Blacks 0

Rob Sheldon, Kelly Hillier, Unknown player, Julie Postins, Julie Rogers, Lesley Chick, Sally Batt, Sarah Williams, Karen Lawrence

 

Yellows 1

Chris King, Pat Dudden, Donna Paul (1), Cheryl Ward, Nicky Frewin, Wendy Scott, Jane White, Nikki Llewellyn, Julie Dwyer, Gerry Averley

 

Another thriller here at Cheddar Walking Football Club’s weekly ladies’ session as, yet again, one goal was enough to separate the evenly matched teams.

 

After a fun and hard working warm up, which included a series of muscle stretches and walks, followed by an “interesting” session of grid work and also a thrilling game of “tag”, the teams settled down to the main event, a game between all participants.

Male goalkeepers were allocated to either side with Chris King playing for the yellows and Rob Sheldon for the blacks, with the game, as always, being superbly refereed by Winscombe’s own Mervyn Brean!

 

What was obvious, right from the start, was how much the players had improved even in one week, and the addition of newcomers – Pat Dudden, Nikki Llewellyn, Gerry Averley & one lady who no one could remember the name of – only made the play even more impressive. However Dawn Clarke and Jill Bassett were both missed from the previous week.

 

The first half saw lots of great attacking play from both teams but defences on top, with Julie Postins (for the black team) impossible to get past and Julie Rogers, as always, seeming to be everywhere on the pitch. The blacks were already a player down, due to the odd number of players and they suffered further setback when Sally Batt, already injured in the warm-up, hurt her hip and was forced to leave the pitch.

However, despite being two players down the black team had Rogers taking command and it was like having two players on the pitch for them. Lesley Chick was a strong presence in the midfield for them, using the ball well and helping her team keep possession, despite the numerical disadvantage, a role also taken up by Kelly Hiller and the unknown lady, who were instrumental in getting ball to the forwards – Karen Lawrence and Sarah Williams, but these two also met a strong defence in which two new girls – Gerry Averley and Nikki Llewellyn were also resilient (the keeper behind them, Chris King, commented on what a pleasure they were to keep goal behind!)

The Yellows were extremely mobile (they were having to be, in order to keep Rogers away from the ball) and Wendy Scott was getting a lot of the ball in wide areas and creating problems for the black defence.

The best chance of the first half was created herself, and almost finished by Pat Dudden, whose powerful strike beat Rob Sheldon in the goal, but went inches wide, with the elderly keeper well beaten!

 

The second half was also a great exhibition of football, with Tim Richens’ worst fears (of Sarah Williams and Kelly Hillier forgetting, for the second week in a row, that the teams change end at half time!) not realised.

The second period saw the yellows start to get on top, forcing Rogers, Chick and Hillier deeper, but still Julie Postins was calm and collected in front of Rob Sheldon’s goal. But there was a definite momentum shift as Donna Paul, Cheryl Ward, Nicky Frewin, Jane White and the impressive Julie Dwyer gained territorial control, creating chances for the “goal hanging” Pat Dudden!

Eventually the yellows got the goal that they deserved when a poor clearance by Sheldon fell to Donna Paul, who smashed the ball past the Draycott man to put her team in the lead.

The Yellows were even more impressive in light of the fact that one of their star players, Julie Dwyer, also suffered an injury which, although able to stay on the pitch, meant she was a passenger for the rest of the game.

 

Many more chances came and were missed but the standard of play throughout was excellent and, to be fair, neither defence deserved to let another goal in, and at 8:30 Merv blew the whistle to signify the end of the game and after socially distant celebrations and covid aware “fist bumps” the ladies went home, with their newly supplied “message in a bottle” packs supplied by the Lions Club UK, already looking forward to next week’s session.