As we approach the business end of the season Bristol & West faced a whirlwind weekend, with a potential record of 13 fixtures for the club! From those 13, we recorded a fantastic return of 6 wins, 4 draws and 3 defeats, bagging a staggering 42 goals in the process!
Highlights included a well deserved draw for our women's first team in the early fixture, inspiring wins for our other women's teams later in the day.
An amazing 6-0 win away from home for our 3s got the men off to a good start before the 4's continued their stylish season. While many of us were sulking about our cancelled games last week, the Men's 4s quietly got on with business. I the milder climes of Portishead, they beat North Somerset and won the league in the process!! Untypically this week, the 4s lads had to come from behind, as Matt Gimson faced an early P-flick in the absence of a keeper! But the rest followed the usual script, as the team ruthlessly dispatched South Glos with another 9 goals added to the tally.
Read all the reports below.
Race for Top Scorer Heats Up...
As we approach the final fixtures, the race for club goal scorer is closer than ever! Four goals for Edd and a hat-trick for Dibbs made things more interesting, with Alex not missing the chance to bag a couple in Wales. According to our Fantasy Hockey League (don't complain to me if it's not accurate!) the top 5 runners and riders are as follows:
Edd Wood (19)
Alex Law (19)
Claire Dibble (18)
Andy Bryce (17)
Molly Green (15)
💡B&W Under the Lights💡
The unexpected snow last week left the club with a handful of fixtures to rearrange through March. Kicking off tomorrow night (Tuesday 12th) is the first of 3 rearranged fixtured under the floodlights as the Men's 1s take on Bath Buccs. A day later our Women's 2s take on Dursley as they attempt to close out a league victory. Then on Monday, our Women's 3s follow suit, also looking to retain top spot with a game over at Hanham Woods Academy. Get yourselves down to support the mighty orange wherever you can!
12th March: Men's 1s , 7:15, Mangotsfield
13th March: Women's 2s, 7:45, Mangotsfield
18th March: Women's 3s, 7:30, Hanham Woods
Match Summary
Men's 1st Team - West Men's Premier
Cardiff University 1 [5-4] Bristol & West 1
Talybont Astro
In the return leg from the 7-1 loss at home, the team had a point to prove against the students from Cardiff. After fending off some early pressure, we got off to the best possible start seeing a bobbling finish go past the keeper’s right foot! 1-0 up and the students were rattled!
After few more phases of the game, Cardiff found themselves in the ascendancy and rattled off a quick fire double to take the lead and the wind out of our sails. We thought that we would hold on until half time but a short corner was converted with the last touch of the first half. 1-3 down at half time.
The second half was a different game. Coming out with an attacking mindset, we took the game to Cardiff and went blow for blow. Coming back to 3-2 with a goal from Ed Ledger. Cardiff hit back to make it 4-2, but after a period of strong pressure we brought it all the way back to 4-4 with a goal from Harry, before Ed picked up his 2nd to equalise.
With just a few minutes to go we felt in the ascendancy and were looking for the winner! Winning the ball in defence and looking for a quick break, there was a questionable decision to allow Cardiff a final attack, leading to a final short corner for Cardiff. The first one was defended but led to a second. The second was ultimately deflected in and we fell to a heart-breaking 4-5 loss.
Although a hard defeat to take it was far away from the game the first leg and shows the growth and determination of the squad. A lot to be proud of!
Well done gents.
MOTM: Tom Faerber - setting the tone in aggressive defending in CDM.
DOTD: Captain Daz…he knows why!
Goals: Ed Ledger (x2), Harry Bryant, Luke Berry
Cards: Harry
Women's 1st Team - West Women's Division 1 North
Bristol & West Jaspers 1 [1 – 1] Westberries 1
Mangotsfield School
We knew this was going to be a feisty fixture, and with a 0-5 loss to them earlier in the season, it was definitely game on from the first whistle.
Within the first 5 mins we found ourselves in the oppositions D, with two close encounters on goal, and we decided to camp in their half for the first 20 minutes. We kept possession really well and dominated the play, it felt good and had been a long time coming! Berries had moments of pressure, but nothing too threatening and we went into half time at 0-0, feeling like we were definitely the better team 🧡.
Clearly under pressure, the Berries girls were rather fired up. An excitable coach and a flurry of bad tackles led to cards being shown. But we kept our cool, let the umpires do their thing and stayed respectful 🙌🏻.
Unfortunately due to a lapse in concentration, a player unmarked in the D slotted one past Laura, and we were in a familiar position of being 0-1 down. But we kept battling out of their press, adding fuel to a fiery game! This resulted in us winning two short corners on the bounce, and with a beautiful slap from top left of the D from Bronwen, she added to her tally! 1-1 😍
A very well deserved point for the ladies today, kept it cool, kept it easy, kept our dignity!
POTM - Becky 🤩
GOAL - Bronnie 👏🏻
ASSIST - Hannah 🙌🏻
DOTD - Becca 💩
Men's 2nd Team - West Men's Division 2 West
Bristol & West 2 [3 – 3] Gwent 1
Mangotsfield School
We'll take the point - but a frustrating result for the men's 2s. A sluggish start, but we took advantage of our moment's going 2-0 up with a couple of goals from Josh Cooper - the second, an outrageous over the head volley!
But it was a game we struggled to put to bed and a strong midfield performance from the Welsh side saw them pull a goal back in the first half. We felt in control after a third from Matt, but a debatable short corner on half time saw Gwent cut the deficit to 3-2.
Positive words from Coach Mouse at half time weren't quite enough to rouse the lads into securing the result. Scoring opportunities were hard to come by in the second half, and it was Gwent who took their chance, picking up a rebound and rounding Wayne to slot home the equaliser.
A tough result to take, but an improvement on the away defeat. Hopefully we can turn the frustration into a positive performance against Robbies next week
Goals: Cooper (x2), Matt
MOM: Harrison
DOD: Cooper
Women's 2nd Team - West Women's Berkeley Division 2
Westberries 5 [0 – 7] Bristol & West Jaspers 2
Bristol University - Coombe Dingle
Ladies 2 played a good game against a middle of the table Westberries, who always put out a quick and tricky team.
With top of the league in sight, we went out strong and played some beautiful hockey with chances coming left and right with good one twos around players and into their D. We managed to slip away a goal in the first 5 minutes and from then on our confidence grew and we kept slotting them away❤️🔥
With little play in our defensive half, we played confident balls around the back and used the space well 🐸
Goals were truly beautiful all round with Dibbs managing to get a birthday hat-rick 😎
We ended the game with the umpires unsure of the score… but we agreed on 7-0, and was great to see us maintained cool heads all game. One of our best performances by us so far - well done all the girls
Goals: Dibbs x3, Ella x2, Karen x1, Caddick x1
POTM: Ella and Dibbs
⭐️ in exciting news, we do have a game this Wednesday during training ⭐️ it’ll be a pretty big one for us, and we could use all the support we can get ❤️🔥 pls come along if you are free 🍾
Men's 3rd Team - West Men's Bridge Division 1
Bristol & West 3 [6 – 0] Gwent 2
Cwmbran Stadium
As stand-in skip Patch scanned the Guardian while enjoying his coco pops, he received the unwelcome news that the keeper could not make the early game in Cwmbran. Many frantic messages and calls later, and in only his second EVER game in goal (and hockey), dad of Matthew & Ben and club day BBQ supremo Trevor, got to the pitch in time for the start (still beating Jules obviously).
As far as the game went, B&WHC had a lot of fun and dominated in every part of the pitch for 70 minutes, with Trev blocking Gwent’s few efforts like a seasoned pro. Mighty effort from Trevor, with only 2 training sessions ever on the hockey pitch and learning the rules on the morning, with a call up 30 minutes before we were all leaving. Special mention to Oli as stand in skip too as Florio earns himself some sunshine
Goals Alex x2, Doey x2 Sam & Patch
PoM: Joshy
Defender: Trev
Raspberries - Chairman, after reliably tapping in everything at the far post all season - managed to get his feet in the way. Green card for John for something nasty which he claims was intended as a tackle. But DoD to Jules, for: 1) messaging he was going straight to the pitch - after the meet time, and 2) saying he had to leave early as it was Mother’s Day (good luck with that new job in logistics Jules!).
Women's 3rd Team - West Women's Brunel Division 3
Bristol & West Jaspers 3 [4 – 0] North Somerset Gryphons 3
Mangotsfield School
A bit of a scrappy game, Gryphons arrived, clearly up for a battle (hope your ribs are okay Hannah!) - a few missed opportunities where we got on top of ourselves but the results came through when we remembered our spacing and kept to our own pace. Well done everyone ☺️
Goals: Hannah, Sanjana, Laura, Molly
Assists: Esther, Hannah (x2), Aymie
POTM - Emily 🤩
Defender - Leanne 🏑
Doughnut - Esther 🍩 for rolling the ball into the D from a free hit
🟩 - Aymie, for absolutely no reason at all
Men's 4th Team - West Men's Concorde Division 2
Bristol & West 4 [9 – 1] South Gloucestershire 2
Mangotsfield School
From starting the game 1-0 down with no keeper, we regrouped quickly to start performing excellent clinical passing, pressing high up the pitch and defending from the front with barely any opposition possession in our defending third.
Now having gained promotion from last week! We remain undefeated and we go into our last 2 games of the season hoping to see it out!! (Touch wood) 🏆💥💪🏻🏑
Goals - Edd 4, Ben 2, Mahesh 2, Sam 1,
Assists - Edd 3, Ben 2, Mahesh 2, Mark 1
MoTM - Joe M - For excellent work rate going forward and back, overall top performance 🏅
Def - Mike D- solid as always! 🪨
DoD - Edd - Shouting pass but being greedy in front of goal 😂
Honourable mentions:
Motm - Edd and Matt G
Def - Kev, Joe
Dod - Jordan, Ben
Women's 4th Team - West Women's Berkeley Division 3
Yate 4 Dev [1 – 2] Bristol & West Jaspers 4
Yate Outdoor Sports Complex
Assist Erin and Isla
Goal Megan and Holly (2!)
Player of the match Megan & Holly
Defender of the Day Shona
Family of the Day : Karen in goal, ably assisted by daughters Holly (in attack) and Erin (in Defence). What a team ❤️
Wow what a match and what a team 🤩🤩. So so proud of our ladies today. Absolutely every single player worked their socks off and could have got player of the match. Dave, Ollie and Baber, we really put into practice what we’ve been looking at in training too. Great press, ( especially in the first half of the match) great sideways and back passes being made today as well ❤️
We started with the ball, but Yate were quick to intercept and attack our goal. However our defence was strong, and we were soon in our attacking half and wow we just kept on going. Our attacking ladies were so determined, ( well actually the whole team was) and we were so unlucky that the ball just wouldn’t go in. Time and time again the attacking forwards intercepted and won the ball from Yate’s 16’s - great press ladies! I think we may have had 4 opportunities but the shots just kept on missing. And then finally Megan scored, ably assisted by her sister Erin. Heads held high the attack was back on and then a great cross from Eleanor to Holly but alas it wasn’t to be. Countless times Yate reacted and would push up with the ball but our defensive players worked hard , Shona and Erin never giving up and working hard to get the ball back to the forwards, Viv giving her tremendous powerful hits which would fly through the Yate players to a waiting Holly who would then push forwards to the goal again.
Yate reacted and Karen could do nothing to stop Yates first and only goal when faced with two of the opposition heading towards her - 1:1. at half time.
The second half began and again I’d say we dominated the game. A first disallowed goal from Holly, fortunately didn’t deter our gal from scoring a our second “allowed” goal 🙌🙌🙌
Shout outs to:
Karen - for being absolutely great in goal- 💪💪💪
Shona - for being here there and everywhere and giving great back options !
Isla - a very new position for Isla today as CDM - she did a great job at holding that position and acting as a great pivot.
We certainly deserved the victory.
Let’s hope we have more of the same at our Friendly against Bristol Uni this afternoon . Coombe Dingle 5:10 pushback if anyone wants to come and watch 🥰😊🏑🏑
Sunday Friendly
Uni of Bristol 6 [0-0] Bristol & West Jaspers 4
Coombe Dingle
It was a great game - each and every single player was amazing. We had no subs and given that the University of Bristol did, means that the end result is even more impressive as we were playing against a strong opposition .
The final result was 0:0!
I lost count of the number of short corners they won, but what a defence we had😊.
PoM went to Shona - which was very well deserved, but not surprisingly votes were given to Eleanor (who came second with the votes) , Erin, Rachel, Helen, Emily P and Isla also getting nominated. Well done all 😊
Men's 5th Team - West Men's Bridge Division 2
Bristol & West 5 [1-4] Cardiff Medics 2
Mangotsfield School
Men’s 5s lost 4-1 against Cardiff medics despite leading 1-0 at half time, with a goal from South African of the week Stu greenwood. The duo of X and Chester upfront created chances however with two very winnable games left in the season I am hopeful we can end on a high.
Motm Smeg
Defender of the day Jo Pring
Men's 6th Team - West Men's Bridge Division 2
Westbury & United Banks 4 [8 – 1] Bristol & West 6
Bristol University - Coombe Dingle
Under 16s Badgers
Badgers 3-0 win against WSM
Absolutely brilliant team performance today, everyone ran their hearts out. We were short of players today, 10 in the first half and only 9 in the second (all kids). The opposition had a good number of subs and played the entire game with 4 adults. Their manager explained to me at the start one of the adults was the business and would control the game, well that didn’t happen, we stifled the adults with so much pressure.
Sam D got us started with an early interception and slotting it nicely in.
Next was Barney scoring from a short corner. Then Arthur tapping in a firm cross from Barney. Thanks to Ben who came out of retirement to go in goal and bringing off a brilliant stick save.
MOM Sam O, although everyone deserved it today.
DOD Katrina for taking Barney at half time for a county game.
B&W Mixed
OBs Mixed [1-1] Bristol & West Mixed
An interesting game today against OBs who refused to face up to a short corner as the final whistle was blown! Came away with 1-1 draw after going 1-0 down. Goal scored by Leo, assisted by Cassie.
🧡 PoM goes to Joey for his aerial assist to the goal and solid positioning in midfield.
🖤 DoD goes to JP for forgetting to put his gumshield in, struggling to find it and clearing a goal line ball onto the post!
Thanks to Sam & Mille for umpiring! 🙌