Mixed Trophy Finals

Abbeydale Sports Club, Sheffield - 12th & 13th June 2010

Olton & WW Victorious in The Mixed Trophy

Banbury and Staines took the field for the first Mixed Trophy semi-final in the somewhat oppressive humid heat in Sheffield but still provided a tense and exciting match.

During the first half Banbury definitely had the upper hand and most of the play was concentrated in the Staines half of the pitch but the sizeable crowd had to wait until the 27th minute for the a goal when William Stock scored on the break for Staines. Two minutes later he converted a penalty stroke to give them a two goal half time cushion.

The second period provided more of the same with Banbury looking the better team on the park but with Staines holding a two goal advantage.
Banbury did find the net with two minutes to go but it was too little too late as Staines held on for victory.

Olton & West Warwicks were next against Cheltenham in the second Trophy semi-final and they provided the best match of the day in an exciting end-to-end contest despite the heat.

Olton’s Mark Wilson opened the scoring in the 9th minute only for James Foster to equalize for Cheltenham three minutes later at their first penalty corner.

Sam Mallet hammered two more goals in quick succession in the 25th minute giving Olton a comfortable two goal half time lead and when Daniel Sulway added their fourth just after the restart the game appeared to be over.
Cheltenham didn’t give up though and their persistence was rewarded with two goals from Tom Cole midway through the half to set up a riveting will they won’t they final ten minutes.

Olton could afford no more mistakes at the back a task they successfully achieved to win a match in which they nearly threw away a three goal lead.

The Trophy 3rd/4th play-off match was low key affair with Banbury leading 2-1 at the break after two penalty goals from Josh Nunneley. Peter Duffy pulled one back for Cheltenham close to half time.

Banbury went 3-1 up midway through the second period through a Vicky Page field goal and Cheltenham’s tired team capitulated somewhat in the last ten minutes conceding a further three goals. Craig Irvine scored a fine individual goal to make it 4-1 then Lara Wilkinson added a fifth in open play and Vicky Page scored her second in the last minute.

The Trophy final between Olton & West Warwicks and Staines was everything you could wish for from a national final and though the rain had kept the spectators away the small crowd were kept enthralled throughout the match.
It was an exhaustingly end-to-end affair and where the teams found this sort of energy from at the end of a long weekend was a mystery but find it they did! For once the only thing that separated the two teams was the goals, and goals win games.

It took Olton 19 minutes and a piece of individual skill from Naomi James to put the Midlanders ahead from one of their penalty corners and for the rest of the first half both teams battled hard without scoring.
After the break it was more of the same until Staines were reduced to ten when Richard Green was sin-binned and Olton with an extra player advantage finally broke through.

A well-struck Olton penalty corner rebounded to striker Fiona Davies at the top right of the circle and her fierce return shot was again saved by the keeper with the ball once more rebounding to Davies.
This process was repeated before Davies’ third shot finally beat the keeper and Olton went two up.

This was the turning point of what was a very close game and although Staines kept their work rate high and did their best to find the back of the Olton net the two goal deficit was just too much to overcome.
With a minute left Holly Chapman put the game totally beyond their reach when she scored Olton’s third and final goal to win the Mixed Trophy for Olton West Warwicks the fifth time in twelve years.