League double-header weekend in Cornwall for the 1s
23 November 2025: Coach Clare sums up the 1s trip to Cornwall for their fixtures in West Women’s Division 1 South – “A brace of games in the hospitable county of Cornwall was enjoyably undertaken by Redland 1st team at the weekend. Penzance HC was a challenging proposition & their team boasted some “wily old foxes” who punished us by the score line of 4 goals to 1, which arguably was not a fair reflection of the balance of play. We created far more circle penetrations than our opponents, but were found short in front of goal. If we had scored a goal by hitting the GK (to make her look good) or shooting wide of an unloaded post (ie no attacker there) then we could have won 7-4! Throw in a number of aborted PCs & who knows what the score might have been? That said, Penzance were the deserved winners as they were a touch better in both circles & this justified the final score line.
An evening of excitement, match analysis & a good meal followed. The winning of team mascots “Gary the Seagull” & “Dave the gingerbread man” seemed to entertain our younger players, while the “oldies” managed a beer (or herbal tea) & an early night…
Sunday dawned with new found positivity with players determined to get things right. From the first whistle the girls played some good patterns & it was clear that they had taken on conversations of circle work & particularly goal-scoring. That said, we still managed to hit the GK (& the post!) in our numerous endeavours to score. Scoring six though was no mean feat, but we may need to look again at our defensive principles as we conceded three PC goals in the second half.
Everyone contributed positively over the two days & it was pleasing to finish with a convincing win to round the trip off.”
In other weekend league news: the 2s played a hard-fought tie against Cirencester and came away with a 1-1 draw; the 3s battled hard with a bare 11 squad but eventually conceded to Knowle 2-3, meanwhile the 4s continued their winning streak, with only 10 players beating North Somerset 1-0.
