Mixed fortunes for Bristol and West this weekend. Our men's and women's first teams carried on their unbeaten marches towards possible promotions. With only a handful of games remaining, both teams are within touching distance of "invincible" seasons. An amazing achievement.
Going into the weekend, our 2nd teams both remained unbeaten in 2023. While our women's team travelled across the old bridge to dispatch Lydney 6-0, our men's team faced a sterner test in the form of table-toppers Cardiff & Met. Having gone 2-0 down, it looked as though the match would follow the form book, but the lads rallied to score 2 late goals, keeping their unbeaten run intact.
The rest of the club faced difficult tests against tricky local opponents. Our men's 3s were able to come away with an important point in their rearranged Sunday game against Exeter Uni. Our development sides continue to make good progress, and while they both faced losses on Saturday, our women's 4s played out an exciting 3-3 on Sunday, coming close to a home victory against Westberries.
Player of the Week
Claire Dibble
Dibs continued her fine scoring form with a hat-trick to add to her 2 goals from last weekend. She also bagged another assist and back-to-back team player of the match, and club Player of the Week awards with her performances for the Women's 2s.
Honourable mentions...
Shaz Crossfield & Laura Grand - our women's keepers are smashing it this year. A 3rd clean sheet in a row for Shaz and a player of the match performance from Laura this weekend😎.
Alex Law - Hattrick + Bonus and MVP for M3s in their 4-4 draw against Exeter to help earn a big point in their hopes of survival!
Bernie Meachin - a clean sheet resulted in a hatful of points for our women's 2s back line, but it was Bernie who secured the defensive bonus.
Tom Bryant - back in the goals! Tom added another 2 to his impressive tally for the season in the 1s victory, with an assist and MOM award to go with them.
Tabby Moreton & Ella Alcott - along with a clean sheet, the women's 2s front three all got in on the scoring action this week with a hat-full of goals and assists between them
Claudia Dark - Heroine Bonus for another winning goal for L1s - this time against 3rd place Lansdown which gives them more breathing space at the top of the league!
Daniel Lusmore - 2 more goals this week and another Hero bonus for scoring the goal that earned M2s a big point against top of the league.
Match Summary
Men's 1st Team
Royal Wootton Bassett [2-4] Bristol & West
The lads were on the road this week, making the trip away to Royal Wootton Bassett. 2 short corner goals from Tom Bryant and a 3rd by Ed Ledger made it 3-0 at halftime. The second half was a tighter affair, with the opposition coming back into the game with 2 of their own. But our 1s held on to post a 4-2 result to stay 2nd on goal difference with 5 to play.
Women's 1st Team
Bristol & West Jaspers 1 [2-1] Lansdown 2
For much of the season, our women's 1s have been in a three team shootout with Firebrands and Lansdown at the top of the league. Having dispatched Firebrands in January, this Saturday it was the turn of Lansdown to face our seemingly unbeatable ladies.
A typical fast start saw Annie slot home to fire us in front (8 goals in 9 games for Annie this season). Lansdown increases their efforts in the second half with a good spell seeing numerous chances on goal swatted away by player of the match Laura. Not for the first time this season, she was only eventually beaten by her own defender, levelling the score in the second half! Our normally lethal short corners weren't quite hitting the nark this week with 5 or 6 penalty opportunities missed. Step up Claudia Dark, who came on from the bench to sweep home from left slip, securing a 2-1 victory.
Goals - Annie and Claudia 🥅
Assists - Meg and Han 🏑
POTM - Laura 🤩
Votes for Meg and Han 🙌
Men's 2nd Team
Bristol & West 2 [2-2] Cardiff & Met 3
With Swansea dropping out of the league, the complexion of Men's Division 2 West was transformed last week. Our 2s dropped from 2nd to 5th, but with the games in hand scratched, only 3 points separated the teams from 2nd to 6th. Sitting above this, 10 points clear at the top were Cardiff & Met with 12 wins from 15. A tough test for our 2s squad.
We were competitive throughout the first half, with several breakaway opportunities not capitalised on. Teams like Met will punish you and took their opportunies with a break of their own to go 1-0 up and a long pass that cut through the entire team, slotted away first time for 2-0. The Bristol & West boys grew into the 2nd half and piled on the pressure, eventually scoring 2 of their own to level the score with 10 minutes to play. In the end, the final whistle denied us one final short corner chance, but an important point keeps us within 3 points of 2nd with 5 to play.
Women's 2nd Team
Lydney 3 [6-0] Bristol & West Jaspers 2
Illness and absences saw a new-look line-up for the 2s as they travelled across the Severn to face Lydney. Unbeaten since November, the 2s were looking to keep the pressure on the top 2 teams.
Strong showings from the 3s players who stepped up, and a shed load of goals from our regular 2s forwards, Dibbs (3), Ella (2), Tabby (1), saw the girls bring home a 6-0 win.
Dibbs has a stonker with a trio of goals & voted POTM (closely followed by Millie Aish in her 2s debut).
Goals: Dibbs x3, Ella x2, Tabby x1
See you all at training 🏑😎
Men's 3rd Team
Bristol & West 3 [4-4] University Of Exeter 7
Men's 3s drew ... four goals scored, four goals conceded!
Women's 3rd Team
Thornbury 2 [4-1] Bristol & West Jaspers 3
Ladies 3s worked hard Vs Thornbury and came away with a 4 - 1 loss. Heads up ladies 😎 there was beautiful hockey.
POTM Alice + Rach.
Goals Frankie.
Assist Han.
Men's 4th Team
Clifton Robinsons 5 [4-1] Bristol & West 4
M4 1-4 loss vs Robbies
Goal @Ted Rippon
MoM leo nolan
DEF phil brocklehurst
🍆 Mike Duddridge forgetting his kit. 😂
Women's 4th Team
Clifton Robinsons 6 [5-0] Bristol & West Jaspers 4 (Dev)
Bristol & West Jaspers 4 (Dev) [3-3] Westberries 6
On Saturday Ladies 4s had another chance as we played the same team as last weekend. Come away with a 5 - 0 loss never mind ladies! Had fun though :) (POTM tbc).
A rearranged game on Sunday saw some players put in a 3rd shift of the weekend. They came away with a 3-3 draw, but were moments from victory. A great performance!
Men's 5th Team
Bristol & West 5 [1-3] Westbury & United Banks 5
5s lost 3-1 to Westbury
Goal -Drew
Assist-Sam O
MoM - Drew
Def of Day - Joe
DoD - Baber - left his stick in the car
Men's 6th Team
Bristol & West 6 (Dev) [4-8] Old Bristolians 4
Men’s 6’s lost 8-4 to a good OB’s 4 side.
3-3 at half time after a really good first half team performance with goals from Don and two from Dan. A couple a quick goals in the first half made it hard work, and Rob Ledger stood up for a well taken penalty stroke. Well done to Matthew and Charlie who played well against some good opposition, and David M who had a great game in midfield.