All in all week 4, although not as successful as Week 3, left us with much to be pleased about. When selection was made on a Wednesday we had 15 on our 1st and A teams and an unbelievable 17 on the B team. Inevitably there were a few cry-offs through the week, but the B team ended up running with 14. A real sign of the health of our senior men's programme at the moment. By my calculation there are some 16 players who were unavailable, injured or who might be available if approached. It is symptomatic of the current condition of sport that a club needs more than 60 players to be able to field 3 teams. Thinking back to my introduction to senior Lacrosse in the North in 1967-68, when it was 12 a side, Old Hulmeians, who finished 2nd in the League, used 14 players in the season, whilst Mellor, who were Champions, only used 13. How times have changed!

The 1st team have enjoyed a good start to the season and except for a poor 1st half against Stockport they have dominated, on Saturday they overwhelmed Norbury 25-4. Skipper Jason Armstrong is becoming the Ryan Giggs of Lacrosse as he made his 74th consecutive appearance. The A team went down to a 8-10 defeat in a top of the table clash with a battle hardened, experienced Heaton Mersey side. Last year when faced with similar opponents in Rochdale A Timperley struggled whilst this year it was a game the young Timperley side should have won. Timperley B is what a B team should be with an experienced core (Martin Henderson, Andy Hulmes, Noel Harrison, Adam Fadle and Lee Warburton) mentoring a group of talented and developing young players.

The Boys’ Junior Programme does not currently enjoy the healthy numbers that we have at senior level . The U16 squad contains some real talent but is struggling with only 14 in the squad so any players missing makes life difficult. On Saturday they started badly, missing face off man Seb Page, and trailed Brooklands/ Rochdale (another dastardly mongrel team). They got their act together in the second half and had their noses in front with only a few minutes to go. Brooklands/ Rochdale snatched a goal which gave them a draw they did not really deserve. The U14 are having a real struggle for numbers but under the strong leadership of Matt Robinson with top coaching from Dan Walker and Marius Robinson they are improving in leaps and bounds. In George Jenkins, Callum Legg, Matt Fazal and Joe Tomlinson they have some outstanding talent and just as importantly the other players in the squad are putting in the effort and improving their games.

The numbers problem is to some degree a product of us taking our eyes off the ball. To sustain a full junior programme of U10, U12, U14, U16 and U19 teams a club has to graduate 7 or 8 players every year and perhaps have some strategy for recruiting players from years 7-10 in secondary schools. Timperley and many clubs have failed to do this (hence the rash of mongrel teams). At U12 we have just about enough to split into A and B which we will do in the next few weeks, though the B team will be largely U10 and as is usual have to endure some character building losses!

The benefit of numbers can be seen in the girl's programme which is seeing good results and producing talented players.

SATURDAY RESULTS
Men’s 1st team Won 25 – 4 vs Norbury (Away)
Timperley 1st team travelled to Norbury Lacrosse Club in the 3rd round of fixtures in the provisional league structure. Having recorded a comfortable win the week before Timperley aimed to do the same against a Norbury side who haven’t faced a Timperley 1st team in over 10 years.

By the end of the 1st quarter Timperley had already set up a commanding lead and were 7-1 up by the time of the first break. Timperley were in fact 1-0 up within 5 seconds of the game, has anyone got Guinness Book of Records’ number? By half time only a further 4 goals were added to the scoreboard, although considering this came from 6 shots, not a bad conversion rate. The Half time score read Norbury 3-11 Timperley.

The third quarter saw Timperley waste a lot of opportunities to increase the score line, too much individualism started to creep in and not playing the team game meant that by the 3rd quarter only a handful of goals extended Timperley’s lead. Following a brief discussion at the break it was agreed that Timperley needed to start treating the game with a bit more urgency, this request was followed and a forceful final quarter saw Timperley turn up the heat and run out to another emphatic win. As flattering as the past two wins look, the 1st team squad know that bigger challenges face us and that we will need to carry on scoring good team goals if we are to beat the teams who will be around us. Norbury 4- 25 Timperley.

Men’s A team Lost 8 – 10 vs Heaton Mersey A (Home)
Timperley A took on a strong Mersey A team at Stockport Road. It was very much a top of the table clash and a battle between youthful exuberance and grizzled experience. In such a battle I would tend to be in favour of a win for the grizzled experience and so it proved on Saturday as Heaton Mersey produced a last quarter surge to take a 10-8 win

For Timperley there are lots of positives to take out of the game. Gregor Allen's debut in goal a few days after his 16th birthday was quite frankly incredible - an outstanding performance which promises much for the future. The defence was outstanding, led by the more experienced Adam Henbrey and Christian May but with Will Atkins and James Walker looking completely comfortable at this level. The midfield and attack bristled with promise. The old heads of Tom Slater and Connor Turner led the effort but the young bucks of TJ Burgess, Ed Loveland, Pat Mcgowan, Louis Humblet, Marius Robinson, Sam Hirst and Chris Jurkowski were all prominent.

Lacrosse is a difficult game in which the winning teams control the ball. It is a golden nugget and you must relinquish control reluctantly. Mersey, a team which in the famous words of Bill Clinton, has more yesterdays than tomorrow’s, treasured the ball and too often Timperley gave up possession by careless passes and forcing the ball in challenging situations. Heaton Mersey deserved their win because they controlled the ball better than Timperley.

It is a comment on the state of Lacrosse that no one on the Mersey team are on their way up in the game. Ideally an A team consists of a group of young players who are making their way up in the game and some older players who are enjoying their lacrosse and facilitating the development of the younger players. That is not the position at Mersey, who seem to be joining the Cheadle’s and Stockport of this world who maintain their prominence by aggressively poaching good players from weaker clubs. Quite frankly an utter disgrace and something needs to be done about it. How long will it be before we have a Flags Final between Stockport/ Norbury v Heaton Mersey / Cheadle.

Men’s B team Won 13 – 4 vs Boardman and Eccles A (Home)

Boys’ U16s Drew 7 - 7 vs Brooklands / Rochdale

It’s safe to say I have seen snails move faster than the U16 did against Brooklands/Rochdale at the weekend. All 11 boys started slowly, we were 2nd to every ground ball and clearly not up for a game. We were 0-2 down after the first quarter and 2-5 down at half time. Finally, the half time rest and team talk woke them up and they started to play the Lacrosse we know they are capable. 5 good goals in quarter three and non-conceded turned the game around and put us in control for Q4. Unfortunately, we could control the last quarter and with minutes to go and a 1 goal lead Brooklands/Rochdale won possession and scored a goal to draw level. I do believe this group of boys can go far this year if we can get them focussed in training and have them deliver a more consistent game on a Saturday. When they are good they deliver quarters like the ones we have seen in recent weeks 5-0 this week, 4-0 and 3-0 v Mellor. We just need more of them.

Harry 5 goals
Ewan 1 goal 2 assists
Dan 1 goal and 1 assist
Jack O 1 goal

Boys’ U14s Lost 3 – 14 vs

I know, that I sound like a broken record but, another game where we have not been able to field a full team, and it is costing us. We ended with only 10 after Laurie had to pull out.

With regards to the game we started from the off, which was great to see. We just never had the ball longer enough to get in the game. The defence of Callum, Ollie & Graham was outstanding, the work rate of all the midfielders was exceptional. That's how the quarter went & it ended with us 2-0 down. Special mention to George who showed yet again what a great talented keeper he is. George made over 20 saves in the game several of which he had no right to make.

The 2nd quarter as in fact all the quarters were played in a very similar fashion......under pressure, plus we did not win any Face offs and that was not for trying but their F/O lad was a long pole and he was not far off 6ft tall. Our midfielders just could not physically compete. In defence Callum specifically in this quarter was awesome. Unfortunately, when we got the ball we just couldn't keep it, causing more work rate, it was beginning to take its toll and we soon found ourselves 6-0 down. After a time out we managed for the first time to have some possession and ended with Kai notching another goal to bring the Q to an end 6-1.

Quarters 3 & 4 finished 4-1 & 5-1 respectively. In both quarters we did improve our ball possession which was pleasing and much needed as the boys were tiring due to being under the cosh so much. Mackenzie Baird in the 3rd quarter again shone and his assist for Alfie was excellent as was Alfie's finish, which he thoroughly enjoyed and was well deserved he may be small but has an engine like Duracell.... it goes on & on.

Quarter 4 saw a superb solo goal by Matt Fazal. With more solid defending this time by Ollie & Callum.

In the end we were soundly beaten 14-3. Lots to work on but the effort the lads put in can't be underrated, if we continue to do that, work hard in training, practise at home, get a full team out!! Marius, Dan & I are confident that the win will come.

SUNDAY RESULTS

U15 Girls’ Blue Won vs Cheadle
We had 14 players, with 3x from U13s (Zofia Jenkins, Katie Young and Tilly Young). Looking at previous years, this game might have looked like an easy game but in the past Cheadle have surprised us. Great play by all of the players in U15 blue today. Final score was 9-6 to Timperley - well balanced match and the opposition kept Timperley on their toes!!

It looks like it will be a much closer league this year, where there will be some surprise results.

Alice Allen 4/2
Sophie Hurlstone 3/-
Chloe Ferguson 1/2
Scarlet Egan -/2
Emma Maxwell 1/-
Zofia Jenkins -/1
Tilly Young -/1

U15 Girls’ White Lost vs Mellor
We had 13 players, with 4x from U13s (Elsa Catalan, Jess Haywood, Eliza Towers and Bea Bell). This was going to be another though game for the White team and so it was.

It was very exciting and close from the beginning to the end. Each team took the lead then let it go and then regained, unfortunately at the end we could not pull back and lost the game 11 - 13.

This is another team that we have allowed to get away from us. We should have beaten them, but we did not. When we passed quickly we were devastating, if our shooting had been better than we would have beaten them with a good margin. Most of the game they were hungrier and more aggressive then us to get the ball. In defence we did some good blocks and slides, but also stopped talking at times and allowed them in far too easily. Plus as we got tired we did not always come back from midfield quick enough, meaning we were outnumbered.

Our head goes down too quickly when things are not going our way. We pick ourselves and then let it slip again. In the final quarter, we were 2 up with 10 minutes left. We should have taken charge and controlled the game, which we did not.

In the first quarter, we had so many shots on their goal and goalie, but they did not all go in. We will continue practising shooting at training, because we create a lot of chances. Need to improve on our conversion rates on these shots.

We also need to be less wasteful with our passing. The less mistakes we make, the longer we keep the ball and control the game. Our team is capable of doing this and we need to work on this. They worked hard and it was a shame we did not get our reward.

Thank you to the 4x U13 girls. They worked hard and we would like to see them play again for us.

WHITES:
Man of the match: Jasmine Torevell - lots of movement and energy, created chances and scored four.
Defence: Tanya Aggarwal - worked hard and made some good interceptions.
Midfield: Elise Humblet - rallied them again to get back into the game.
Attack: Eliza Towers - good movement and was fazed out playing against older girls.

Scores and assist.
Jasmine Torevell 4/-
Jodie Pollard 3/3
Elise Humblet 3/3
Maddie Lord 1/4
Jess Haywood -/1