St Marys Blitz 26^th November 2011

The last Blitz of the season , thankfully had the most successful turn out of the year, with Brighton, Oxford , St Marys and the club team Parnells making a show it was unfortunate that Imperial could not get a full team out to meet the challenge put before us. Through illness and injury, we were down to 5 players, the dedicated Imperial galls decided to go anyway to the suburbs of London to get a bit of fresh air at least.

Having stolen 2 players from the abundance of St Marys ladies we pulled ourselves together for the first game. As luck would have it we faced the teams in decreasing level of strength. We faced st Marys , who having beaten Imperial  42-0 at the first blitz were not expecting much of a challenge . Walking past the surplus of st Marys players and their coaches on the side-lines the Imperial players prepared themselves. The game had a very rapid pace, and yes Imperial ultimately lost however the marked improvement on the fitness and strength of the involved players reduced the st Marys win to St Marys 3-13 Imperial 0-2.

Knackered, we then faced Parnell a club team which was similar to that of the St Marys match with our own Holly Wilson making a strong impact on mid field.

By the last game the team were exhausted but determined more than ever now facing Oxford to develop the skills picked up during the 3 tough matches.  The teams being more evenly matched resulted in some excellent defence work by Holly Wilson, and Midfield sprinter Libby Richards. Caroline McCee worked well alongside Edel Byrne in the forward position to upset the Oxford defence and result in Edel Byrnes remarkable goal kicks some of which shall forever be remembered for all the wrong reasons!

Although we did not have a proper team , the girls who attended gave everything they had the women of the matches  were Holly, Edel, Caroline and Libby, the first two receiving there reward at the union later that evening.

That is the last blitz of the season so bring on champtionships!!!

Sinead Ward

Oxford Blitz 12^nd November 2011

This weekend the ladies Gaelic found themselves in the historic city of Oxford to play the third of the league Blitzes. After a shaky start the team eventually rolled into Oxford together ready to take on the competition in the form of Oxford and Brighton.

First up was Brighton, a team that scored well in the division last year and have a number of strong players. Putting this aside the Imperial girls put our recent training into practice, our new short passing tactics proved effective in training but on the pitch our fitness level was the main hindrance to an otherwise effective plan.

Having put up a good defence thus far, the ball eventually made it to woman of the match Ruth Kelly, an experienced player in both Gaelic and basketball, nimbly charged down the field missing narrowly at the final post.

The match ended Brighton 1-8 Imperial 0-0 , hugely better than last year however the Imperial team felt some sort of score line would have better reflected their performance.

Secondly Imperial faced Oxford, a smaller less experienced team, who had narrowly lost against Brighton. Imperial started in better form putting up a great defence initially from the Oxford forwards. However Oxford’s experienced players soon took control and once the first shot went in they just kept coming. Woman of the match deservingly goes to Aiobhin Flanagan who continued play even with a knock on the head setting up Ruth Kelly who scored the first point for the Imperial ladies this year!!!

The match ended Oxford 4-6 Imperial 0-1.

Well done to everyone who played. The matches were followed by a dark walk in the middle of nowhere to the top Irish pub in Oxford, it was not wooden panelling as we had imagined but the free cheese and pickle sandwiches and 7 o’clock darts tournament were more than suffice to entertain!!!

Sinead Ward