Saturday, March 30

West Clubs Women’s Hockey League

South Division

Newquay 1

BUDE pulled off a remarkable escape from relegation as they beat Newquay in a thrilling end to the season clash at the Budehaven Sports Centre.

A win for the visitors would have seen them clinch the league title and condemn the home team to the drop.

It was a glorious sunny afternoon and plenty of supporters were out in force, to see whether the home side could carry on the momentum gathered from their 4-1 victory over relegated Isca fourths the previous Saturday.

The home team were missing captain Claire Pipe (fractured ribs) and key defender Claire James (fractured nose) but nevertheless were fielding a strong team and had a full bench to call upon.

After an inspiring pre-match talk from coach David Pipe, and some home truths from vice-captain Tammy Snowsill, Bude started confidently and almost immediately took control of the game.

Alas this early pressure was unable to be converted, and as the half wore on the hosts started to look more nervous and the visitors began to impress themselves on the game.

Fortunately for the home side, a strong counter-attack down the right from Charlotte Prime saw the Newquay goalkeeper have to dive to make a save and prowling Bude forward Nim Panesar was quick to pounce on the rebound and finish confidently into the netting to put the hosts 1-0 ahead.

The celebrations had hardly subsided and the crowd were still settling when a Newquay foray into the Bude D saw a similar save from Amy Gear, however this time the second Newquay shot was bravely stopped on the line by Snowsill, unfortunately resulting in a glancing blow to the body, which meant a penalty stroke was awarded to the visitors.

Fortunately for the home side the pressure of the game was too much for the Newquay striker and her effort went wide of the left post to see Bude hold onto their slim 1-0 lead going into the break.

The second-half saw a resumption of the evenly matched play that had ended the opening 35 minutes, however atoning for their missed penalty, the visitors managed to convert a penalty corner to draw level and put the pressure back on the hosts.

However they hadn’t accounted for the fighting spirit shown by the home team, and with just over 15 minutes to go a creative Bude attack saw a frantic melee in the Newquay goalmouth result in Bude all- rounder Zara Higham grab the second goal for Bude.

After the restart the home team struggled to remain composed and after going down to ten players due to Emily Shepherd’s sin-binning for not being five metres away from a free-hit, had to stay in the game as Newquay continued to press for the equaliser.

This was almost the undoing of the away team when the returning Shepherd picked up a stray ball in midfield and drove a strong line into the D where her powerful shot was denied only by the crossbar.

Bude were back on the defensive after this, and when stand-in captain and player-of-the-match Tammy Snowsill was shown a yellow card, it seemed almost certain that Newquay would manage to even the score in the dying stages.

Fortunately the Bude side were fired up and more than ready for the challenge and despite a furious final few minutes, were able to hold out for the win which saw them survive and remarkably finish fifth in a fiercely competitive league, which saw just two points separate them and ninth-placed Taunton Vale 2.

This completes a tumultuous season for the Bude side, who struggled to find form after a long Christmas break, but now know that they managed to retain their South Division status, despite just picking up two points on their travels compared to 18 on their own patch.