1st June 2013

Woodley Hammers (Reading) Tournament (5-a-side)

Leverstock Green Ladies (U18s) entered their 1st Under 18's tournament of the summer and followed up on last weekend's win at the Chinnor Ladies Tournament with yet more silverware.

After a less than impressive opening win against Aylesbury Phoenix, the usually effervescent Levy Ladies looked short of energy throughout the group stages and limped through the qualifiers, culminating in a resounding defeat in the final group match against an excellent Pangbourne (Reading Academy) side.

Fortunately for Levy Ladies sufficient points had been secured to grab the last of 4 semi final places and after having a long hard look at themselves, and regathering their resources they came out in the semi final as a different team entirely - once again facing Pangbourne, the Levy Ladies were far more aggressive and with Ellen Salter dominating distribution from the back, protecting the excellent Mia Hickey in goal, and Leigh Burrows chasing down every ball they edged the semi final in terms of possession and after a nil nil final scoreline the match went to penalties. Ellen Salter smashed home the 1st, Cally Salter the 2nd and then after saving Pangbournes 3rd effort, Leigh promptly stepped up to fire Levy into the final.

The final was a tight affair, however once Leigh had put the Green Army ahead, after good work from Cally Salter, the game looked secure and with Ellie Pickard chasing down every loose ball and Mia growing in confidence in goal the result could have been secured had Ellen Rogers managed to fire home towards the end. A couple of late scares almost took the game to penalties, but ultimately Levy Ladies secured the win - a win which looked very unlikely just an hour earlier - credit to all members of the squad for digging deep and finding the right answers at the time when they were most needed.

Next weekend the squad travel to Aylesbury looking for their 3rd successive tournament victory.

(Kevin Salter).