Chichester hockey ladies get win they crave ... city juniors in action at Gosport

Sussex Ladies premier division

After weeks of improvements Chichester reaped their rewards.

A few changes were needed but this didn’t upset the balance. Chichester were strong from the start and their organisation and set-up was immediately evident.

Vicky Oliver Catt and Megan Hattimore, the midfield screens or high sweepers, took command of the centre. This allowed Sophie Resink and Maxieme Traksel, the wide players, to push forward.

Charlotte Stemp, battling away up front, played a great pass to Traksel to score Chi’s first goal. EG had their chances but Chi had the upper hand.

Chichester scored again through Traksel, a fabulous strike from the edge of the circle. Then from a penalty corner after an initial breakdown in play, Resink popped up with a sweet reverse strike from an acute angle.

EG fought back, scoring from a penalty corner. But Chichester were playing the ball around well, and communication was excellent with the back three Tracy Austin, Cheryle Parrott and Jackie Baxter commanding their area.

Beanie Bradley showed great control to score Chi’s fourth. Resink scored her second with a fantastic pass by Jessop from midfield. EG came back once more to make it 5-2 at half-time.

Chichester knew they had to keep their concentration levels. It was tighter in the second period but Chi had majority of possession.

EG got their third but Julie Abson in goal was making life difficult for the visitors by dominating her D. Stemp was making a nuisance of herself and got her just rewards with a goal. EG were tiring but still had enough to get a fourth.

The game was capped with Jessop scoring with a one-touch sweep into the bottom corner of the goal.

Chichester: Abson, Austin, Baxter, Parrott, Oliver-Catt, Stemp, Jessop, Hallier, Bradley, Traksel, Resink, Hattemore.

Report and picture special on hockey cup joy for Chichester Chi can't quite pull the plug on BathIBM Nomads 0 Chi Ladies 4s 4

Chi won convincingly away to IBM Nomads in their last game of 2018.

From the off Chi were the better team, using the space and positioning well. But Chi struggled to get that final touch to claim a goal.

Some lovely passes between Kelly Lilywhite, Teresa Willway and Caroline Dale paid off in the end with Lilywhite getting the first.

A strong half-time team talk boosted Chi and runs by Heidi Johnson and Rachel Austin resulted in IBM having to work hard. Chi went further afield through Dale and Lilywhite.

IBM Nomads played plenty of long balls but with Char O’Challaghan giving clear instructions and solid tackles from Hayley Johnson, Gabi Crisp and Gillian Ashton, they were no real threat.

Player of the match Kim Howarth and Sarah Whittington worked tirelessly in midfield and a beautiful run from Ashton to carve through the Nomads defence was rewarded when Willway tapped the ball past the keeper for the fourth.

Chi: O’Challaghan, HY Johnson, Ashton, Crisp, Whittington, Howarth, Austin, Dale, Lilywhite, Willway, HI Johnson, Cruttenden.

Chichester’s under-eights had a great time at a festival at Gosport, winning six games and drawing one.

They beat Gosport 4-0, Portsmouth 1-0, Haslemere ones 2-1, Haslemere twos 3-1, Havant 4-2 and Fareham 6-0, and drawing with Petersfield 1-1.

The goals were shared between numerous players.

The Chichester under-tens also did well at the Gosport festival. They played very well as a team and all seemed to really enjoy it.

They won two. drew one and lost two.

The team comprised Holly Eitel, Anna Dudman, Oscar Barnes, Keegan Ashton, Toby Russell-Wells, Anoushka Gadsby, Caitlin Wilmott and Alexis Bartholomew.