TIMPERLEY U16 NATIONAL CHAMPIONS 2010

Timperley U16's crowned National Champions 2010 at Great Malvern.

The boys dominated the tournament, winninng all of their games and only conceding 1 goal in 8 matches.

Well done to all of the boys - and thank you to all of the parents who made the journey to Great Malvern, without you this would not have been possible. Thank you to all of the U12's who stayed on to watch the final, the support was fantastic.

U12 National 8 a side

Another Sunday, another tournament, but unfortunately, after the excitement of last weekend, there was no trophy to take home today. In my own mind a semi final place was the very least we were aiming for today. There are three or four good sides at this age group and any one of them is capable of winning a short tournament like this - a bit of luck, and some momentum counts for a lot.

We started really well with a great 5-3 victory over a tough Rochdale team, and then followed this with a 6-2 win over Spencer. Meanwhile Wilmslow were doing us all a favour with a huge win over Rochdale that effectively put them out of the tournament before lunchtime. We then beat Wilmslow 2-1 to win the group with a game to spare, before we gave the whole squad a go in the final game, winning 4-3 against Wacs.
So far so good – we’d made the semi final. We had played some nice lacrosse at times, and had fought hard for the wins but without really playing at our fluent best. Matthew Stewart in goal was probably the stand out performer up to this point, which itself tells a tale.

Brooklands and Sheffield had qualified from pool 1, along with ourselves and Wilmslow from pool 2. The betting man would have probably gone for a Timperley / Sheffield final, but he’d have lost all his money. We lost 1-4 to Brooklands, going behind early on and never managing to get back into the game, whilst Wilmslow produced another upset by overcoming the previously unbeaten Sheffield in overtime. Wilmslow followed this up by beating Brooklands 1-0 to take the tournament.

We must remember that 8 and 6 a side games can be won and lost in a very short space of time and often there is no time to respond - we will win some and we will lose some over the coming years. I firmly believe that this current team is better suited to 10 a side, which is where the main prizes are - the main target for the season was always the Onondaga Cup. We have a big semi final this coming weekend against Cheadle which, if we turn up in the right frame of mind, we are more than capable of winning.

Thanks to all the parents for taking the time to travel to Malvern to support their boys. It is meant to be a lacrosse festival and I think that from that point of view, we all had a good day at a great location with some superb weather.

U12A 13-4 Cheadle

This was a warm up for the Onondaga semi next week, and we came through with what was ultimately a comfortable 13-4 win. Although we never really played as well as we can, we scrapped and did our best to remove any shred of confidence that Cheadle might have been taking into next weekend.

We need to focus from the start next weekend and make sure we reach the final.

Goals/(Assists)
Cox 5, Crosby 2, E Loveland 2(1), Callaghan 1, Phillips 1(1), Hunn 1, Walker 1, O Loveland (2), Prickett (2), Hirst (1).

U12B 4-12 Ashton

David Shuttleworth reports.........
Although the game was fairly even for a long time we were eventually fairly well beaten by a much improved Ashton side. Admittedly they did have a very big, athletic overage player with a dispensation but he was supposed to be very new to lacrosse (!!). He was a decent athlete. However we kept at it . Joe Schaefer did well in goal and his clearing was really good and Matt Allen did well at faces. We missed our runners, Adam,Cameron and Will C as it was a big pitch which usually suits us.

U14s CENTURION CUP SEMI FINAL - Sat 6th March

Following an unconvincing run over the last few weeks, how were we going to do in this critical match? Littlewood and Roberts were missing due to injury (thanks for coming down Tom to support)...... The sun was shining and after a poor run of attendance, The Manager was back! Then Cheadle arrived......and they looked more beefy than ever'! Timperley warmed up in an uncharacterisitic silence. Could this concentration and focus see us through? Would our confidence return?
Face off.....could we sneak one in and get that boost of self belief? But alas the Cheadle No 3 took aim and we were 1 down! PANTS! We needed to come back and it wasn't long before Whirlwind Winton went into action...took aim and...FIRE...on target and we'd equalised. Cheadle pulled one back to go into the lead but then Jumping Joe Harris equalised just before the end of Quarter 1. It was clear....we were gonna have a cracking game!
Second quarter...and unfortunately this is where my scoring notes suffer as it was getting pretty nerve wracking on the touchline! So bear with me, this is what I can recall. The second quarter was even matched with a further 2 goals Alex and James 'The Hacker' Hackett - scoring 2 of his trademark ground / low shots. Despite this progress, Cheadle No. 18 - 'The Refridgerator' lunged 2 passed James Safehands Smethurst. Quarter 3 saw Timperley create and stretch their lead with Tim Nuke 'Em Nicol finally putting 2 passed the Cheadle Goalie with a great long shot assist from Josh Donkey Legs Peachey. Good clear passing from James S helped push the game up field. Pick showed some impressive play from behind goal, often out running the Cheadle defence. Final Quarter - could we hold the lead...could we book our place in the final? Disaster - we started losing our lead with a shaky period - Cheadle scored, then just when we needed it Charlie Legs Edwards did his long Ostrich leg run and put one in the back of the net, Tim also scored again but as we entered the last 5 minutes of play, Cheadle got 2 goals in 2 minutes, at his rate , they could equalise by the end of full time! Fortunately Timperley held their nerve and the Final whistle went and we'd won 10-8. Much better skills were shown by the team and strong performances were noted from Nathan 'The Cheetah' Walker who is undoubtedly the fastest player in Lacrosse, Josh Blower and Grady who both showed strong determination and persistence. Based on this performance and with further practice, we stand a good chance of winning against Brooklands in the final on 10 April at Rochdale (1pm face off). Well done Lads!

Paul Peachey

U12 win 6 a side tournament

This is what it is all about. Playing lacrosse and winning a trophy. Ultimately the day ended as I had hoped, with Timperley taking home the cup, but I never thought that it would prove as dramatic as it did for players and parents alike.
In the round robin format, a lot depends on the draw, and we got a favourable one, with only Cheadle (last year's winners) looking a threat. We breezed through our opening two games, winning 13-0 against Mersey Guild B, and then Wacs 12-1. The whole afternoon changed with the Cheadle game as we struggled with their direct tactics and eventually went down 2-3. Chins were down, the boys were moaning about the ref, which in reality was good to see because it showed they cared; from this moment on, the team seemed to gel as they realised they were going to have to fight for this cup.
The fourth game was against an unbeaten Mersey Guild A, and we had to win, or it was the early bus home. We came through in style to record a comprehensive 12-1 win. Bring on the semi final draw……….. which paired us with Cheadle. We were going to have to win it the hard way.
The game was as we expected but our tactics were better and we coped with Cheadle’s long game. We were never ahead, but never more than a goal behind, and we were playing some really good lacrosse, whilst not being hurt too badly by the big kids on the opposition. Full time came, with the score at 3-3. It was a golden goal to settle the game – first to score wins - no pressure then………
This led to what was for me the most memorable and important moment of the afternoon. We won the face and after a bit of scrapping, put together a great four man passing move that ended with Oli Loveland coolly slotting the ball home for his hat-trick, the golden goal and a sprint half the length of the pitch to celebrate with his team mates. I was leaping around and so were half the spectators - we’d won it 4-3 to reach the final against Rochdale.
Rochdale had one really big player and we played him as best we could. Unfortunately we’d not been tipped off about their other top player who would go on to score 5 goals in the final. However, it didn’t matter……….
This was another game where we were never ahead until the end, but again we held it together and were never more than one behind. To counter the two good players Rochdale had, our team played some excellent lacrosse, slugging it out goal for goal, only losing its head once with about two minutes to go where the long ball reared its ugly head. We got over this mini crisis and then took it to Rochdale from 5-6 down to score two in the final 90 seconds to be 7-6 up. Our ball on our back line with 20 seconds to go and we killed some time, before a final assault from the big kid was repelled, and we’d done it, winning 7-6 in a brilliant final.

Every one of the boys played their part today [in the photo (back) Matthew Stewart, James Prickett, Sam Harris, Oli Loveland, (front) Tom Cox ,Oliver Crosby, Ed Loveland, Will Callaghan]. They became a real team over the course of the afternoon and ended up really battling for each other to achieve the victory for themselves and the club. There are a lot of proud parents, coaches and managers in Timperley tonight.

U12B 12-2 Stockport

David Shuttleworth commented.....
Won 12-2. Played well.
Will Callaghan and Mickolaj Mars were good. Four goals for Ben Williamson and three for Adam Kinghorn.