It was two o’clock, mid-October. A heavy rain shower had punctuated the early afternoon skies but the dampness had evaporated.
The venue:Altrincham Boys Grammar School, the home of Bowdon Women, mostly young and definitely keen, fresh from their annihilation of Preston the previous week. The pitch abutting the school buildings and courtyard on one side with an antique wooden pavilion at one end and a modern brick and glass sports hall at the other.

Carlisle hockey team bedecked in white with the exception of Leah who had augmented her regalia with a distinct burnt orange hue.
Following the usual pleasantries the game began. Bowdon in black and red started strongly. Carlisle soon discovered that Bowdon were not only young and keen but also comprised a good number of fast and skillful players.

The first five minutes were end to end as the combatants traded two attacking incursions each into the opposition’s circle. Then like bolts of lightning only 90 seconds apart Bowdon struck twice to put the Cheshire side two up. Carlisle had hardly time to draw breath and there was a very long time to go. If the Carlisle players had any degree of trepidation about what was to come they didn’t show it.

They held their resolve, worked hard to deny Bowdon further opportunities with Rachel, in particular, covering vast areas of the pitch disrupting the opposition flow allowing her colleagues to try to prize open the Bowdon defence.In spite of all efforts the visitors could not manufacture a goal but on the other hand no further damage had been incurred at their defending end when the half time whistle blew.

The rain shower was a distant memory as the second half began and Carlisle had made a tactical reshuffle. Alice, strikingly blond, became a beacon in the heart of defence flanked by Emma and Charlotte. Rachel had moved to a deeper role allowing Izzy to push forward.

Carlisle knew that Bowdon would want to put the game completely to bed as soon as possible. Carlisle did not want to let the game get away from them but also knew if they could nick a goal this would put doubt in the minds of their opponents’ .So the plan was to defend well and hit on the break.
Pressure was put on the Carlisle defence but they responded magnificently. When it looked as if Bowdon might score keeper Kristian was on hand to pull off a number of crucial saves. The home team became more and more frustrated with their inability to add to their score .Their frustration grew when Alice managed to stop at least one if not two goal bound efforts on her own goal line. Further forward the Cumbrians occasionally engineered periods of control without seriously troubling the back line of the hosts.

In the last ten minutes the home team’s forward thrusts seemed to weaken and Carlisle started to make more progress especially on the right side .Cheered on by Abigail and Liv’s personal fan clubs and also encouraged by the appearance of Alice’s minder they eventually made a foray into the Bowdon circle. From this they forced a short corner. But no joy!

The last knockings of the match comprised an evenness in terms of possession without any excitement at either end of the pitch and so the game came to a conclusion with a victory to Bowdon. Masses of credit to Carlisle for the way they recovered from the early setbacks to make a splendid fist of the game.