No fewer than six Isle of Man squads travelled to the northwest of England at the weekend to compete in the first round of this season’s England Hockey Championships.

Five junior teams took on teams from Chester, Kirkby Stephen, Preston and Timperley, while the island women's over-45s team were up against Aire Valley.

Reports from the junior matches will appear in this week’s Manx Independent, on sale Thursday morning.

O45 WOMEN

The Isle of Man women took a while to settle and Aire Valley gained the early advantage, taking the lead.

A second soon followed after a scrappy exchange in the D, but the islanders finally found their rhythm and managed to build some positive phases of play, leading to a short corner duly converted by Ros Lynch, making it 2-1 at half-time.

The second half continued in similar vein with end-to-end action and both teams creating chances, but some agile keeping by Debbie Shimmin maintained the scoreline.

Solid defence from Emma Keig, Jo Hicks and Jenny Lantry proved an effective barrier, with Lantry adding extra creativity with the occasional arial.

The midfield group of Sharon Pope, Ros Lynch, Sam Franklin, Bernie Dunn and Niamh Goddard showed an impressive workrate to put pressure on the opposition and link with the forward line of Sarah Bull, Jo Quine and Elaine Wiseman who performed tirelessly, providing a constant threat.

Despite the ongoing pressure from the Isle of Man, the Aire Valley backline held out to ensure they took a 2-1 win.

The team would like to thank Niamh Goddard for the continued admin support and to Ciaran Gell and Paul Hunter who travelled to umpire.

RACHEL ANDREW

RESULTS

IoM Women's O45s 1-2 Aire Valley Women's O45

IoM U14 Boys 5-1 Preston U14 Boys

IoM U16 Girls 6-0 Chester U16 Girls

IoM U16 Boys 4-5 Timperley U16 Boys

IoM U18 Girls 3-3 Kirkby Stephen U18 (the IoM won on shuffles)

IoM U18 Boys 5-6 Preston U18 Boys.