New Revolution see off Saracens to win indoor hockey title

New Revolution were crowned indoor hockey league champions after defeating Saracens in their final game of the season. One point behind were Judane who thumped RECKless.

Judane 8, RECKless 0

The pace of the match was slow with little progress in attack. Connor Regan opened the scoring with a corker of a goal. Regan doubled his tally shortly after with a glorious assist from Robert Smith. The first half ended with Judane finishing strongly with two more quick fire goals from Regan and Smith.

Chris James made an appearance in the second half and was in a vigorous mood – scoring four goals with awesome assists from Smithy and Rhiannon Inkster. Meanwhile Lori Johnson and Amy Harper remained strong in defence.

John Brian and John Magnus played well for RECKless keeping the relentless attack from Judane at bay for periods in the game.

Georgia Laurenson was the player of the match for RECKless and Rhiannon Inkster gave a ravaging performance for Judane’s last match of the 09/10 league.

New Revolution 4, Saracens 2

New Revolution’s final game of what has been a exciting hard season came to a close with an entertaining clash with Saracens at the Clickimin Arena on Saturday night. The game started very nervously with both teams struggling to find any rhythm to their play. It was New Revolution that open the scoring with Stacey Laurenson firing in a great goal into the bottom left hand corner from a short corner.

Saracens’ movement up front between Emma Gray and Ian Devonald was causing problems for the New Revolution defence and from a good passing move Zoe Irvine was able to pop up and slide the ball past New Revolution’s Danny Finnie in goals.

The game was still being played at a frantic pace and Saracens were able to break down the right and finding Ian Devonald in the middle to make it 2-1 with a neat finish. New Revolution stepped up a gear and started to find their pass and move game that has been so successful this season. They could have been on level terms sooner if it hadn’t been for the fine form of

Saracens goalie Shona Moncrieff and defenders Josie Jamieson and Debbie Sneddon.

There were chants of an inter-county call up for the fans’ favourite Moncrieff. But she was finally beaten just before half time with Laurenson playing a nice ball through to Kristan Robertson who calmly played the ball round the goalie to make it 2-2 at half-time.

The second half started with New Revolution’s Ava Sim and Peter Sharp more organised and coping with the movement of the Saracens front players. New Revolution’s third goal came from a great move down the right.

With Sharp and Robertson playing a great one-two, Sharp was able to beat the Saracens defence and play the perfect ball back to Laurenson to fire past Moncrieff in goals. This spurred on the Revolution and after another fine move Paul Hibbert was able to score with a fine flick. With the two goals advantage New Revolution added some extra steel to the team with

Kate Moncrieff and Sarah Groat coming on and keeping the Saracens at bay until the full time whistle. The score of 4-2 meant the title was heading home with New Revolution.

Players of the match were Stacey Laurenson with her goals for New Revolution and Shona Moncrieff of the Saracens who made it hard work for anyone to beat her.

Lobbyless 6, RECKless 3

This was a good game played in good spirits by both teams. Lobbyless were very strong up front with James Aitken opening the scoring through good link up play with Rowan Nicolson. James went on to score a second soon afterwards.

RECKless were determined not to take a beating and dug in in defence with Valeen Christie and John Magnus Scollay trying to stop the Lobbyless forward runs from the midfield. After a short corner RECKless pulled one back from the stick of Georgia Laurenson. Lobbyless continued to press up and this was rewarded with a goal from Haydn Thomason.

The second half saw Bethany Laurenson get on the scoreboard for RECKless through a good linking pass from John Magnus. Emma Leask did a great job in marking the RECKless midfield and stopped them getting their passes through to the forwards. James was not to be held back for Lobbyless and got his third goal.

After an exciting goal mouth scramble Georgia managed to get her second of the game and this was to be the end of the RECKless goals. Rowan Nicolson was not be outdone and added his name to the Lobbyless scorers before James put the icing on his and Lobbyless’ cake with his fourth goal of the game. Gwen Malcolmson deserves a special mention for her impressive play in the Lobbyless defence.

The final result was 6-3 and keeps Lobbyless well up the league table. Players of the match were James Aitken for Lobbyless and Georgia Laurenson for RECKless.

Crusaders 5, Saracens 3

Both teams started the game well, both looking very eager and keen. Crusaders broke forward using their pace well and Lowrie Simpson opened the scoring by getting a sneaky touch on a through ball which the Saracens goalie never spotted so left it to go in. She was unlucky to concede such a goal.

Saracens had some lovely linking play between all five outfield players but couldn’t find a way through the strong defence of Gayle Johnson and Ross Moncrieff of Crusaders. Crusaders found themselves 3-0 up at half time through goals from Rona Simpson and a further one from Lowrie Simpson.

In the second half Saracens seem to have had a bit of a wake up call which resulted in some wonderful chances but they couldn’t find the back of the net. Saracens did find a way through from a short corner which saw Josie Jamieson placing the ball perfectly in the bottom corner.

Crusaders continued to use their pace to expose the Saracens defence. Lowrie Simpson got his hat trick of the night to make it 1-4. Saracens continued to pick their game up, and some fantastic runs from Zoe Irvine and Iain Devonald resulted in a couple of short corners. A superb one-two at the corner between Zoe Irvine and Josie Jamieson saw Josie Jamieson score another fine goal.

Crusaders responded with a decent goal from Ross Moncrieff. Josie Jamieson completed her hat trick from yet another well worked short corner to make the final score 3-5. All the Saracens team played well but it was Josie Jamieson who was the player of the match, while Ross Moncrieff took the honours for Crusaders for his solid defending and pace when on the attack.