Mellor continued their strong form with a 26-0 demolition of Liverpool, and of course your very own Newcastle Knights lost a heartbreaker 8-9 to Stops.

Neither of those results would really register as a shock this season, however the final result of the day would: Notthingham topped Poynton 10-4 in what can only be described as a body blow to our survival chances.

Those results leave the table looking something like this:
Mellor 8-0-1 (W-L-D)
Brooklands 7-1-1
Poynton 7-2
Norbury 4-4
Nottingham 3-5
Stops 3-6
Newcastle 1-7
Liverpool 0-8

Next week sees a Liverpool v Brooklands as the only game due to  an England training weekend before the final round of cup group games on 4 February.

See you then.

The day dawned bright and cold in Newcastle as our 8 (from Newcastle including Higginbottom as the away ref) set out at 0900. A car from Durham, one from Aylesbury and of course Maitland the Hutt from Tadcaster completed a decent line-up for the Knights.

Michael anchored the team in the cage, supported by the returning Pigeon, Webbé, debutante Hoskins and Stewart running LSM. Maitland was joined by Bryant, Suddaby, Hanappel, and Johnstone in the midfield, with Woodrow, Wheeldon and increasingly enigmatic Buckley in attack.

After what can only be described as a bit of a faff regarding playability at the intended venue and a quick transfer to Highfields the game got underway in bright conditions with a three man crew of zebras and 14 (!) players for Notts.

A day of intriguing battles all over the field started with the most intriguing of all the faceoff. With Maitland and Hanappel splitting time against Nottingham stalwart Andy Whilde, it looked like it would be a ding dong battle from the start – and so it proved, with the superior number of Knights at the X telling toward the end of the game.

After a back and forth first 10 minutes where neither keeper was really tested, Nottingham ‘s LDO Harrison Rogers opened the scoring  followed by a tally by Tom Britland taking them 2 up before Bryant powered down the alley to stick a doozy to end the quarter at 2-1.

The second quarter was a different ball game figuratively speaking at least. Wheeldon was first on the score card to even it up before the Knights took their first lead of the game on another Bryant tally. Nottingham Captain James Pilkington then brought us back even at 3 a piece. Maitland then picked up his one for the day on a tasty rip to leave us at 3-4 going into half time.

You’d have to assume that all the usual clichés were rolled out at half time, and if third quarters were as crucial as has been made out the Knights would have been in trouble...

Notts came out firing and with two goals each from Matt Twose and Rogers to a tally each for Bryant and Wheeldon who finished off a delightful tick-tack-toe move to leave the “Silver Bullets” trailing 7-6 at three quarters.

The fourth quarter saw the Knights coming from behind again, with Webbé scoring his one for the year as he snagged a clear from Michael upped the pace again and got to 12 yards with no pressure and as he shot through the slide the goalie had no chance. As a counterpoint to this excellent goal his “Tebow” celebration was dire.

Goals from Suddaby and Hanappel took the Knights into a 9-7 lead before Notts struck back through Twose, and Rogers before Wheeldon took us back to 9-10 before James Aspinall tied it up at 10.

That’s how your 80 minutes finished, but with it being a cup game – even a group one – a result was required, so we went to overtime.

The first four minute period was cagey, with both defences dialling up the pressure and offences struggling to hit the target. And so it finished all square at 10-10.

The second period saw Maitland take the ball and the Knights pile on the pressure. A few wayward shots lead to a pass that was lost in the sinking sun heading out of bounds for a turnover. Nottingham cleared comfortably due to a slip in midfield.  A shot was sharply saved by Michael who hit Maitland on the break who cruised into attack.

The Knights worked possession until about 45 seconds to play when a shot caused a turnover due to a lack of back-up much to the chagrin of Bryant.

However....a solid ride left the home GK to throw an awful pass which was intercepted at the second attempt by Suddaby who stuck the ball into a mostly open goal with 12 seconds left.

Those last 12 seconds were smashed in by Maitland who played spoiler on the face

Woodrow picked up Bag for his morning that was filled with at least a month’s worth of grumbling. Hanappel picked up goon for thinking he was voting for goon when he was voting for bag, and somewhat predictably Suddaby picked up the Mandallion for his overtime exploits combined with an energy filled performance.

Other notable performances came from Maitland who had his best game in S&B, and Bryant who as always was a bit of a tank. Wheeldon seemed to have rediscovered his shooting boots and Stewart put in a performance at LSM that was full of venom. Hoskins showed he is absolutely cut out for this level of lacrosse with an athletic performance that is hopefully a sign of things to come, and as ever Michael was imperious in the cage.

As a whole it was one of the better team performances this year, but it was smattered with those mistakes that come from an extended time away from the game.

It was, I suppose, the ideal run out to lead up to the huge game coming up this weekend against Stops. Hoo Rah!

Michael

Webbe 1
Hoskins
Pigeon

Stewart

Maitland 1
Hanappel 1
Suddaby 2
Johnstone
Bryant 3

Buckley
Wheeldon 3
Woodrow

According to the official results here 7th Jan saw a number of postponements one concession – with Stops unable to raise a team to go to Brooklands  (it’s either that or they lost 1-0), and one result with Norbury beating Liverpool 17-5.

14 Jan saw Poynton defeat Mellor 10-8 to go top of Stockpotr Cup Group A, and your Newcastle Knights top Nottingham 10-11 after overtime to stay in with a shout of qualifying for the semis with a win over Mellor.

In League play Brooklands beat Stops 21-10 (or there abouts) to sneak top on goal difference having played a game more than Mellor and Poynton.

Next week sees a return to the usual league programme of three games with Stops making the trip to Broadway West (1400 faceoff),  Brooklands hosting Norbury and Poynton travelling to Nottingham.

Fixtures and results have been updated to reflect changes in the sched. These can be found HERE.

Please be aware that where a week says "No game yet" or "RESERVE WEEK" these will probably be filled with games that have already been postponed in the near future - so don't make too many plans!
The Knights kick off 2012 (at the second attempt) away at Nottingham this weekend in the cup.

Hoo Ra

A full slate of games went on this week, and only one of them was close - we'll leave that until last for the drama.

In results from the predictable category, Liverpool got tonked 18-0 by Notts, Poynton put the hurt on Stops 17-4 and we (well some of us...) had an afternoon to forget at Brooklands where we folded 25-4.

In the exciting/unpredictable column there was Norbury v Mellor. This was another close one with Mellor snatching a one goal victory with a goal with 3 minutes left. Norbury had a chance to pull it back with 4 seconds left, but couldn't put it together.

The table looks like this:

1. Mellor 7-0-1 (W-L-D)
2. Poynton 7-1
3.Brooklands 6-1-1
4. Norbury 4-4
5. Nottingham 2-4
6. Newcastle 1-6
7. Stops 1-5
8. Liverpool 0-7

Next week sees Liverpool host Brooklands, Norbury host Poynton and Your Newcastle Knights make the trip to Mellor. 

Hoo Rah!

Predictably there wasn't a full slate of games although there should have been. 

In Group A, Nottingham failed to raise a team for the second week on the bounce, so Mellor took home a H - W result... whatever that means.

The other game - ours - also went to league form with a tough loss against Poynton.

The other group pretty went to league form with Brooklands smashing Liverpool, and Norbury doing Stops.

So, all in all, no surprises other than another fairly weak week from Nottingham not managing to get a team out.

In another week of predictable results, there was one game that didn't come from the hymn sheet:

Nottingham were unable to raise a team to go to Brooklands, and probably saved themselves a significant loss in the process.

Back to the predictable Mellor and Poynton smashed Stops and Liverpool by 21 and 23 goals respectively.

With Mellor the only team remaining undefeated, and Poyton's recent win over Brooklands, the league looking like this:

Mellor 6-0-1 (W-L-D)
Poynton 6-1
Brooklands 5-1-1
Norbury 4-3
Newcastle 1-5
Nottingham 1-4
Stops 1-4
Liverpool 0-6

Next week's break for Stockport cup group games gives us a bit of respite before we travel to Brooklands on December 3. So next week

Bonfire night saw the Knights lose out 8-6 to Norbury, and  Liverpool continue their awful run with a 21-4 loss to Stops.

The game of the day was Brooklands v Poynton in which the visitors came away 7-6 victors to blow open the promotion race.

November 12 saw Poynton carry on their good form with a 20-5 win over our silver and black heroes Newcastle, Norbury put up 25 against Liverpool who again scored 4 and Mellor broke 20 (by 2) against Nottingham coming out 22-8 winners.

The league then looks like this:
Mellor 5-0-1 (W-L-D)
Poynton 5-1
Brooklands 4-1-1
Norbury 4-3
Stops 1-3
Newcastle 1-5
Nottingham 1-3
Liverpool 0-5

Next weekend sees Newcastle and Norbury on byes with Nottingham at Brooklands, Poynton at Liverpool and Stops at Mellor.