For the last tournament of the season at Letchworth we had one goalkeeper (Rachel Milne), five outfield players (Kirsty Ingham, Emily Rawlinson, Emma Gillett, Hattie Ford and Zoe Parry-Wilcocks) and this team gave the best performance of the season. The quality of their game in the restricted defence using counter attacks and the carousel was impressive taking in consideration the average age of the players was 17.

In the game against Letchworth we were down 0-3, the girls never gave up and eventually pulled the match round to win 5-3. They also managed to beat Norwich, which meant that they finished above Norwich in the league.I was impressed with the fitness of the Ladies, considering they played all four games on the day in high temperatures. This tournament showed that our objectives to focus on young girls to have a competitive team in 2/3 years at senior level is the way forward.

Thanks to all the girls that managed to participate during the season in the tournaments.

Next season we will not participate in any of the Eastern Counties Leagues due to the clash with the club commitments, although there is a possibility next season that the Ladies could participate in National Division 1, however I will be contacting all the girls involved in our Development Plan before making a final decision.

A fun filled friendly tournament where all ages and abilities are welcome.
All proceeds from the day will go towards developing Ladies Roller Hockey in England.
For more details contact Kirsty Ingham, England Ladies Senior Team Captain or call 07738100037
To guarantee your place, fill out a booking form and return to Kirsty or Lucy Rawlinson, England Ladies Team Manager.
Forms available at National Training or Download registration form

Free taster sessions in Roller Skating, Roller Hockey and Roller Derby on 5th and 6th March.
Arcadia Sports Hall, Levenshulme, Manchester.
For more information call 0161 224 0938 or e-mail info@manchesterarcadians.com

Download the A5 poster

Join us for a day of Ladies Roller Hockey! All ages and abilities welcome Sunday 1st August 9am – 5pm Bushfields Sports Centre, Peterborough. A fun filled friendly tournament where all ages and abilities are welcome. Chances to win a pamper hamper, food hamper, experience vouchers and many more prizes. All proceeds from the day will go towards developing Ladies Roller Hockey in England. £15 entry fee. For more details, speak to National Coaching Director, Carlos Amaral or Kirsty Ingham, England Ladies Senior Team Captain. To guarantee your place, fill out a booking form and return to Lucy Rawlinson, England Ladies Manager.

Milne Rachel (Gk)
Parfitt Kasia (Gk)
Repman Anna (Gk)

Baker Francesca
Barrow Hannah
Cook Beth
Gillett Emma
Holland Louise
Morley Abbie
Patton Jodi
Parry Wilcocks Zoe
Rawlinson Emily
Russell Anna
Sheppard Emily
Stevenson Chloe

All players announced on the reduced squad have to pay £100 deposit as part of commitment to participate in the championships. Any player not selected for the final squad will have the £100 deposit refunded. Any players withdrawn will lose the deposit.
Make cheque payable to NRHA and bring with you this weekend.

Last month in St. Omer, France 27th to 31st October the Ladies played in the European Championship Seniors and although they lost all the games there was a big improvement from 2007 Championship in results as well as the team, which was much more competitive.

Our team was the youngest one in the competition with two 15 year old players, with the oldest player being 23 years old.
This gives us a good future as all these girls still have a lot of room for improvement and more years of playing at this level.

The team played throughout the competition defending individually restricted but on some occasions changing to pressuring the player with the ball and half way line.

I was very pleased with the attitude of the girls on and off the rink, showing their commitment to play for England and we gained even more respect from other countries.

One complaint about this competition was the standard of the referees, who penalised England quite a lot.
Coaches from all the countries made the same comments and the CERH has to be more careful when selecting their referees for this level of Roller Hockey as it is not good for our sport.

England 0 Spain 7 (Half-Time 0-3)
England started the competition against the World Champions

It was not easy playing our first game in the European Championships against Spain, however England played for large periods of the game with good individual defence restricted pressuring the player with the ball.

Basic mistakes due to lack of concentration and reaction cost us at least 4 of the goals.

Although we had the first 2 shots in the game and missed a penalty in the second half the team needs to improve their confidence when attacking.players need to move off the ball more to create pass lines and be more aggressive in the front of the goal as we had good long shots but no there was no player coming in for rebound.

England were more competitive in this game than in previous games against the Spanish which meant that their coach to played their starting line up for the whole of the first half, showing respect to England. Now we are look forward to playing Germany the 2007 European Champions.

This competition is very hard considering we have to play 4 countries Spain, Portugal, France and Germany who between themselves have won the last European Championship Competitions.

Our main objective will be to beat Switzerland to finish 5th however I am expecting to see our team raise their confidence levels every day and to be more competitive in their next matches.

England 0 Germany 6 (Half-Time 0-3)

After first game against the World Champions we then played the European Champions

Photo Gordon Morrison

The team improved from the first game in both confidence and reaction.
Players were very focused the whole game on restricted defence pressuring the player with the ball.

Ball possession when attacking was a great improvement from first game which resulted in more structured attacks and goal scoring opportunities.

The final result reflects some bad refereeing decisions from the French referee considering we conceded 4 goals from penalties and direct free hits of which only one I would agree with referee?s decision. My opinion was corroborated by the other referee after the game.

As I said previously this is not an easy competition and today we play Portugal another top country in the world. However I am still confident that the team will continue to improve everyday.

England 1 Portugal 13 (Half-Time 0-7)

This was the worst performance from the team as we were not concentrated enough.
Poor defending caused a lot of problems to our counter attack and we just could not keep possession of the ball, which is very important at any level of Roller Hockey.
This was a game that we would need to remember but only so we could learn from the mistakes.

England 1 France 10 (Half Time 1-3)
After the Portugal game, the girls showed great attitude and we had one the greatest performances in the first half from an England Ladies team against one the best teams in the competition. Their concentration in defence along with good counter attacking opportunities provided us with the move that was finished by Beth.
In the second half France showed that they had a very strong team and were fitter and a faster reaction capacity. They stepped up a gear and took the game to us and made their opportunities count as they scored seven goals.

England 2 Switzerland 4 (Half-time 2-2)
The last game of the competition to decide 5th / 6th places.
We started the game very well taking the lead twice at 1-0 and 2-1, but the more experienced Swiss team made the difference.

England started with excellent individual defence which caused a lot of problems for the Swiss team.
England deserved to be 2 goals up at half time considering the scoring opportunities created as well as they way we had maintained ball possession and had more shots on target.

In the second half our game was not as good as the first half due to tiredness, however we still dominated the game but with a lucky 3rd goal for the Swiss the onus was on us to score. The team pressured full rink to try and get the goal back.

The job done by the girls was excellent and they deserved to win this game, but it went against us.

Carlos Amaral

Girls from all over the country have attended the NRHA’s National Training weekends in Peterborough and Carlos Amaral NRHA’s National Performance Director has made his final selection.
Good luck to all the members in the final team selection participating in Ladies Seniors European Championship which takes place in St. Omer (France) 27th – 31st October 2009.

ENGLAND LADIES SENIORS SQUAD
Rachel Joy – Bury
Emma Russell – Plymouth
Ruth Russell – Plymouth
Anna Russell – Plymouth
Lucy Rivers – Bury
Kirsty Ingham – Bury
Emily Rawlinson – Bury
Beth Cook – Middlesbrough
Chloe Stevenson – Middlesbrough
Emily Sheppard – HBU

Head Coach – Carlos Amaral
Manager – Dave Fothergill
Assistant Manager – Jan Cook