Marlborough Ladies 1st vs Bristol University 2nd
Marlborough Ladies won 11-2
On a bright but chilly morning Marlborough, having won the toss, elected to play the first half with the sun behind them, leaving a clear view of Bristol’s goal.
After only a few minutes this decision paid dividends as some neatly choreographed build up play allowed Rosie Curling to execute an excellent deflection past their slightly blinded keeper.
This riled the opposition and they quickly launched a series of counter attacks, one of which beat Marlborough’s defence resulting in a clinically taken goal. With the score level at 1-1 Bristol continued to press hard.
Marlborough lost their shape, with the midfield drawn out of position and Bristol looked as if they could score at any moment. Credit to Marlborough’s solid defence and some tasty saves at point-blank range from Vicky Moxham, they managed to keep Bristol out.
Then, thankfully, after a series of quick breaks, the tables were turned and Kate Batty managed to wrong foot the keeper for her first score. Within no time at all, Batty had another opportunity in front of the keeper and deftly lobbed over her to score again.
Marlborough were then on the up and soon won a short corner. Anna Scott slipped the ball into the P spot and Clare Griffiths found the back of the net. Half time beckoned and at 4-1 up, Marlborough had produced a good response and just needed to consolidate their position for the second half.
Within seconds of the push-off, Marlborough did better than that: after excellent transferring from the backs and good movement from the mids and forwards, Kate Batty seized her chance to smash a loose ball against the backboards.
Spurred on by this, Rosie Curling ran like a gazelle to collect a ball hit towards the baseline, silkily skipped passed a defender and slipped the ball into the corner of the goal.
Leading now, 7-1, Marlborough’s concentration dropped and they gave away a short corner. Bristol moved the defence well and found a gap through which they scored.
After this wake-up call, Batty once again stepped up and, with a brilliant strike, sent the ball past their keeper. Marlborough then put significant pressure on the Bristol defence, with wave after wave of attacks into their 25, resulting in a fine deflected touch from Catherine Manley on the left off Clare’s strike which would have otherwise have just gone wide.
Marlborough then won two short corners in quick succession, Clare scoring off the first with a hard straight strike into the corner, then scoring again with a flick over the keeper into the net.
Marlborough rounded off the match with another awesome deflection, this time on the right from Becky Hewlett, ending the game with a very satisfying 11-2 win.
