SOUTH OF ENGLAND
In the Premiership, three clubs are leading the way with Spencer heading the back and Hillcroft and Camden Capyba-ras in close pursuit. Since our last is-sue only 3 league games have been played and some of these teams have played each other. On 2nd November Camden and Hillcroft played each other with Hillcroft coming away winners by 15 goals to 5 and on the 23rd Spencer and Hillcroft played off against each other and Spencer maintained their unbeaten run with a 13—8 victory.
In Division One, the newly reformed Walcountians are leading the way but Spencer 3 and Bristol Bombers are looking to blow them of course. Walcountians have played Spencer 3 and Bristol Bombers coming out on top in a close fought game against Spencer 3 by 9 goals to 8 and a 14—7 win against Bristol. Division Two has Camden Capybaras 2 and London Purley Raptors battling at the top, and in Division Three Oxford City are nudging ahead of Buckhurst Hill and Spencer 4. Oxford City beat Spencer 4 in their match 19-4, when Buckhurst Hill and Spencer 4 met it resulted in a narrow 7-5 win for the latter club.
It must be said, sadly, that there appears to be a lot of games not played and/or as walk-overs which does not indicate good strength in depth, even with the ability to bring players from other clubs to play matches, ensuring that lacrosse gets played. Lets hope the New Year brings an influx of players to those clubs struggling for numbers.
MIDLANDS LACROSSE NETWORK
Again the Midlands set up continues to impress by the sheer volume of participants and matches played. The Midlands league finishes with a top four play off and boy is this a close fought and tight battle, which is probably impossible to call at this stage.
City of Stoke and Leicester City are on top equal with 30 points each, but Stoke have a game in hand of Leicester. Loughborough Lions head the chasers with 26 points from 8 games, then there are four clubs with 25 points from 8 games — Nuneaton 2, Nottingham University, Warwick Uni-versity and Sheffield Tanger. Don’t forget Nuneaton first team they have 24 points from only 6 games.
Wouldn’t want to be a gambling man on predicting the top four at the end of the season. Good luck to all.
NORTH OF ENGLAND
Premiership
Poynton will probably be the happiest at Christmas as they go n to the break riding high on the top of the table with 16 points from 8 games, behind them are three clubs with 8 points Brooklands (6 games), Stockport (7 games) and Mellor (9 games). There have been several clashes between these top four clubs. 2/11- Brooklands lost to Poynton 7-14; 23/11 Mellor lost to Poynton 4-14; 30/11– Mellor were beaten by Stockport 7-10; 7/12– Brooklands beat Mellor 11-4; 14/12– Brookland had a close victory over Stockport 7-5. So the top of the table look as interesting as always in the North. There was one ex-citing 11-11 draw just before Christmas between Timperley and Cheadle, I bet that was a cracker.
Division 1
There are again four teams bat-tling at the top— Wilmslow A 16 points (10 games); Poynton A 14 (10); Brooklands A 12 (7) and Cheadle Hulme 12 (8). There has only been one game be-tween these top teams since the last issue, and Cheadle Hulme won this tight contest over Poynton A by 9-7. Another interesting draw in this league in December was 6 all between Wilmslow A and Sheffield Steelers A. Shows how tight and competitive Division 1 is and let’s see what the New Year brings.
Division 2
Yet again 4 clubs battling away — Brooklands ExA 14 (8); Mellor B 12 (9); Rochdale A 10 (8) and Cheadle C 9 (7). Form guide shows 3 matches involving these teams 16/11 Mellor B lost to Rochdale A (3-8); 14/12 Mellor B then lost to Brooklands ExA 4-13 and 23/12 Roch-dale A lost to Brooklands ExA 4-10. So an open and competitive start to 2025 for all the clubs in tis division. Very encouraging to see Cumbria getting matches played well done to all teams involved, as we are all aware of long distance journeys and the impact on get-ting teams out.
