Diamonds too strong for Wild

Kingston Diamonds 6 Widnes Wild Women 0 THE Widnes Wild Women’s team put in a battling performance but came away without reward with a 6-0 defeat in the Women’s Premier League against Hullbased Kingston Diamonds on Sunday.

In a season that has already seen them ice new players in double figures, they gave another WPL debut to Pamela England, another successful graduate of the Widnes hockey basics training course.

A healthy bench of 18 players travelled the length of the M62 for the midday face off, although match experience is still a little on the short side as only six of those were playing regular league hockey before this season.

Jemma Brown was Wild captain for the day against her old teammates and, while the statistics may look rather one-sided, the enthusiastic Wild outfit gave a good account of themselves.

Despite being heavily out-shot in the first period 26-3, the Wild women kept the Kingston attack at bay until the eighth minute of play. Two more goals handed the hosts a 3-0 lead at the first break and, by the end of the second stanza they had built up a 5-0 advantage.

The Wild carried on pushing forward in search of a consolation right up until the final buzzer and were unlucky to concede a sixth goal in the closing stages.

However, it is all good match experience and it will be interesting to see how this ambitiously constructed new-look team develops as the season progresses.

After the game, Amanda Williams, said: “The girls can take pride in their performance, with only one of six goals coming from a clear shot rather than a goalmouth scramble.

“A special mention must go to Pam, who made her debut after stepping up from LTP/rec hockey.

“We now have a month to heal some injuries and get back to training before our first home game on December 9.”

That is the first home game of the season for the Wild Women when they host the Whitley Bay Squaws at Planet Ice Widnes. The clash has a 5.30pm face-off time.