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Sunday 29 April 2012 was an unpalatable day for a number of reasons. Firstly, it was the day after the end of season do. Which, I’m sure you all agree was a roaring (drunk) success. Secondly, it was one of those spring days that backslides into winter, both the barometer (imaginary) and the thermometer (in the car) dropped and we faced not only a Poynton team smarting from a loss to Mellor the previous day and needing a win to secure their promotion to Prem 1 but also the elements, with the prevailing of those being precipitation in the form of sleety, rainy hail.

The game day included several 15 Knights who were departing the Toon to return to/go to other places. No doubt there’ll be some sentimental rubbish at the end, but let’s delay that inevitable downer until then. The brave 15 were the newly crowned Man and Player of the year; Michael in the cage, Warwick, Pigeon, Ellwood, Webbé and Stewart with the big sticks. In attack were Bag of the Year Webb, Wheeldon and Goon of the Year Johnstone against his former club. In the midfield we saw, Suddaby (The Flt Lt MJ Buckley Most Improved Player), Bryant, Higginbottom, Hop-Along Hannapel, Punter and Baike-Ghazvini.

On a fast turf, Punter and Hannapel handled the gold domed, tight wearing face-off man with aplomb, and the wing play from the mids was lifted from its usual lacklustre level against an aggressive 2 pole Poynton faceoff squad. This meant that the Knights had their fair share of the ball.

They turned this possession into pressure, but didn’t really threaten the cage much, and the aggressive pressure defence from the orange clad visitors stymied many of the home side’s natural attacking instincts.

At this juncture, I feel it appropriate to raise how well Johnstone dealt with the elevated level of interest the visiting defenders. He was rarely a stationary target and used his feet to get himself out of trouble a number of times.

To cut a potentially long story short, we lost. We scored in every quarter and we ran with them for the whole game. The decisive factors were the eagerness of the Visitors poles to push the break, which caught the Novocastrians out a number of times, and the home side’s inability to take advantage of a number of extra man chances.

All in all, it was a competitive game throughout, with lapses at the end of quarters to blame for the margin of the loss.

I don’t think anyone would argue that Michael was the Man of the Match. He was on fine form, and if this game had been on Saturday he might have picked up a gong for Best Single Game Performance (won by Matt Ashton v Stops (a)). That said, big probs must go to Warwick and Ellwood at the back who’s slides and recovery were crisper than a fresh crisp and to Suddaby who was a one man clear yet again.

The quarter scores were something like 3-1, 6-3, 9-4, 14-5, with the last quarter skewed by some interesting positional play with some attackers at the back and defenders in attack.

Whilst this result was important to Poynton, it meant little to the men in silver and black. Premier 2 lacrosse for 2012/13 was secured in Saturday’s win over Liverpool. Consequently the Knights went out and played without pressure, and turned out some of the best team lacrosse seen from them all year.  

Was this the Knight’s’ best performance of the year? Maybe.

Was it a good basis to press on from for the future? Definitely.

Now, Sunday was the last time that some of these knights would be turning out in silver and black. Whether they’ve been here for a long time, or just a good time, it is time to say good bye to Michael and Warwick who are both returning to Sheffield, (See you next year boys!) to Valenzuela who stepped out for Warwick on Sunday as he returns to Mexico. Also departing will be Johnstone and Ellwood due to graduation, and possibly Suddaby who’s planning a placement year.

Gentlemen, it’s been emotional.

Hoo Rah!

Michael

Webbé
Warwick
Stewart
Pigeon
Ellwood

Hannapel 1
Punter
Baike-Ghazvini
Higginbottom
Suddaby 1
Bryant 1

Johnstone
Webb 1
Wheeldon 1

Of the 3 games in NEMLA’s Premier 2 this weekend, a full 66.6*% of them took place in our fair city, and 100% featured either us or Poynton.

The games on the slate for Saturday were:
Mellor v Poyton
Newcastle v Liverpool

And on Sunday:
Newcastle v Poynton

There was a lot still up for grabs at the start of Saturday. Mellor and Poyton were both in with a shout of the title, Poynton still needed at least one win to take a promotion spot away from Brooklands. At the other end of the table, Newcastle needed a win over Liverpool to secure their Prem 2 status for next season, and Liverpool were searching for their first win of the year.

Saturday’s results went down like this. Mellor took the W over Poynton 12-6 at Stockport LC’s Cale Green ground, and Newcastle took Liverpool down 11-1 on the astroturf at Northumbria University’s Coach Lane Sports Centre.

These results secured Mellor the championship, and Newcastle their Premier 2 survival. More importantly perhaps it left Poynton requiring a win over Newcastle on Sunday to gain promotion to the top flight.

That win was duly appropriated on Sunday with a 14-5 win over your Knights (this time at Newcastle University’s Stan Calvert Astro).

The final Prem 2 table looks a bit like this (taking into account head to head and concessions)

Mellor 12-1-1 (W-L-D) – Champions
Poynton 10-3-1 – (2 wins over Brooklands 18-12 aggregate) Promoted
Brooklands 10-3-1
Norbury 9-4-1
Stops 5-9 (1 concession)
Newcastle 4-10
Nottingham 4-10 (2 consessions)
Liverpool 0-14

There’s still games unplayed in other divisions that may or may not effect promotions and relegations, or even get played, but once the final placings are done and dusted I’ll bash out an ups and downs themed article.

See you next year – or at the AGM, or any of the tournaments over the summer, or just in general….anyway see you around.

Eleven Knights made the journey from various parts of the North East, Yorkshire and the North West to take on league leaders Mellor at their Brabyn's Park ground.

Michael was in the cage, with Webb (R), débutante Guest and Pidgeon in close D. Stewart took the LSM duties with Higginbottom, Suddaby and a second first timer in Oliver (nearly 2 full seasons after transferring from Sheffield Steelers) in Midfield. Johnstone, Webb (M) and Wheeldon completed the squad.

The rest of Brabyns Park was under water but the somewhat undulating lacrosse field was in excellent condition considering the last fortnight's weather.

The game started and finished with Mellor scoring. Between the start and the finish, Mellor scored.

They scored some well worked goals from an open 6 offensive set, some decent goals out of their 2-2-2 and some goals on the break. There were also some poor goals conceded by what was obviously a very rusty Knights team featuring it's 180th defensive combination of the season.

Whilst the Novocastrians started solidly, the rustiness kicked in mid-way through the first quarter as a couple of sloppy plays saw heads go down.

Following this, the poor form continued through to the middle of the second quarter before there was a steady improvement for the rest of the game, culminating in some sustained possession and pressure to end the game.

All in all it wasn't a great performance, but has blown out the cobwebs following a (-nother) 4 week hiatus before Saturday's must win game against Liverpool, and Sunday's game against Poyton.

Guest picked up the Man award for an excellent debut performance full of hustle and vigour in D against a team of the like he'd never seen before. Higginbottom picked up the handbag for an outrageously loud expletive as well as constant sniping at the officials. Johnstone picked up the Goon award for no particular reason, and was lucky not to get an honorary bag for his reaction to it.

See you Saturday and Sunday next weekend at Broadway West for more fun and frolicks.

Hoo Rah!

There were only 2 games in Prem 2 this week, our game against Mellor and Poynton's visit to Norbury which ended in a 12 all draw.