Wilmslow Hockey Club and Alderley Edge Hockey Club success

After six confirmed promotions last week, Wilmslow’s women are close to becoming a seventh while Alderley Edge’s under 16s girls have booked their place in national finals.

A 3-1 win against Timperley seconds followed by a 4-0 victory over Didsbury Northern seconds at the weekend leaves Wilmslow women only one point from the title and promotion to North Division One.

Action from Wilmslow's two games at the weekend

Against Timperley, Charlie Westbrook-Platts, Hannah Coulson and Carla Botha netted, with all goals coming in the first half.

Botha scored the third goal the next day, with Emilie Kelman and Lindsay Rachubka, two, completing the job.

On a weekend when all 13 Alderley Edge teams won, it is junior teams taking the plaudits.

The under 16s girls qualified for the England Hockey National Finals by winning the North Regional Final in Wakefield, while both the under 12s and under 10s girls qualified for the In2Hockey North Finals.

The 16s fought off some tough competition in blustery Wakefield to qualify for the Lee Valley Park trip in April.

They started with a 2-1 win against Bowdon before drawing 1-1 with former National Championship finalists Beeston.

This meant the pressure was on to win their final game against hosts Wakefield.

They did just that, dominating the game from the outset and goals from Libby McCoy, Izzy Moores and Sophie Miller sealed the deal.

Two goals in the final three minutes against Chester secured the under 12s girls’ progression through to the North Finals as group winners and Cheshire champions.

Although the under 10s girls lost out to Chester on penalty flicks in their group final, their sterling efforts throughout the rest of the competition meant they also earned their place at the North Finals as runners-up.

Alderley Edge under 10s girls

The under 11s boys just missed out but still finished a credible third in their tournament at Kings Macc, winning three out of their five games.

Alderley Edge under 10s boys

As the league season draws to a close, Edge’s senior teams put on an equally emphatic display in their Saturday fixtures.

Goals from Caitlin Polley and Liv Moores in the women’s 2-0 victory over Liverpool Sefton keeps their hopes of promotion into the National Conference League alive, giving them all to play for in their final two games of the season.

Two second-half goals from Jude Offer saw Crewe Vagrants undone by the women’s seconds, while the thirds - underdogs on paper - pulled out all the stops to beat Macclesfield in Cheshire League Division One.

Alderley Edge women's thirds

Meanwhile, Wilmslow women's seconds and fourths - both keen to improve on promotion and end up champions - had emphatic wins.

The seconds beat Bowdon fourths 4-0 and the fourths beat Macclesfield thirds 5-0.

Wilmslow women's thirds lost away against Whitchurch 6-2 but are still in with an outside chance of promotion, as are the fifths who lost away to Macclesfield fourths 4-1.

Newcastle University men 4  Wilmslow men  2

WILMSLOW started off wearily after their long trek to the north east and soon found themselves 0-3 down to a sharp University side.

Just before half time Wilmslow were starting to assert themselves and Jack Wright scored a deflection to pull one back.

In the second half Newcastle made it 1-4 with 20minutes to go but soon after Joe Booth scored to make it 2-4 which heralded a Wilmslow fight back.

A heroic performance from the Newcastle goalie kept the Tangerines at bay for the remainder of the match.

Elsewhere, Wilmslow men's seconds played second placed Fylde at Styal in a tight scrap.

The Tangerines had their defence to thank for keeping a well organised Fylde side down to two goals and through the attacking sharpness of Lowden, Bell and Bonner ended up 4-2 winners.

The thirds were back to winning ways after last week's aberration and beat Macclesfield's seconds 4-2.

Wilmslow's fourths went down 2-3 at Sandbach's seconds but the fifths beat Triton's fourths by the same score.