U16 'A' v Heaton Mersey Saturday 20th February

This was a prelude to the cup semi-final in March. All the coaches and managers joked before thegame - 'it's all about taking part, it's about the boys learning and enjoying themselves' - rubbish, this was all about winning.

Heaton Mersey were up for this from the start, attacking the Timperley defence and for the first five minutes things were looking rather desperate. Until Tomb went on a charging run, came left and fired on goal to score. That was better, it seemed to settle our nerves. The second quarter saw Cam Parks get fired up and force a direct attacking style of play that the team responded to, and we got two goals from this to HM's one, leaving us ahead 2-3 at half-time.

Coach Justin gave his customary halftime talk encouraging the lads and we went out on the offensive. Ged Scrace was brilliant as longpole middie, charging on and off the pitch as the game flowed, talking the team up all the time. We saw three more goals from Toby, Tomb and Myles to end the quarter 3-6.

Then it all went pear shaped. Heaton Mersey clawed their way back into the game, scoring 5 goals. There seemed to be nothing we could do to stop them, we had snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Then Cam got angry again, stormed their goal and scored, giving us hope again - the score was now 8-7. A goalmouth scramble saw Myles score one of the most important goals of the season, did he kick it in, push it in - who cares it went in to take us 8-8. One minute left on the clock, the game was going our way, Tomb charged again, passed to Tom Sandy on crease who scored - then the final whistle. We had won 8-9. Bring on the semi-final.

U12A 32-2 Poynton

Our nemesis of last season, Poynton, were buried under an avalanche of goals today by a team that played some truly excellent lacrosse. Poynton have a young team and are obviously rebuilding this season, but take nothing away from the U12; I am sure the way they played today they would have beaten any opponent.
For the whole hour, we passed our way up the pitch and around the goal, and scored some really good team goals with 5 or 6 slick passes prior to a shot. The biggest improvement on last week was the groundball which we were winning cleanly for the whole game.
It is hard not to feel a bit sorry for the opposition in games like this, but they were beaten by a real team performance which even had the Poynton coach muttering admiration in our direction. We practice hard and it is good when it all comes together in a match – is was clinical lacrosse all morning and at no point did we resort to bullying our way to goal or showboating.
Due to the half term holidays we were short of 5 regulars, but the remaining 9, plus Alex Robins and Will Callaghan played tremendously well. The team was reassured by the presence of captain Oli Loveland who ran the game for Timperley with goals and assists. He and his fellow midfielders of Oliver Crosby, James Prickett and Will Callaghan (first goals for the A team today) were the real driving force behind today’s win. Tom Cox sneaked back into the attack for the game and helped himself to a career high 11 goals, and was well assisted by Ed Loveland and Joe Hunn. Matthew Stewart organised his defence of Sam Harris, Dan Walker and Alex Robins really well, and as a unit they marked tightly and cleared the ball easily.

I would still rate our early season victory over Sheffield as a better performance than this one, but the boys who played today really battled for each other and I hope we can take this momentum into the 6 a side, 8 a side and the Onondaga semi final against Cheadle in 3 weeks time.

Goals / (Assists)
Cox 11(1), E Loveland 8(4), O Loveland 4(7), Hunn 4(1), Crosby 2(3), Callaghan 2(3), Prickett 1(1)

U12B 9-9 Heaton Mersey

David Shuttleworth reports.....
Thought we did well on Sat and really should have won but we could not hold their best player who got 8 out of their 9 goals . Adam Kinghorn played well and got 6 goals (but should have had more with better shooting!) and I thought our defence did well.

Cup draws - semi finals

Onondaga Cup
U12A v Cheadle (13th Mar) home
Centurion Cup
U14A v Cheadle (6th Mar) home
Junior & Schools
U16A v Heaton Mersey (13th Mar) away

U12A 11-4 Brooklands

This was a hard fought game against a Brooklands team that competed well all game. It was not the best we've played this year by any stretch of the imagination, but we fought well through the scrappy bits and came up with the win by 11-4.
The first three quarters of the game were pretty similar, with the Timperley boys just about getting the better of the opposition, but not helping themselves with poor groundball and wayward passing. We were just not sharp enough to take a commanding lead and the scores for the first three quarters were 2-2, 2-0 and 2-0, giving a lead at three quarter time of only 6-2.
Finally, in the fourth quarter we seemed to wake up and actually played some good lacrosse, moving the ball well and cutting and shooting on target. This led to us scoring 5 goals, whilst conceding 2, to give a final score of 11-4.

Goals / (assists)
Crosby 3(1), Hirst 3, O Loveland 2(2), E Loveland 1(2), Hunn 1, Prickett 1, Cox (1), Callaghan (1)

The last three weeks have been good for this team. The playing schedule lined us up against three of the best U12 teams and we have come through unbeaten, which, given that we have never had our regular squad out in any of the matches, is really pleasing. Boys have stepped up from the B team and made telling contributions, whilst the regular A team players have discovered how to “win ugly” and grind out a result.

Next games
Spencer (home) on Friday 19th (4.30pm face)
Poynton (away) on Saturday 20th (10am face)

U12B 16-9 Mellor

Timperley U14 Match Results Saturday 6th February

A team Cup Match Home vs Wilmslow:

A strong performance against an inexperienced Wilmslow team (their first cup match as they had a bye in the first round).

A good defensive game with the 3 Ds doing a good job at the back (James Littlewood having a particularly strong game), and James Smethurst with a confident performance keeping a clean sheet for the first half and only conceding 3 over the last 2 quarters.

Up in attack it started off with a corking series of goals from Joe Harris (2), Tim and Alex. Only 2 in second quarter - Joe & James Hackett. Timperley 6 up at half time.

In the third quarter, Wilmslow pulled one back and then we got 7 on a trot....Tim 2 with an assist from James H / Nathan / Joe assisted by Grady / Alex 2 assists from Grady & Nathan / Lucas assisted by Nathan.

Wilmslow came out fighting at the start of the final quarter and pulled 2 back but then Timperley's final onslaught came with 2 goals a pice from Tim and Alex both assisted by James Hackett.

Some really lovely play with Grady and Pick playing some excellent moves in the heart of the action, well done lads. Final Score 17-3 WIN.

B team lost vs SMG in the plate 10-3 / thanks again to our guesting U12s that have helped us get a B team out.