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Women’s East Hockey League, Premier Division
Norwich Dragons Ladies 1s – no fixture

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Women’s East Hockey League, Division 2NE
Norwich Dragons Ladies 2s v Yarmouth 1s:  2-0

Empresa Norfolk Women’s League,  Premier Division
Norwich Dragons Ladies 3s v City 4s:  4-0

This week saw a very late push back for the Ladies 3^rd team against Norwich City 4^th team, knowing that a point would be enough to be crowned champions and gain promotion to the east league.

The tension around the team was building as we waited for the game already on the pitch to finish, however Ally’s Circle of Friends ensured the team were on their toes from the start and the 80’s aerobic session definitely worked for Jess Haw. Two minutes into the game, Jess Haw made a great run from the left wing, passing many defenders and scored the first goal from a strike at the top of the circle.

Dragons were on fire with positive passing play throughout the field, which soon lead to the second goal being scored from a short corner, calmly tapped over the line by Aditi Naik. The high intensity of play continued from Dragons and the third goal of the game was driven home from Debs Smith again from a short corner to end the first half 3-0.

The second half saw Norwich City create more opportunities as Dragons intensity dropped, but the defensive combination of Kat Speirs, Bella Capps, Angela Muragtroyd and Esme Potter dealt with all City attacks to maintain another clean sheet this season. Dragons remained patient and managed to convert a third short corner of the game for the fourth goal of the game, this time scored by Ally Windsor Waite.

The final score was 4-0, joint POM for Jess Haw and Esme Potter and a champagne celebration at the end for winning the Empressa Norfolk Premier League and gaining promotion with one game to spare!

Thank you to Sophie Barrow, Kate Mckenna, Carmel Windsor Waite and Hannah Hardy for coming to support us and enjoy the mini party at the end!

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Empresa Norfolk Women’s League,  Premier Division
Norwich Dragons Ladies 4s v Lowestoft Railway 1s:  2-1

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Empresa Norfolk Women’s League,  Premier Division
Norwich Dragons Ladies 5s v City 3s:  0-9

With the weather considerably milder than the past few weeks we took on Norwich City 3s.  It turned out to be a tough match against skilled opposition with the final scoreline reflecting this at 0-9 against.

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Empresa Norfolk Women’s League,  Division 2
Norwich Dragons Ladies 6s v Pelicans 3s:  11-1

Fielding 12 players this week with lots of illnesses, there was one clear message from Captain Woody this week…HAVE FUN!

The 6s had already achieved so much throughout the season, this game was about supporting each other, working together and enjoying it.

I think it’s safe to say that the 6s grew into the game. Finishing the first half at 2-0 and with Pelicans upping the pressure, Dragons knew that they needed to continue to pile on the pressure.

They definitely did!

The forward line of Gemma Ballard, Jane Wells and Jess Vernon were spectacular. They worked as a unit, pre-empting passes and knowing where each other were going to be, the goals really started to fly in. Gemma getting 5 and Jane 2.

The mid-field worked hard to support them. Floss Andrews, Charlotte Knight and Flori Smith all making it onto the score sheet.

Jen Buskell’s inspired run from defence saw a cracking shot from the edge of the D. Casually dribbling the ball up herself through several player.

Jade Blanchflower held the centre of the pitch at bottom of the diamond to distribute out.

Hannah Woods, Kate Atkins and Stella Windsor-Waite dealt with the Pelican’s attacks well.

A special mention should go to POM Stella. She was aggressive in defence, putting in some fantastic covering tackles, supporting the midfield, stepping in front of her player and commanding the left. A very mature performance from someone so young!

A top 2 finish is guaranteed for the 6s BUT its close at the top. Lowestoft Railway are on equal points but with a better goal difference, they play each other in the last game of the season. 14^th April – 11.45am – the Den will be the place to be. The 6s will be grateful of lots of Dragon’s fire in the race for the championship!

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Empresa Norfolk Women’s League,  Division 3
Norwich Dragons Ladies 7s  v Dereham 5s:  4-1

The 7s kept up their promotion push with a win that was comfortable enough, although the match never reached any great heights. Dragons left Dereham feeling that they had got away with some pretty rubbishy play, and were later astonished to find that results elsewhere had gone very much in their favour. So perhaps over the season the luck really does even out. After an excellent training session midweek, the 7s were hoping to build with some good ball speed, fast accurate passing, tight marking and sharp shooting. Oops! It didn’t happen, or rather not until the last 10 minutes of the game. On any other day we would have been raving about Adelice Kraemer’s four-timer. And indeed Addi did show the benefit of being a big strong forward making a nuisance of herself in front of the goalie. But truth to tell we coulda/shoulda had half a dozen more and the penalty corners were disappointing too.

In the first half, the 7s lost possession too many times and the passing was poor – and none worse than the DOTD pass by Bridget Le Good that let in the Dereham forwards to score and bring the score back to 2-1. It spoilt Emma Northie North’s chance of another clean sheet when she didn’t look like being beaten by anything. There were another couple of occasions when the entire defence missed a through ball, and if the young Dereham forwards had had the stick skills to match their speed Dragons could have been in trouble.

However, gradually the defence asserted their superiority. Bridget almost redeemed herself with a reasonably high percentage of accurate hit outs, and there was some determined tackling from Emma Dyer and Lily Crew. Louise Brooksy Brooks gave her usual full on performance at the bottom of the diamond and picked up her usual quota of smacks as a reward. When Brooksy had to take a break, Mads Gibbs provided some excellent cover on a very sprightly centre forward. Lily Crew again showed she can be a competent defender and a creative midfielder.

The mids did not make a confident start. They were not first to the ball and the passing was poor by their standards – and there were times when they were robbed because they tried to do too much. But as a unit, they will never give up. With Stevie Spencer in the centre, and with Amelia Keitley-Webb and Maisie Dearmer on either side, Dragons have three quick, determined mids more than capable of the hard work that gets you through the tough spells. In the second half they did some excellent tackling back as well as setting up the forwards, and Mads, Lily and Brooksy were also involved in some nice linking moves.

With only 12 players, the forwards also had to up their work rate in order to allow Addi to play high and demo how well she can shield that ball. She really is untackle-able! Captain Claire Fairhurst was at her best wide left, linking nicely with Amelia and Stevie. On the right, Mia McGhee injected some real pace in her runs, frequently coming from deep and making some excellent crosses. Both Mia and Claire went close with their follow ups, and Amelia had some good shots which somehow found the goalkeeper.

Dragons know their promotion fate is now in their own sticks and they know they can perform far better than they did today. Several players got one or two POM votes. But the real star of the day? Step forward Lilly Sore, who umpired her first league match. Calm, authoritative and confident, Lilly showed excellent judgement on when to penalise the footballers and when to let the game flow. Well done Lilly.

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Empress Norfolk Women’s League, Division 3
Norwich Dragons Ladies 8s  v Watton 3s:  0-6

Ladies 8’s player of the match – Nic Harrison

Following the euphoria of after winning the previous match, the feeling going into this match was that “anything was possible.”

This game was always going to be a hard one as the opposition are a team that was relegated from the league above at the end of last season. The #awesomeeights started slowly and struggled to find their grove. There were glimmers of hope, especially when encouragement and pointers were offered from the side-lines (thanks Mike Hardy).

Positioning, on a whole, was good but like the eights, enthusiasm slipped at times. When we were on point the play was fluid and the ball quickly found its way into the oppositions D. When the eights remembered what we have been practising, played the ball wide, with short direct passes or passes into space we easily had the upper hand. Unfortunately, this wasn’t maintained consistently throughout the match giving Watton the chance to get the ball to the top player who went on to score four of their six goals. Slip ups in marking also gave them opportunities which they shouldn’t have had.

The second half showed a massive improvement in the eights game, with the team working closer together, posting up and good communication from the defence team. Special mentions must go to Nic Harrison who yet again gave an enthusiastic, tenacious performance earning her the man of the match award. Also, to Sophie James who despite a nasty knock to the elbow which required some attention from an ice pack, dusted herself down and returned to the pitch to keep fighting on and driving the ball up the field. Special thanks to Esther Jacobs for doubling up and manning the goal for us, your encouragement, knowledge and communication was brilliant and went a long way to getting us back on track when heads dropped.

So, as we enter the last bit of the season, thanks to the trio of re-scheduled matches, #awesomeeights need to remember to;

• Work as a team – Communicate with each other
• Don’t crowd
• Try to keep to the 3-pass rule (it really works)!
• MARK players, especially the dangerous ones
• Post Up
• HAVE FUN – after all this is why we play hockey.

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Men’s East Hockey League, Division 2N
Norwich Dragons Men’s 1s v Magpies 2s:  0-1

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Men’s East Hockey League, Division 3NE
Norwich Dragons Men’s 2s v City 4s:  13-1

There was to be no dragon slaying for Norwich City 4ths this day: for they were put to the sword 13-1 (HT 3-0) by a rampant dragons 2nds! Eddie Gould got the ball rolling from a short corner strike and the visitors never looked back. Dragons mix of youth and experience ran amok putting ten second half goals past the hapless home keeper. City scored a consolation making it 5-1 but this only spurred the away side on to greater things. Scorers were Eddie Gould 4, Alex Browne 4, Jonathan Chaney-Baxter 4 and Ed Murphy. Tireless work from Pedro Goss got him MOM.

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Men’s East Hockey League, Division 3NE
Norwich Dragons Men’s 3s v IES 3s:  1-2

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Men’s East Hockey League Division 4NE
Norwich Dragons Men’s 4s v Ipswich 3s:  0-5

Men’s East Hockey League, Division 5NE
Norwich Dragons Men’s 5s – no game

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Men’s East Hockey League, Division 6NE(N)
Norwich Dragons Men’s 6s v Norfolk Nomads:  2-1

This was the final game of the season for the mens 6^th team and was, once again, a postponed match from earlier in the season. The approach to this game was very much the same as others, that being short, accurate passing and retaining the ball as much as possible. The first half was a very tight affair with neither side making a significant breakthrough. In reality we were very evenly matched. There were very few penalty corners awarded to either team and it was a close battle in midfield to retain possession.

At half time, the team talk was to continue playing in the same style and we would eventually make the breakthrough. Within 10 minutes of the re-start Dragons made the breakthrough with a clean strike on goal from Rob Lee being turned into the Nomads goal by Thomas Helfer right on the near post. A lovely taken goal. It didn’t take long for Nomads to strike back when they managed to break into the dragons final third and managed to get a clear shot into the Dragons net.

With the game slipping away, a draw looked the most likely outcome, but in the dying minutes Bobby Sheppard broke though into the Nomads circle and took the shot which was initially blocked but Tommy Chapman was on hand to turn the ball into the Nomads goal. Shortly after, the whistle blew for the end of the match with another win for Dragons 6.

As it was the final game of the season we had an individual vote by each team member for Man of the Match. A clear winner was Tommy Chapman for great play up front and scoring the winning goal.

As captain this season, I would just like to publicly record my appreciation to every player who has turned out for the mens 6th team this year. It has been a tough season with the league reorganisation, and we effectively went up a division when the two bottom leagues were split geographically. Because of this we didn’t get the results we all hoped for during most of the season, but at no time did anyone give up or throw the towel in. In fact everyone dug deep and kept trying their individual hardest to improve themselves and the team results. As a consequence, we finished the season winning 3 out of the last 5 games and the final two consecutively. This showed how much everyone kept the right approach and desire to succeed, right up to the final whistle of the season. Well done everyone and I am proud to have been your captain this year.

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Norwich Dragons Hockey Club
Dragons Dev Boys A v Watton 17-0

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Norwich Dragons Hockey Club
Dragons Dev Boys B v Dereham 7-1

In great conditions for hockey a strong looking Dragons B took on Dereham away from home

Initial early pressure led to an excellent solo goal from Lawrie Williams. This allowed us to start to play the open attacking game we wanted to.

We continued to press but there was always a threat from Dereham on the break.

Some driving runs from midfield bought a short corner, which came to nothing and an excellent save by the Dereham keeper.

Second goal eventually came and it was another solo by Lawrie after pressure had bought other chances in the preceding 5 minutes.

Despite dominating we remained vulnerable to counter attack. Dereham subsequently  forced an excellent save from Adam Jones in goal and well disciplined defence from Will Mares and his back line.

Our 3rd was an excellent well worked goal from Josh Cormack and the 4th  came just before half time from Jake Reynolds to leave us looking very comfortable at the break.

Ht

We started the 2nd as we finished the 1st half with a great goal for Josh almost straight from push back.

Tenacious defending and good save by Adam followed by deserved Dereham goal to make it 5-1. Despite the score line Dereham never gave up and continued to make a great game of it.

Game more stretched both sides opportunities with Will having a breather with Bertie Pinching and Harvey Nkrumah filling in well and some great shielding play by Daniel Shirley kept Dereham attacks at bay.

Dragons worked the Dereham keeper and a dogged Dereham refused to give up and chances at both ends

As Dereham tired a sweeping move bought the 6th from Archie Grieg who scored his first ever Dev goal.

The scoring was completed with the Dragons 7th coming from Josh who completed his hatrick

World class save at the death from Adam who had busier afternoon than score would suggest.

The game finished 7-1. It was an excellent performance and a thoroughly enjoyable, good spirited game.

Tommy Chambers

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Norwich Dragons Hockey Club
Dragons Dev Girls v  Dereham:  2-2

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