoon! Captained by Jo Madeley Saturday Squad has a record so far of; played 10, won 7 and lost 3. They have scored 38 goals and are currently 2/10 in Hampshire division 2 – promotion is beckoning... safety (!)

The indoor team captained by Laura Ayre has also had fantastic start to the league and currently sit at 3/9, having played 6, won 3, drawn 2 and only lost 1 game, scoring 16 goals.

The mixed side captained by Rachel Ibbotson has yet to start any competitive games as the cup begins in the New Year. However, they have played in 2 friendly games, winning and losing 1 each, bring on the cup!!

An absolutely enormous thank you must go to Meg; I know you are all very aware of the hard work she puts in for us, but just stop and times that by about 10 and you may have a more accurate idea of what she really does. Her job hasn’t been made any easier for her during this difficult time for the AU – it’s like she actually is the King... Only joking, let’s not make her head any bigger (!!)

Ladies, it is a pleasure to have spent this term with each and every one of you and all this leaves me to say is have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

For the STAG, and as always, it’s a pleasure ladies!

Lurch xx

PS – sign up for tour; it WILL be the best 4 days of your Wessex year!!

https://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/events/207719532646563/

Ladies it is with great pleasure I write to you all and I must start by congratulating everyone on a FANTASTIC start to the year!

Pre-season went very well for the senior members of the club, we recruited lots of new and fresh faces at the Bun Fight and they all played their hearts out at trials on the Sunday despite the horrendous heat!

Saturday Squad have a good start to the season, playing 4 games of which 2 of them were won and 2 lost but in a very close fashion. This leaves them currently in 4th place in Hampshire Division 2.

Friendlies have been played for teams from 1st XI through to the 4th XI. The 1st team started with a 3-3 draw to a very strong Chichester side and then beat Portsmouth 4-2. The 2nd team have had 2 incredible win to get them on their way – a 12-0 win over Chichester and an 8-1 win over Portsmouth – keep up the great work 2s! The 3rd XI played first against the 4th XI winning 2-1 and then beat the medics 3-1. The 4th XI then also played against Portsmouth and won 8-0. BRING ON BUCS LADIES!

The 5th XI have started their Hampshire campaign and despite losing to Aldershot & Farnham and to Haslemere, have played really well in what was, for a lot of them their first games. If they continue to train and play as hard as they have been, it’s only a matter of time before the results start to go their way – great start guys!

On the social side – we have, as always kicked the year off in style. Firstly with the 3 legged pub crawl with the men’s club – what a pleasure to see so many green jumpers parading and stumbling through Portswood! We’ve also had our traditional club day and a bit of a supporters squad at Wide Lane followed by fresher circles. Not only have the freshers quickly got into Wessex ways in terms of the games (or at least most of them) but it seems that their pulling power has also been somewhat encouraging on Jesters dance floor too!

Just to reiterate what all the team captains are saying every week, the teams have not been fully selected yet and will remain very fluid throughout the year. So keep training hard, keep yourselves free for Wednesday games, get involved in Saturday Squad and obviously keep coming to the socials even if you haven’t been yet or you missed the Wednesday match. Also, watch this space for info on the indoor league and mixed games which are due to start soon too!!

This probably just leaves me to say GOOD LUCK for the start of BUCS next week and see you all on the turf or Jesters dance floor in the very near future!

FOR THE STAG!  xx

I feel Wednesday deserves a special mention so I'm going to procrastinate a little longer with a round up of what went on. It saw 3 teams compete in the second round of the BUCS cup. It was a very tense afternoon spent at Wide Lane for both the men's and ladies club - the afternoon starting with the men's 1 XI knocking Bath 2s out with a drag flick in the last minute...an epic moment I'm sure you understand. Anyway more importantly how did the ladies do, that's what we want to know. Well it was sweet and it was beautiful, it was tough and it was frustrating.

Lets start with ladies 1 XI vs Bath 2 XI:

It was a great game to watch and saw Miss Batty getting goal after goal after goal. Literally the supporter squad on the sideline were bemused at the constant attack you guys put against Bath's dithering defence. In total Batty got 5, and Sophie got the 6th. It was very impressive to watch ladies, great team work and a great result. Bath ladies 2s are now out of the cup, something to be very proud of and excitingly you now move to the next round of the cup and take on Plymouth 2s.

Ladies 2 XI vs Glos 2 XI:

Due to Gloucester being annoying located that little bit further north and in the path of the north westerly winds bringing in the cold snap a little quicker and harsher across the Atlantic Ocean (I made that up but it could be true) it gets colder quicker and astro turfs freeze at lightening speed. Therefore....the match was called off at half time for a dangerous frozen pitch and is re-arranged I believe for Wednesday 8th December. I'm sure we can muster up a decent supporter squad that day as it will be played in sunny Southampton.

Ladies 3 XI vs Bristol 3 XI:

Again it was a great match and the 3s really stepped up their game play. Playing a team 2 leagues above was obviously a little daunting but they stepped up to the mark and come full time it was 1-1. Literally so tense I'm sure you imagine as we went straight to penalty strokes. It was a great effort all round, but unfortunately we lost on penalties. Ugh...poor reflection of a great game but well played ladies.

See Lorna's email for more details, being held at Southampton Sports Centre put on by the Medics Hockey Club. 

Ladies,

The gentlemen of Wessex are hosting their fundraiser this Thursday. Get tickets tonight at training for £3, most of Wessex will be there so we effectively have 2 epic socials this week! The theme is Wild West so get your indian and cowboy costumes ready. Always a top night and especially good to support the boys as they will no doubt do the same for us!! 

As we have no matches today we are heading to the common to chill out, chat and play some games. Meet outside the Stags at 1pm, or if you can't do that then join us on the common but take a note of someone's mobile number so you can find us (the common is BIG). Should be a fun afternoon and great opportunity to get to know everyone, pay for subs and receive kit. 

Fresher Introductory Circles are tonight and Clowns are providing FREE food for us! Meet in Clowns at 6:30 wearing social shirts (or polo shirt if you don't have one) and green armour. Don't be late or you may miss the food! 

See you at the common! 

Ladies, tonight Wessex starts the year in its usual style with the 3-legged pub crawl. Whether you played today or not we would love to see you there. Wear Green Armour (if you don't yet have this then wear a green jumper if you have one).  Meet outside the Union on campus at 6pm. This is one of the best socials of the year, can't wait to see you there! 

Go to the information page and click on the link called 'online membership form.' This needs to be done within the next couple of weeks. 

Training tonight is just for those who were put into the 1s and 2s category at trials AND the 3s and 4s category. Beginners (those with red numbers) will be training on Thursday this week. See you later! 

Ladies, the Bun Fight is less than two weeks away! You won't be able to miss the hockey stand - come and see us to sign up. If you miss the Bun Fight you can still come along to trials but come along and get all the necessary info. Its on Wednesday 29th of Fresher Week.