West Clubs Women’s Hockey League Berkeley Division One

Wick 0 Wotton 0

BACK in the spring, Wick won the encounter between these sides in spite of incessant Wotton pressure with a virtuoso goalkeeping performance keeping them at bay.

It was a similar story on Saturday when Wotton travelled to North Bristol to take them on again.

The first half was evenly contested and there were similar chances at both ends.

After the break Wotton dominated for long periods, but looked vulnerable to the repeated breakaways that Wick were able to muster.

Keeper Jane Hardwick was the star of the half when she rebuffed three consecutive shots from unmarked attackers at about halfway through.

But the pressure was on at the other end: Wotton won six penalty corners and were in complete domination in the final 15 minutes.

To their credit, they did vary their approach even to the point that an audacious reverse stick lift from Jasmin George looked the closest chance of scoring, but just cleared the rail rather than slipping under it.

For debutantes Izzy Grimes, Corinne Gibson and Natalie Brooks this was a challenging initiation to the first team and player of the match Ellie Stimpson impressed as an attacking half back in this keenly-contested match.