Cambridge University Lacrosse Club

28/10/07

Northampton 18 - Cambridge 9

Our 3rd match in 3 weeks saw us travelling away to Northants. Usually quite a gritty encounter, this fixture is one that has historically been one to leave us having wanted more (although usually wishing that we’d seen less!).

Having performed so under par the week before, we were determined to play the way that we knew we could. We hoped that the recent league changes to only allow the use of women’s sticks would play to our advantage (have only ever used them, compared to the Northants mens players).

Unfortunately we still managed to be in warm up mode come the first whistle, and took conceding a couple of goals to get us firing on all cylinders. The Northants tactic of loading their attack with men put real pressure on our defence, which put up their best performance to date by far, but still goals got past.

Our attack worked swiftly and well on the counter and kept us in the game.

Towards the end of the match, frustration at the lack of qualified mixed referees started to tell as tempers frayed. Some of the interpretation of mixed rules by men’s referee’s left something to be desired! The Northants team , though, did have some good set moves that we had trouble adapting to, and caught us napping time and again.

The final score was 18-9 to Northants, but the team as whole played well. Our linking together worked better than before – and some of the Northants tactics have been incorporated into our own!

Woman of the match was Alex, for some great stick control and hard work at tracking back to help out the defence. Man of the match was Mark for being constantly in space and running hard yards up the wing.

Jack Baldwin