It is my understanding that for senior men’s lacrosse 1st teams have started the season in two groups of 6 teams and are scheduled to play each other once. Then the top 3 teams in each group go into a Premiership where they will play each other home and away. The bottom 3 teams will go into a league (Championship?) and again play each other home and away.

Timperley 1sts have so far played 4 games and have won 2 and lost 2 which leaves them with one game to play away at Rochdale on 3rd Nov. A win against Rochdale will assure Timperley of a top 3 finish and therefore a place in the Premiership alongside Heaton Mersey and Stockport. From the other group the likely top 3 would seem to be Cheadle, Poynton and Brooklands.

On Saturday Timperley entertained Wacs at Stockport Road and enjoyed a comfortable 20-4 win.

Timperley A traveled to play Rochdale A in a game which has been extremely close in recent years and with Rochdale 1st without a game another tight match was in prospect. A 10-10 draw could not have been tighter.

The B team entertained Poynton A and went down to an 11-12 defeat in a thrilling match where they trailed 6-12 at the end of the 3rd period and could easily have won.

The only junior team to survive a severe attack of half-termitis was the U12 who traveled to take on a Stockport team which was looking like one of the stronger teams in the age group. Timperley were not at full strength but the athleticism of the Timperley midfield got the better of the home side taking a convincing 7-20 win and taking their record to 5-0, the only undefeated team.

Finally, the weekend was notable for Timperley 1st team Captain Jason Armstrong celebrating his 100th consecutive 1st team game. That probably is somewhat short of Cal Ripken Jr’s baseball record 2,632 consecutive games for Baltimore Orioles but it is a considerable achievement in Lacrosse and is perhaps one of the reasons why Jason is a first-class captain. Timperley is fortunate to have him.

MATCH REPORTS

WOMEN NO GAME

MEN’S 1ST V WACS (HOME) WON 20-4
Timperley fielded their strongest team of the season for the visit of Wacs to Stockport Road. The return of England international Tommy Kirkland to defence gives the unit a real look of class.

In midfield James Bates made his first appearance after recovering from an ankle injury. However, we were missing US middie Max Haldeman who has sustained his own ankle injury playing at NTU.

Timperley opened strongly with goals from TJ Burgess and Mike Armstrong though there was then a stutter and Wacs pulled the game back with two quick goals before scores from Ollie White and Mike Armstrong restored the 2 goal cushion.

The 2nd period saw the Timperley attack and midfield take control of the game and goals from Ollie White, Jack Brook, Mike Armstrong, TJ Burgess and James Bates gave them a 12-3 half time lead with the defence restricting Wacs to a single score.

The 3rd quarter saw 2 goals from Jack Brook and 1 from Ollie White give Timperley a 15-4 lead going into the final period.

The final quarter saw Timperley in complete control scoring 5 unanswered goals.

The win was an impressive performance against a weaker Wacs team.

Ollie White 6, 0
Jack Brook 4, 0
TJ Burgess 3, 0
Rory Norris 2, 0
Mikey Armstrong 4, 0
James Bates 1, 0

MEN’S A V ROCHDALE (AWAY) DREW 10-10
This week Timperley A made the trip to Rochdale. After a difficult start to the season so far, we needed a good performance to finish in the top half of the league before the mid-season reshuffle. The first half was extremely close however with Rochdale enjoying slightly more of the possession and more significantly managing to keep 10 men of the field they edged ahead with a 7-3 lead. It looked like the wheels were beginning to come off during the 3rd quarter with Timperley just not having a response to the Rochdale attack, despite some strong physicality in the midfield.

With a 9-4 deficit to overcome in the 4th quarter a positive result looked unlikely. However, it appears Timperley rallied to play in this quarter. Some excellent individual defensive play from Mike Smith, stripping the Rochdale midfield to crucially win back possession helped Timperley score 5 unanswered goals to tie the scores with only minutes left on the clock.

After Rochdale finally responded snatching what looked like a later winner all seemed to be lost when Owen Atkinson's footballing effects kicking the ball into the back of the net was disallowed for a crease violation. Fortunately, in dying seconds Billy Kershaw was able to score his 4th salvaging a much-deserved point.

Owen Atkinson 1, 0
Conor Turner 1, 0
Greg Sandy 2, 1
Oliver Loveland 2, 1
Billy Kershaw 4, 0

MEN’S B V POYNTON A (HOME) LOST 11-12
A strong looking B Team with all the England U19’s picked for a home game before they headed down to Moreton Hall in Shropshire for training camp, were up against Poynton A.

The pitch was in excellent condition and the weather was good. The pre match warm up looked good and as the first quarter commenced the team started in a positive manner with lots of the ball.

Disappointingly we were slow in our movement of the ball and also our off ball movement was slow. As a consequence we squandered possession, and Poynton were a lot more aggressive in their attack & scored 2 goals in transition. Midway through the 1st, Timperley kept keeping the ball which I must stress was even more impressive as we did not win the FO.

However from 2-0 we found ourselves 2-2 with good play keeping the ball but with a lot more intensity and the movement off ball was great. At 2-2, in my opinion we fell asleep, too many basic mistakes including too many players on the pitch!! Poynton stepped up a gear but only managed to finished the Q 3-2 up.

Quarter 2 started sluggishly again for Timperley and Poynton continued as they finished the 1st. Timperley were in the game because of great goal keeping by Gregor and dogged defending, lead by Adam Legg, but found themselves 5-2 down as HT approached. Timperley, though sprung into life in the final few minutes & scored 2 to take the HT score 5-4 to Poynton. We should have had more as when we did have the ball our finishing wasn’t on point.

Quarter 3, one word: awful. More basic errors, poor communication, limited movement all in all looked tired.

Poynton took the game away and scored 7 without reply. Shell shocked maybe, but Timperley never got down, the midfield of Marius, Dan, Harry & Will Hirst kept creating chances and Will Greaves scored an outstanding goal followed up shortly with Timperley getting another. End of Q3 12-6 down and a glimmer of hope.

How can the same team play so differently in such a short space of time? Not sure I’ve seen a better final Q performance by any Timperley team. 12-6 down they were playing as if 12-6 up. Some belting play resulting in cracking lacrosse goals.

Lovely play and movement found Marius, who in turn fed Warby who had ghosted in at the back pipe and finished very coolly. Then some more great possession play creating opportunities & several shots, while missing, we kept the ball.

Finally Marius found himself in front of goal just inside the restrainer and running on to a glorious feed finished well - top left corner.

We kept going and kept scoring, it was now 12-10 and only one team looked in it, then we scored my favourite goal…we were defending after losing the ball in attack, Poynton saw a breakaway, but some really good defending slowed them down and despite Gregor having to make another great save, on the stretch, the ball popped up and in a blink of eye Jamie Hickson caught the ball and steamed down the right channel fending off 2 Poynton midfielders, then fed a ball down the line to Lee Warburton, who with an inch perfect pass found Marius in full flow and finished a great team move.

12-11!!! Game on…

We had another couple of opportunities and one at the death where we just lacked composure. The game finished a 12-11 defeat. It was a great game, one we arguably should have won if we played the game with the same intensity throughout. There were some standout performances but the whole team stuck together and battled to the end.

Will Greaves 4, 1
Lee Warburton 3, 4
Noel Harrison 2, 0
Marius Robinson 2, 0

BOY’S U12 V STOCKPORT (AWAY) WON 7-20
Timperley U12 travelled to Cale Green determined to protect their unbeaten record but not underestimating the challenge Stockport would present. Timperley were not at full strength but the squad is beginning to develop depth.

Stockport opened strongly and scored a slick opening goal. Scores by Owen Shuttleworth, Noah Brennan and Sam Ginger gave Timperley a first quarter lead but Stockport hung in there to restrict the score to 3-6.

The second quarter was more of the same with 2 goals each from Noah Brennan and Owen Shuttleworth but with 2 goals from Stockport to restrict Timperley to a 10-5 half time lead.
The 3rd period saw Timperley goals from Owen Shuttleworth (2) and Noah Brennan and Lucas Brennan (1 each) but again 2 scores in reply from Stockport. Stockport effort was highlighted by some outstanding saves from their goal keeper who has the potential to go far in the game.

Timperley went into the final quarter with a 7-14 lead and it was clear that the greater athleticism of the Timperley team was in control and that Stockport had run out of steam and 6 unanswered goals including a debut goal from Khalid Jussab saw Timperley take a less comfortable win than the score suggests.

Timperley have had a strong start to the season and are currently the only team with a 100% record but one thing about U12 teams is that with good coaching they can make huge strides. The exciting thing about Timperley is that the squad has the potential for significant improvement and they have top class coaching in Nathan Walker and Jack Woerner. How good the team will become depends largely on turning up to training, making games and practicing stick work at home.

Owen Shuttleworth 8
Noah Brennan 7
Sam Ginger 3
Lucas Brennan 1
Khalid Jussab

BOY’S U14 NO GAME

BOY’S U16 NO GAME

SUNDAY 21ST OCTOBER

NO GIRLS REPORTS

BOY’S U10
The U10 played their first tournament on Sunday at a wet and cold Mellor. There was a great turnout of about 50 children playing in full kit, Timperley managed a good turnout of 6 players given it was half term. James Aston, Noah Bowpitt, Thomas Barlow, Jacob Brickell, Thomas O’Reilly and Zach Lawton all played well for their first outing in full kit. It was a fun start to the season and a big thank you to all the parents and Alan Holdsworth who made it up there. The team have their next fixture on 11/11/18, 13.30 at Heaton Mersey development day when they should be playing on a more level field.