After the delightful news that Kings had finally agreed to our home match (a week prior and at their pool… again..), nine of SUWPC’s finest ladies made their way to Whitgift for a kindly timed match in London on a Saturday evening. Of course, in true ladies team fashion we couldn’t have started without a cheeky transport problem (just wait to you all read the Edinburgh match report), but thankfully our brave volunteer drivers got us there just in time.

With a rather brief warmup, the starting seven were ready and raring to go, with Neve’s plea of no penalties fresh in their minds. Compared with the away match scoreline of 23-1 earlier in the season, we were aiming for some redemption, so this time it took a whole minute to let Kings score! With the girls getting used to Kings’ attack and a few more goals let in, Lottie gracefully opened up the scoring for us, with Rhia following closely behind with another consecutive goal! Of course, Miss Bugnar must’ve felt left out and gave away a penalty (clearly she didn’t listen to Miss Rowland’s beg for a match without a pen). Sadly, Neve’s streak of saving pens was brought to a close and the quarter ended 4-2 to Kings. Still a great score line compared to the girls’ other match!

Not all hope was lost however as some brilliant supporters came with homemade signs to cheer us on! Feeling positive that the match was going better than our previous encounter with the Kings’ girls, we lined up ready for the second quarter. Rhia was clearly feeling the best, as she scored within the first minute for us! This quarter was rather uneventful for the SUWPC girls, as the opps were simply on a roll (sadly for us), with the quarter ending 8-3. But this was one of the few (dare I say only?) quarters with no exclusions for anyone since the start of the season!

After a much needed half-time break and a switch of sides, we had a new plan ready for the last two quarters. Once again, Rhia was truly on a roll and opened up the third quarter scoring, which was sadly followed by a few more from Kings (helped by the very mindful passes from Iris.. to the wrong team! One pit A player for sale, accepting offers though our Instagram @suwpc xx). After some rather questionable reffing that did encourage our players just to shoot even with multiple defenders in the way, we ended the quarter on 12-4.

Our last quarter saw SUWPC’s girls rather tired and hangry, especially Miss Smith who had dragged herself to the match despite being rather sick. Whilst Rhia managed to get her fourth goal of the match (one in each quarter, very consistent work cheers bestie), Smithy clearly felt rather left out and decided that instead of scoring, she’d simply strangle her defender instead! To be fair to her, it was rather amusing to watch from the goal and it was a two-sided battle. Unsurprisingly, both girls got sent out which wasn’t a shock even to some of the Kings girls (both Rhia and her defender both stating “fair enough”), yet the one who was sent out decided to go into a bit of a strop (not quite sure why when she had her hands round Smithy’s neck). After some truly excellent defending from our girls, the match ended with a score of 14-5, a vast improvement from the last game! Clearly, it wasn’t just an improvement from the  girls, as this time Finn didn’t get a lecture from the ref about his coaching skills and our previously “diabolical” passes. A win all around I would say!

Written by Neve Rowland.

Most Valuable Player: Rhia Perks for being the top goal scorer and saving our asses on multiple occasions!

Dick of the Day: Smithy for her stunning pit send out.

Goals/Majors:

Neve Rowland 0/0

Isobel Neighbour 0/0

Eleanna Fairhurst 0/0

Katie Smith 0/1

Rhia Perks 4/0

Rosie Cumming 0/0

Georgia Skelton 0/0

Lottie Ratledge 1/1

Iris Bugnar 0/0