Hearts ❤️ won 45-40 over Stratford Ladies!

It started as a neck and neck game with Hearts and Stratford keeping their centres well. Hearts had welcomed back Shannon Hall for her first game after returning from Australia! She had a quick warm up in WA but then was thrown right in the mix as C! It really was as if she’d never been away!

Throughout the game we had short bursts of great play with strong, fast, short passes into the circle which Jodie used well to get closer to the post! Kate in WA was using the pockets effectively to get depth on the centre pass! We would take a lead against Stratford but then they would come fighting back with a tight defence and even back out.

In the third quarter, Pippa made use of tactical plays which worked well! An uplifting 4th quarter talk and we refocused. Katia had too many 2-handed interceptions to count! Defence were stronger than ever and we had about 6 goals in a row and felt like we had finally found our stride! Edie had kept the pressure on well and forced errors but a tumble meant Sophie Smithers stepped in at WD to help keep the lead!

A strong end to a tense game left spirits feeling high! A massive thank you to Sophie for staying till the end and stepping onto court in an unfamiliar position, we couldn’t have maintained the lead at the end without you!

Well done Jodie for player!! ❤️

Written by Lauren – Captain

👑 Queens played a corker against Hotshots Vespas and won 45-32 👑

It was a long slog for Queens tonight in rather humid conditions, we really fought to the end second for our win! The first quarter was a rocky start, everyone was a little out of sorts, and quarters 1-3 saw the goal line go one up, draw, one up to the other team back and forth pretty consistently.

We started the fourth quarter one goal up, but managed to score five in a row without Hotshots scoring any, which put us 6 ahead and we went from strength to strength, finally winning by 13!

We really kept our heads in q4 where we could easily have panicked and rushed, but used every penalty to our advantage and kept our play steady, calm and accurate to steam ahead where our opposition had become tired and begun to make mistakes.

Utterly incredible defence, as per the usual, from Beth M, Lucinda, Stacey and Beth Y – so many flying interceptions, tips out of nowhere and battling to keep the ball in play made such a difference to our score line. Super Centre Katie also fought tooth and nail to win ball and was a workhorse from start to finish. Shooters, Frankie and Amy, recognised early on what was working and played into that for the entire match, creating space for each other and working together seamlessly!

The biggest shout-out goes to Amy-Sue Widman for absolutely phenomenal shooting and movement in the circle, impeccable timing and barely a single missed goal! 👌🏼😍🥳

Written by Soohie – Captain

👑 Queens smashed out a win over Swans: 59-23 👑

A great match tonight saw Queens take and maintain an early lead against our best pals in the league, Swans! Always a fun, friendly match with a great atmosphere and it’s a bonus that we took a fantastic win home, too 🥰

As always, the defence was absolutely incredible with tips and intercepts flying across the court, some great moments of our defensive players hunting ball and winning it.

Centre court did well to steady the pace at times and transition the ball from defence to attack with control (most of the time! 🤣)

Wonderful shooting in the other end meant we piled on the goals to get a huge goal difference too; everyone played really well tonight so well done team! 🥳

Special mention to our UNBELIEVABLE Lucinda Granger on yet another POM award for her back pocket; truly ever-deserving and a fantastic defender 🤍

Written by Sophie – Captain

Alcester 47- 56 Panthers

We had a strong start and definitely put the short game drills into practice from training! We had a small lead in the first quarter but with a tough defence on the centre pass, Panthers didn’t make things easy!

Laura, Pippa and Katia added good pressure in the defensive third and goal D with lots of tips and were able to collect on the rebound on many occasions! The overlap when bringing the ball up court was also really nice to watch and kept the game calmer than it has been previously.

Jodie played a great game in WD (not her usual position) and was able to stick really tight to her player, creating some forced errors! Jodie had a great attack and was able to get in front of her player, presenting to the feeder for a safe and reliable pass.

Natalie and Kate maintained the calm and short balls in the centre court and were able to pick up speed feeding into the goal third and circle which left Panthers defence scrambling!

Liv and I had good rotation in the D and Liv was able to draw the defence away on multiple occasions leaving a clear feed. Defence was super tight so rotation and movement in and out of the D helped us to lose and confuse Panthers! Supprt on the D was great and a fast feed meant we could capitalise on most centres!

Well done Laura for player, your movement around your player and reading of the game is so nice to watch from our end and it paid off in turnovers!

Everyone should be really proud of the game play despite the loss, we are all really taking on everything from training as well as Sarah’s post game advice!

We’ll ‘ave ’em next time! 💪

Written by Lauren – Captain

Aces vs Redditch Pearls

Amazing game last night and another fabulous win!

Leah and Katie were up against a tall accurate gs but that didn’t deter them! They were on fire , Leah with some great intercepts and Katie with those tips. Grace Connolly supported them and also had some great intercepts. Their play down court into attack was perfect.

Well done to rose on a full game as centre as it was weirdly warm last night! support defence and attack coming forward for the ball to bring it down court and some great feeds into the D.

Gemma was her usual great support coming forward when needed watching her showed she used what we did in training Monday. And some amzing feeds into the D.

Gracie T was on fire with her shooting, her movement was fabulous. Her change of direction and rotation round the circle. Again coming forward for the ball.

Watching it from GS I really feel the game flowed and we took what we learnt in training and applied it to our game. Well done girlies 🫶🏼

Written by Chloe – Player

Great match tonight! Edie and Poppy from former Team Diamonds fitted in so well with the team
Some very patient play through court; amazing D defence forcing the long shots in; great circle work to work the ball closer and some good shooting too!
Grace got a well deserved players player – she did a great job at isolating her WA from the game and getting lots of tips and interceptions which we could convert too!
Great work girls 🤍🌟

Aces 42 – BDR 28

Written by Gemma – Captain

Tonight Hearts played Raiders Lightening Bolts and won 59-40 🏆

After a bit of a slow start, Hearts slowed their game down and made excellent decisions throughout the match. Ball placement throughout the court and feeding into the circle was on point, both areas for development in previous games.

Defence was solid throughout, with some excellent leans and plenty of forced errors from both Laura Mae and Katia Cardin. Well done to both for keeping their cool when decisions didn’t always go their way.

Thank you so much to Chiara Chambers and Eliza Beth for keeping our centre court in a strong position throughout, you’d never know that they’re not usually on our team sheet!

A brilliant first official match as a heart ♥️ for Jodie Palmer too, with brilliant movement and shooting on point!

Kate McStrafick was quick off the line playing back in her usual WD position tonight, with plenty of tips and turn overs both on the centre and through the zone.

We really are starting to use the zonal press in the attacking third to maximise turn overs through court, which Eliza and Chiara picked up straight away – well done!

Congrats to Lauren Goymer for a very well deserved player of the match. As always, movement and shooting was on point.

Well done Team Hearts ♥️ the positivity was infectious tonight 😍

Written by Natalie – Co Captain

👑 In the words of Lucinda Granger, Queens took our well-earned /revenge/ victory! 👑

The re-match against Redditch Sapphires, who beat us by one goal last week, ended in a Queens 33-29 victory as we took what was rightfully ours 🥰🥇

Great, close game on a lovely sunny evening; we kept our play steady and controlled this week, despite a speedy opposition, and executed fantastic play of possession in the final minutes of the match.

As always, the circle defence truly could not give any more to the team, as they won ball left right and centre (literally)!

Phenomenal shooting from the star of the show Amy-Sue Widman who thoroughly deserved her player of the match award 🖤

Written by Sophie – Captain

👑 Queens played their 🍑es off 👑

Redditch Sapphires 38-37 Alcester Queens(!!)

We had a fire start to the game and won q1 10-4, but when Redditch warmed up, it was a very close, even, quick game and often was 1 up or down either way! We managed to scrape ahead and around 5-10 minutes before the final whistle, we were up 36-31 🥹

Everyone played incredibly and did their part, with a special mention to the VERY hot circle defence and VERY hot shooting!! 🔥

Bit of a gut punch to take the loss by 1 right at the end, but lots of lessons learnt (mainly on my part! 😂) and we play the same team again this coming Monday.

Big shout out to Frankie for player of the match award, despite only playing half and struggling with a numb mouth from an afternoon at the dentist; what an impact on the game regardless 😮‍💨🏐

Heads up Queens, and we go again 🙌🏼🥰👑

Written by Sophie – Captain