Donaghadee LHC

The day we played Cooke by Jennifer McVeigh

On Saturday 4th Feb, DLHC braved the rain coming sideways and travelled to Belfast to play against Cooke Ladies at Shaws Bridge. The match started well i.e. the rain stopped. The Dee ladies had a valiant effort with the match pretty even – until during a penalty corner just before half time, those fateful words were uttered “We’re not losing this match” and Cooke popped the ball in the back of the Donaghadee net 1-0 to Cooke… so far.

The second half started with Cooke scoring a second goal quite quickly and a third appeared sometime after that. (No one was really payin much attention here, this is all the info I could glean!) Donaghadee did not give in easily with the feisty forwards repeatedly tryin to battle their way through the Cooke defense. Their effurts were not in vain as Ruth Kennedy put her silky skills on show once more, carrying the ball up the right, supported by Natasha Cameron and took a shot at goal. It rebounded off the keeper and the Dee forwards all took in it turn for what seemed like half an hour. Eventually centre forward Kerrie Turtle got a “flukey” goal as the Cooke goalie seemed to tire of all the shots (or perhaps she just got bored), leaving the score 3-1 to Cooke… so far.

Cooke soon broke free and in no time had skelped round the intrepid Dee defenders and welted anor yin in the back of the net, 4-1 to Cooke… so far. Teegan Greer in goals surpassed her usual brillyint game by pattin out a shot at goal with her big paw, after it came hurtlin at her about 10 fut in the air. Although Dee had many attempts in penetrating the Cooke circle, they could not put the final flourish to their effurts. Eventually after umpteen long corners for Cooke, they managed another final (I think) goal – final score 5-1 to Cooke.

Points of note from the match;

i) On her first outing as stand in captain, Ali Lawther only had a slight panic when Jen n Teegs showed up alone. A good attempt at a poker face Ali… but you need to work on the pitch of your squeek “Did Ruth and Carmen not come with you??”

ii) Kerrie’s goal was a fluke (her own admission) and any of the team could have got it (apart from Teegs, Nina n Jen as they were the only ones not in the circle takin shots at goal at the time).

iii) Teegs was outstanin in goals as usual, savin far more shots than any other match (and fur that, we defenders apologise, I know yer wee heart was racin at times).

iv) The wooden shoe award is, as we speak, bein dusted aff, in preparation of bein handed over to Katie Donnelly (I’ve heard top football teams are considerin transfer negiotiations).

v) Methinks the Cooke umpire got new cards from Santa as he was very keen to show a certain Dee defender the green one – looked lovely, very purdy. Oh yeah, it was allegedly for stick tacklin… as if!!

vi) Donaghadee may have had a better result if we all had real plastic leather trainers like Suzie Ferguson, which didn’t let the 6000 gallons of water on the pitch squelch inty them, therefore slowin us down with the extra weight. (… in fact now I’m wonderin if she was actually wearin them!)

vii) Siobhan’s “lost stick” (which was eventually found in her hockey beg), actually does what it says on the tin, super tackles S!

viii) Carmen never seems to tire, shuda called her Duracell!

ix) Hannah’s lovin bein a wing

x) Lisa paid more attention than all of us, she gave me the match details, aultimers hasn’t quite set in yit.

xi) A rousing half time speech “Come on seersly, we can win this, let’s give it 100%, play like we want it, put some effort in, bla de bla” didn’t actually have the desired effect. (Mental note, keep ones gub shut!)

xii) The final score 5-1 is a rough guess, I think it was mebbe slightly more than that – or it just seemed like it.

xiii) Last but not least, and we’re all in agreement on this as it was voiced once or twice.. we may have actually won, had our captain not fekt aff on a wee city break to London for the weekend! Hope you weren’t getting any sneaky skiing practice in!!

Donaghadee Ladies Hockey Club banished any lingering festive cobwebs when they travelled to a Donard Park swept by a bracing wind last Saturday to play 3rd in the league Newcastle Nomads. Having been only narrowly beaten by top placed Bangor just before Christmas, confidence in the ranks has been growing and the game plan from the first whistle here was to try and keep things tight and prevent the opposition scoring an early goal, something which Donaghadee has been unable to do in a number of matches this season. Despite a couple of early scares when the Newcastle left wing really should have punished Donaghadee, and thanks to saves from keeper Teegan Greer and timely interventions from fullbacks Nina Wells and Lisa Higgins, the Dee kept things on an even keel and even managed to create the odd chance of their own, although they didn’t manage to break the deadlock. For the first time this season, Donaghadee went in to half time with the scoreline at 0-0 with the mood amongst the players determined not to leave without some sort of points in the bag.

Things got even better early in the second half when Donaghadee pressed down the right with Ali Lawther and Johneen Palmer exchanging passes and getting the cross in, the ball eluding several Newcastle sticks before finding Captain Carolyn Scott unmarked in the middle of the circle. She made no mistake, duly dispatching the ball to make the scoreline 1-0 – possibly also another first this season, Donaghadee going ahead in the match. Newcastle began to pressure the Dee defence but Nina and Lisa, along with Suzie Ferguson and Natasha Cameron stifling much of the home side’s wide play, were keeping them at bay. The concerted Newcastle pressure eventually paid off however, with the home side scoring mid way through the second period. Unaccustomed to the position of finding themselves in with a real chance of points, Donaghadee perhaps sat back a little too much and tried to protect what they had, instead of pushing up and pressuring the Newcastle midfield but, despite this, full marks must go to Katie Donnelly and a bloodied Ali who played just in front of the Dee defence and tried to feed the ball up to the Dee forwards. Indeed, in the last ten minutes or so of the game, it could have gone either way, with the ever-battling Kerrie Turtle in the centre forward role and the silky skills of Ruth Kennedy who came on in the second half to replace the hard working Carmen van der Schyff at left wing causing Newcastle problems at the back. With the clock ticking towards zero, Donaghadee were within sight of a valuable point when the home umpire awarded his side a penalty corner and then blew for full time, allowing the whole Newcastle team to pile forward round the Dee circle against the five Dee defenders. Despite a valiant effort from the Dee defence, they were unable to clear the ball beyond the 25 and Newcastle managed to scramble the ball inside Teegan’s right hand post. Final score 2-1 to Newcastle and utter heartbreak for the Dee who had worked so, so hard for the duration to take something away from the game.

Captain Carolyn Scott wasn’t too downbeat after the game: “I asked the girls to go out and get the points today and, while we’re all a bit gutted not to have held on even for the draw, I can only praise what was a really good team effort. We’ve now pushed two of the top three in the league really close and hopefully all the girls will take some confidence that things are moving in the right direction at the club.”

Many thanks again go to Mike Smyth for umpiring. The Dee are next in action on Saturday at home to College Hill, pass back 2pm. All the stats and all the info can be found at http://www.donaghadeelhc.co.uk or facebook.com/donaghadeelhc

Last Saturday Donaghadee welcomed league leaders and near neighbours Bangor LHC in the final game in the league programme before the Christmas break. The match was switched to Londonderry Park shortly before the scheduled pass back time due to Crommelin Park being flooded – the usual story for this time of the year – but with the surface still Bangor’s unfavoured gravel, Donaghadee were hopeful of using this to their advantage.

In what seems to be becoming a worrying trait, Donaghadee were slow to start and Bangor scored shortly after pass back, leaving the girls in red with a lot to do. However despite the sluggish start and a fairly unremarkable first half, Donaghadee began to play themselves back into the game and the chances started to come. It was certainly not obvious that the away side were top of the league while Donaghadee find themselves in the bottom three of the table; the Dee created several gilt edged chances in their opposing circle while Bangor rarely threatened the Dee goal. Bangor can thank their keeper for a couple of excellent saves to deny the Dee forwards what looked to be at least two certain scores, with the Bangor No 1 getting down well to stop the ball sneaking inside the post.

When the Dee met Bangor in the first game of the season, the girls in yellow ran out 4-0 victors on the day, so when they scored early on in this match, the frozen but hardy Dee supporters could have feared the worst, but it was testament to the grit of Donaghadee that they kept their heads up and got stuck in, holding Bangor to a single goal when they have been beating everyone else in the league by an average of 3 goals. Surely it is only a matter of time before the chances start hitting the back of the net and the Dee can pull themselves up the table a bit; a couple of victories would see them in a much more respectable mid-table position – something to aim for in the New Year! Many thanks to Mike Smyth for umpiring and also to Saturday’s match ball sponsors Wells Tyres.

The Dee are back in action on Saturday 7th January 2012 when they travel to Donard Park to play Newcastle but many of the team will get together on Wednesday 28th December when they head to Ravenhill to support Donaghadee RFC in the final of the Junior Cup. Good luck to the boys and a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all the Donaghadee Ladies Hockey Club members and faithful supporters. Get all the info at http://www.donaghadeelhc.co.uk or http://www.facebook.com/donaghadeelhc

This time last year no hockey was to be played for almost two months as Arctic conditions put paid to any thoughts of venturing outdoors, let alone baring arms and legs in the name of sport. While last Saturday’s conditions weren’t quite so adverse, it was certainly a bitingly cold day at the Dub in Belfast when Donaghadee travelled to Instonians. In the first league fixture of this season back in September, these two teams played out an entertaining 2-2 draw at Crommelin Park, with last season’s top goal scorer Kerrie Turtle bagging both the Dee goals. Only 3 points separated the two teams before pass back, so it promised much in the way of open and attacking hockey.

With Connie Singleton and newbie Maura Hennessey both having missed much of the season due to injury, the Dee’s injury curse continued with Leona Wells suffering bad ankle ligament damage playing netball the night before the Inst match, ruling her out for certainly the rest of 2011. As mentioned in last week’s report however, it has been testament to the continued excellent numbers at training that captain Carolyn Scott was able to promote from within the training ranks and regular attendee, Johneen Palmer, stepped up to the mark.

Donaghadee were a little bit slow to get going when Instonians got proceedings underway – possibly a combination of the cold weather, lack of game time on astroturf and an element of players finding themselves in different positions from the usual line up, but with Jen McVeigh and Siobhan McAdam clearing the lines well from the back, the Dee ship was steadied a little. With Suzie Ferguson’s typical calmness on the ball on the right and Lisa Higgins’ tigerish tackling on the left, the Dee slowly started to put some passing and moves together and were increasingly threatening the Instonians circle. The home side were in no mood to roll over though, and it is they who drew first blood, opening the scoring when, even after numerous attempts, the Dee failed to clear the ball. They added a second shortly after, when again, the Dee got into a bit of a mess when trying to get the ball away.

There is the old adage in sport that the best time to score is just before half time, and Donaghadee were to get some reward following centre forward Kerrie Turtle’s tireless chasing of seemingly hopeless balls when she won a penalty corner after an Inst indiscretion in the circle. Despite the Inst keeper partially saving Carolyn’s first time shot, and an Inst stick on the line also taking some of the sting out of it, the ball somehow found its way over the line and Donaghadee went into half time with their heads up and only 2-1 down.

The second half however started much as the first had, with Donaghadee slow to get going. Katie Donnelly, Ali Lawther and Carolyn started to exert a little bit of pressure in midfield which released Kerrie up front but the Inst defence held strong. The Dee did try to spread the ball to the two wide players, Johneen and Carmen van der Schyff, and on a few occasions did manage to penetrate the home defence, but their keeper remained up for the task.

Speaking of keepers, Teegan Greer had an absolutely storming game in the Dee goal, making numerous athletic saves to keep the Dee in the match right up until the dying minutes. There was little she could do however when Instonians sealed their victory late on in the game, leaving the final score 3-1 to the home side. Many thanks to Mike Smyth for doing the honours with the whistle. Donaghadee’s last match of 2011 is on Saturday 17th December at home to Bangor. Check out the website http://www.donaghadeelhc.co.uk or Facebook for up to date information regarding this match and all other club info.

In a week where the third team in 2 seasons has folded in Senior League 4 of the Ulster Hockey Union, Donaghadee played Ballynahinch at Londonderry Park, Newtownards after heavy rain shortly before the scheduled pass back time rendered Crommelin Park a bit of a lake. Ballycastle LHC are the latest victims of a league which has shown no mercy on the smaller clubs in recent years, with Malone LHC and Ballynure LHC forced to concede their places in Senior 4 last year. Ballycastle have struggled badly since the 11/12 league programme started in mid-September with a combination of losing a number of players since last season and possibly having to make a day trip of every single away match – their closest match geographically is probably against North Belfast side Mossley has meant they finally admitted defeat last week.

Their withdrawal from the league has unfortunately had the knock on effect of Donaghadee LHC losing the hard won 3 points after they travelled up to the north coast at the start of November and came away with a convincing 4-1 victory against Ballycastle and sees Donaghadee (5 points) now placed between bottom side Newry – who have incidentally also struggled to field a team on numerous occasions this year, reflected in their points tally of -3 – and Instonians on 8 points. Donaghadee do however have a game in hand, and they will be looking to maximise this advantage when they play Instonians this Saturday (3rd December).

It is testament to the renewed dedication of the Donaghadee girls that, a Friday night cup game excepted, the Dee have had at least 12 players for every single game this season (in comparison with this time last season when they turned out on several occasions at least one or two players short) and Saturday’s game against Ballynahinch was no exception, with 12 hockettes donning their wellies and rain macs for the fixture. There has been very little between these two teams over the last couple of games, with both matches home and away ending in draws last year, and to be honest there wasn’t a lot between them in this match either, despite the scoreline suggesting otherwise. With Nina Wells, Jen McVeigh, Susie Ferguson and Siobhan McAdam dealing well with any blue attacks, Teegan Greer in goal didn’t have an awful lot to do and, with the defence able to set up the midfield trio of Lisa Higgins, Ali Lawther and Katie Drummond, Donaghadee saw plenty of the ball and were able to put the Ballynahinch defence under pressure, with all the Donaghadee forwards – Leona Wells, Kerrie Turtle, Carolyn Scott and Carmen van der Schyff having their chances in the circle.

The final score came down to Ballynahinch converting their chances where Donaghadee didn’t but there were positives to be taken from the match. Captain Carolyn Scott wasn’t too downbeat after the final whistle: “I can’t be too unhappy with how the girls did today – on another day, the chances we created could have gone in and we would have been a couple up within the first ten minutes. We’re certainly playing better together as a team, and we’re all looking forward to the game against Instonians this weekend.”

Many thanks to Mike Smyth for umpiring again, and the match ball was sponsored by Regency Cars, Newtownards. The next game for the Dee is against Instonians (away), time and place to be confirmed. For up to date info on the club please visit http://www.DonaghadeeLHC.co.uk

On Saturday, Donaghadee Ladies Hockey Club welcomed Newcastle Nomads to Crommelin Park for their Senior League 4 match. In bitingly cold weather, but with the sun shining brightly, the match got underway. Despite coach Brian McKee’s instructions for the Dee to start quickly, the girls were caught on the back foot by some lively attacking Newcastle play, and it was not long until Newcastle broke the deadlock with a ball played straight through the middle from the back. The forward calmly collected and duly dispatched. 1-0 to the visitors.

Donaghadee didn’t take long to respond however, when a break down the right by Carolyn Scott found Ashlee McCormack unmarked in the circle. 1-1 with everything to play for. The second half began just as brightly, with both sides having chances to pull ahead, but it was again Newcastle who made the break through. An almost identical ball through the middle again found a Newcastle forward, and it was 2-1. Again Donaghadee attacked down the right, with captain Katie Drummond supplying the final pass for Nina Wells to grab her first goal for the club. Alison McNeice made a couple of great saves in the Donaghadee goal, and the girls were probably a little unlucky to concede to Newcastle in the dying minutes. Final score 3-2 to Newcastle, but Donaghadee do seem to be starting to put together some of the stuff that is being practised on a Wednesday night – they’ll be looking to build further when they welcome league leaders Holywood to Donaghadee next week. Thanks as always to Alfie for umpiring, Brian for the coaching, and to main sponsors Cafe Manor and Heathview Equestrian.

The club is pleased to announce the commencement of Hockey School – a 5 week hockey course of skills and mini games in March for 10 to 14 year old girls from 6.30 to 7.30 pm at Crommelin Park, Donaghadee. Cost is £10 per girl, with registration closing on 20th Feb. For further information and booking forms, please contact Alison McNeice on 91888243.

I am pleased – nay, delighted – to be writing this report on Donaghadee Ladies’ Senior League 4 game away to Ballynahinch last Saturday. The girls have found the going tough at times, as readers of previous match reports will testify, but the girls travelled to Ballynahinch on Saturday for their final game before Christmas.

Having had several games postponed due to unplayable pitches and inclement weather, the Dee girls were looking forward to getting a game. In bitterly cold but bright conditions, the game got underway on an absolute bog of a pitch. Donaghadee drew first blood, scoring through Ashlee McCormack, but in typical Donaghadee fashion, it wasn’t long before Ballynahinch equalised. With the score at 1-1 at half time, the umpires called the captains together to decide on the fate of the match – what had started out a bog had turned into a quagmire, with players slipping all over the place, and with the sun so low, the ball difficult to see against the muddy pitch. It was decided to play on, and after an inspired team talk by coach Brian McKee (“forget the tactics, forget the moves, just go out and dig this one out, girls”), Donaghadee set about finishing the game off.

It turned into an entertaining half, with Kerrie Turtle finding the net for the Dee before Hinch equalised again. With slightly more robust defending than of late, the Dee were able to snuff out a couple of Ballynahinch chances before pulling clear again through a great individual goal by Lisa Higgins, who burst into the circle, jinked what seemed most of the Hinch team, and didn’t stop until the ball was firmly past the keeper. The home team equalised again almost immediately, but Donaghadee again dug deep and Jackie McKee got the winner. First win of the season against a team 4th in the league – not a bad Christmas present for the hockettes!

Matches will resume again in the New Year, and in the meantime, Donaghadee LHC would like to once again thank Alfie for umpiring, Brian for his master coaching, and Cafe Manor, Heathview Equestrian and Ards Fireplaces for their continued support and sponsorship of the club, and to wish all their supporters a very Happy Christmas!

Following a three week break thanks to atrocious weather and unplayable pitches Donaghadee Ladies Hockey Club were once again back in league action last Saturday when they took on Mossley Ladies. After a light lunch at the club’s sponsor, Cafe Manor, and a publicity photoshoot with owner Nigel Harvey, the girls headed over to the Portaferry Road pitch in Newtownards – the pitch at Crommelin Park once again unplayable due to the relentless rain over the last few weeks.

In years gone by, these two teams have had some cracking games, with very little to spare between them, and so it proved again this time. Donaghadee had first pass back, and the first half saw both sides playing some good attacking hockey, although neither was able to capitalise. Not long after the turnaround, Mossley broke free and won themselves a long corner. Somewhat contentiously, the taker did not move the ball the required five yards before crossing into the circle, with the Mossley attack turning the ball beyond the Donaghadee defence.

For the remaining minutes on the clock, the Dee girls pressed hard in search of an equaliser, winning several penalty corners. The best chance came during the final corner, but the visiting umpire called time before Donaghadee could make anything of it – again a point to be debated as the defence had not cleared the ball beyond the 25 yard line. No matter. A tough fought game with only one goal conceded. Thanks to Alfie for umpiring. Next game is away to Cooke on Saturday. All players are reminded that fees are now due.