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Long wait continues for Carrick Ladies Hockey Club

Wednesday, 13 January 2010

FOLLOWING yet another weekend of sub-zero temperatures which caused the entire Ulster Hockey Union's league programme to be postponed, Carrick Ladies Hockey Club 1st XI have now been inactive since December 12th with no immediate prospects of their season re-commencing.
Last weekend's Senior Two derby fixture against Greenisland was the latest casualty of the big freeze and it will take a significant uplift in temperature over the remainder of the week if this coming Saturday's McConnell Shield quarter final tie against Portadown is to take place.
Club spokesperson Peter Stevenson was pragmatic about the first team's problems. "Obviously everyone is being similarly affected by the icy weather so we haven't been disadvantaged any more than anyone else over the past few weeks.
“But we unfortunately came into the current cold spell with three league fixtures having already been postponed due to earlier bad weather and cup commitments. So we've actually played fewer league games than any other club in Senior Two with most teams having played at least two matches more than us.
“Maybe that wouldn't mean that much if we were sitting mid table or above. But following our poor start to the season we're currently right at the bottom of the league table. It's all very well having games in hand on the teams above us but there's obviously a lot of pressure to win these matches and the current lay off is not helping. Just before the current weather problems kicked in, we'd won three of our past four games and the team's confidence had been greatly boosted by that.
“We've been doing our very best of course to try to maintain our momentum with regular indoor training at Carrick Amphitheatre. But that's still no substitute for competitive match play and it will be absolutely crucial that we're primed and ready to go as soon as the season re-commences", Peter added.
Carrick Ladies 1st team captain spoke enthusiastically about her team's forthcoming McConnell Shield tie against Portadown. "Whenever we get around to playing it, that's going to be a really interesting game," said Christine. "Portadown have become something of a bogey team for us this season.
“They're the current Senior Two league leaders and we lost 4-1 to them when we met on October 17. We'd like to think that result flattered them, as we played a lot better that day than the scoreline suggests. We then played them again in early December in the third round of the Irish Hockey Trophy which we narrowly lost 1-0 in the very last minute of the match.
“It's amazing really that we've been drawn against Portadown yet again, in the McConnell Shield. And we will still have to play them later in the season in our return league fixture! We'd love to win the McConnell Shield game of course, but for obvious reasons the league is much more important to us at the moment. So if I had a choice as to which game we'd most like to win, it would have to be the return league match. But we'll be doing our absolute best to win both. We genuinely believe we can beat Portadown, or indeed any team in our league, if we get our heads right on the day" concluded Christine.
Scheduled fixtures for Saturday 16th January for Carrickfergus Ladies Hockey Club are:
1st XI away to Portadown (McConnell Shield Quarter Final sponsored by Carrick Glass Co)
2nd XI (to be announced)
3rd XI home to PSNI (Junior League fixture sponsored by Carrickfergus Gas Services)

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