Determined Stratford women put on gutsy effort

Stuart Bayly Contracting Stratford Women's B:

Stuart Bayly Contracting Stratford Women's B hockey team played Hawera Women on Friday night. With Hawera being last years runner-up, Stratford knew this was going to be hard encounter right from the beginning. All the girls marked hard and fought with everything they had, keeping Hawera women begging for answers as to why their goals were not going in.

Half way through the first half Hawera managed to slot 2 in to go up 2-0 at half time.

With a new strategy plan at half time, Hawera came back fighting more, bringing down a few Stratford girls with injuries. But Stratford kept up the work load, trying to keep then out of the goal circle. Hawera eventally out did the B side winning 6-0, finishing off with a stroke. Player of the match went to Megan George for her consistent effort throughout the game.

- CMK Stratford Women's A:

A home game vs Te Kiri Women's in Saturdays sunshine saw only a narrow win by CMK Stratford Women's A. A hard fought contest between the two sides saw things heat up with an eventual green card dished out to a Te Kiri player for dangerous play. Missing two key strikers and two valuable defenders due to injury meant we only had 11 players in the first half, including two floating players - many thanks to Natarsha Hey and Phoebe Jury for helping us out! CMK Stratford Women's A failed to show hunger for the ball in the attacking circle throughout the game, and put a number of attempts at goal straight on to the keepers pads. A second layer to catch rebounds was absent from this weeks attacking game, and the final scoreboard reflected this. However, one rebound was collected, by Janika Hey, who scored a beautiful reverse shot to bring the score to 1-0 midway through the first half. Play finally settled down in the second half, and many breakaways by Te Kiri were defended to keep them scoreless. Stratford's continuous attack saw the opposition's left hand side hammered throughout the second half. A simple cross goal pass from Anna McLean found the stick of Lexi van In to bump the final score to 2-0 with about 15 minutes remaining on the clock.

A positive from the game was the obvious improvement in using back-and-around passes, and the increase in square passes. There is a lot to be worked on, including strength on the ball and giving early passes, before our biggest game of the season this far, against Hawera.

- Le Dejeuner Catering Stratford Broadway:

Le Dejeuner Catering Stratford Broadway played the Clubs' top team, The Brian Darth Funeral Services Stratford Men's A Team. These are our top players and they showed Broadway that that was the case. Broadway held the A team out for the first 12 minutes before they let in a goal and they kept coming, by half time Broadway where down 8-0. The second half Broadway had some good spells of play picking up a goal late in the second half from John Noblett. Broadway's player of the day was Scott Weren as he never gave up. Final score 12 -1.

- CMK Stratford Avon

CMK Stratford Avon played played Northern United Masters on Saturday in New Plymouth. Avon had a very frustrating game after putting some very good team work together and getting to the goal a number of times. With our focus on attack we neglected to mark the old foxes well enough and where given a lesson in how to draw your opponents and make gaps. Even though Avon were unable to score there was a lot of promising play. Avon Player of the Day Stephen Wooldridge. Final score Masters 8 Avon 0.