Ladies County Match Reports

County Championships Finals - Sheffield. 27-28 May 2006

An unofficial account by an interested spectator.

Having won the Midlands Zonal round on May 7th, the Shropshire Ladies squad traveled to the national finals at  Abbeydale Sports Club, Sheffield on 27th and 28th May. A squad, somewhat depleted through injuries and unavailability, of just 14 players, plus manager Deb Read, coach Mark Groves and 5 spectators made the journey over the Pennines for the six team round robin tournament. Five games, albeit only 25 mins each way, in two days was going to be hard enough but it was made worse by only having 12 outfield players available. 

In their first game against one the the pre-event favourites Lancashire, Shropshire had much the better of the possession and territorial advantage but just couldn't get their shots away and lost by the only goal, scored just before half time. Next came Devon and again Shropshire had the better of the possession in the first half but went behind after 10 minutes to a breakaway. However, their persistence paid off when, from one of several penalty corners, Zoe Mortimer levelled the scores. See the picture. As the game wore on Devon started to get on top but it looked as though Shropshire were going to hold out for the point, until Devon sneaked the winner three minutes from time. The final game on day one was a 10 goal thriller but unfortunately Durham got  seven of them. Their first came in just 16 seconds and they were 3 up in 6 minutes. With a couple of excellent attacking forwards Durham were very potent and Shropshire did well to stem the flow and get a couple of their own through Nikki Brooks and Jenny Cullen to go in at half time 4-2 down.  In the second half Durham got 3 more to just the one in reply from Lorna Burns for Shropshire. So day one ended with no points and looking at some of the other games, day two was going to be harder still. 

First up were Dorset, who had been leading the event until they lost to Hertfordshire. They were a very composed outfit, mainly from the Bournemouth club and went 4-0 up before Claire Stewardson got a consolation goal from a penalty corner. See the picture.  So the final match was against the current leaders Hertfordshire and they didn't slip up, winning comfortably 3-0 to clinch the overall title. 

Looking back Shropshire's best chances had been in the first two games where with a bit more experience in front of goal they could have perhaps got 4 points. But it was valuable experience, for the younger players especially, and everyone now knows what to expect next time. 

The squad was Jenny Cullen, Cheryl Lawson, Zoe Mortimer, Claire Stewardson, Nikki Brooks, Sarah Ralphs (Captain) Lucy Ratcliffe, Sarah Fields, Chez Lane, Shirley Powell, Emily Plant, Lorna Burns, Leah Sumner and Becky Machin. Manager Deb Read and Coach Mark Groves.