QE v. Hartlepool

QE Netball A v. Hartlepool

After a brief warm up thanks to our bus driver parking about 4 miles away from the court, we got off to a steady start in the first quarter. Second quarter things started to pick up a bit and we were defending strong and carrying the ball well with Ellie  and Jo  having some great takes on the circle edge, Toni worked the circle well and her and Beth's shooting was spot on.
Laura and Emily H were strong in defence and supported the attack really well. We decided to break the mould of having a shocking q3 and really got into the swing of things and we were in such a good mood about it we decided that we need some sort of social to celebrate at a later date. Big well done to izzy and Emily in circle defence for handling a GA who was a bit on the tall side (special mention to izzy for overcoming all traumatic Ethiopia experiences to be on peak form) and overall a smashing performance from everybody to take a 41-6 win and make a strong start to the season.

QE Rugby vs Barnard Castle B

A big crowd turned out to watch our game against Barnard Castle, and neither side disappointed.  Barnard Castle started with hard hitting backs play from the kickoff pushing us back with a stint of quick offloads.

QE soon came back however with expansive play out to the wing building pressure in Barnard's  22  where we were camped for some time.

Then after a quick succession of penalties Jamie Richardson score between posts, with Ollie Cooper converted. 

Soon after this the Barnard Castle 10 was yellow carded just before half time.

Ht QE 7    BC 0

With the kick off Barnard Castle came back with more offload play and caused numerous penalties for QE until we regained possession off a scrum. From the play that that followed Joss Mercer came out with a huge run down the majority of the pitch which lead to Jamie's second try - not converted.

However Barnard Castle soon retaliated with an unconverted try of their own.

Barnard Castle kept this up with another unconverted try.

This didn't deter us though as determination lead to Joss surging through the line to score the third which was converted.

In the last minute the BC 12 broke through a couple of tackles to score an unconverted try at the side of the pitch.

Ft QE 19 BC 10 or 15 

It was a very hard, fast and well played game with a very good result for us showing the rest of league what we can really do. Well done lads.

QE A Team Football match report v Hartlepool Sixth Form

The day started with everyone in the team very downhearted mood as a result of manager Mark Scott taking money off us (minors). So after scotty giving it the 'big un' in the away day quiz I was honoured to be allowed the privilege of coach DJ; playing suitable tunes to get the boys prepared.

Its safe to say the pitch at hartlepool wasn't the most baller-friendly being an little kids pitch, which suited the likes of niall and josh but restricted the play of us normal sized adolescents. The game started how it carried on; a battle with occasional flashes of good play from us. Marshy issued several rousing, tailormade, individual speeches throughout the game to our players. However, this seemed to adversely affect paul new as he spent the open exchanges chasing his first touch as opposed to his usual shoulder barging every moving object. This allowed Ready to step up to the plate and he displayed some class full back play driving us forward. Tbf to the lad he may be the sleaziest, cringiest man in QE but he is ok at football. Something that wasn't ok were his 'pants'  which defo need at least 2 pairs of socks stuffed down there to be anywhere close to acceptable. Our first and only goal was scored by the baldest person with long hair ever to grace a football pitch. Dylan chased down a loose pass before firing a shot via his sneid right boot. 8/10 finish. 

They then equalised from a defensive mishap involving the skipper and niall, to be fair to niall he was in the process of by what can only be described as 'deathgripped'. This was pretty much the last event of note to occur in the 1st half. The ref blew the half-time whistle and the ever-inspirational Mark got the lads in and rallied his troops; with an overall theme of just keep going. The second half began and we pushed on well and I think we created the better chances out of the two sides with bushy and josh clarke coming close. However, despite our spells of pressure and good play hartlepool scored against the run of play.

Desperate times called for desperate measures and I was flung up front but even with my physical presence up top ("great feet for a big man") we couldnt get that elusive equaliser. Then then scored another spawny goal and that was the game done, but we still battled away admirably. In conclusion, this wasnt a game we deserved to lose at all, we maybe lacked a cutting edge at times and we are bit naive in defence but thats being mega critical. Fortunately this was a cup game and there is defo 6 points to be taking from those in the league!! #QESteamroller had a day off but were are still proper class and that so its sound......



(sorry for lateness of this btw; Im a busy lad)

QE C team v Bishop Auckland

Well as today was a friendly the report won't be as detailed as a regular game, sorry lads just I want a quick nap before work so you's can let me off for a week. Before the game we weren't really sure of who we were playing, we all knew it was Bishop college yet various reports of their team left us a bit puzzled. The team today was shaken up a bit by Gary to give the lads who hadn't played as much a chance to stake their claim, starting 11 of Ben, Tunner, Connor, Sam, Bravey, Roe, Neish, Owen, Ab, Tom and Dan. That left me, Westy, Wayne and Hal on the subs bench all waiting for our chance. The game had a slightly sluggish start, and it was clear that the reports of these being a poor side were true as they really didn't seem up to much. However they did manage to take the lead, through a decent move where the ball was pulled back to their big centre forward who cooly slotted away. We were struggling to really get a hold of the game, Callum Roe was suffering from illness so had to be replaced mid first half by Westy, yet still we were struggling to fashion any real openings. Not long before the break the ball was played over our defence to that annoyingly fast striker who sweeped the ball underneath our keeper and made it 2-0. It hadn't been the best of first halves for us yet it was obvious that we could still get into the game as they really weren't a good side. Half time came and on came myself, Hal and Wayne for Dan, Ab and Owen. After a few stern words off Gary we approached the second half in the mood to get this game back. Our mindset was clear as we really pressured them high up and forced them to make mistakes, after a lovely interchange with Hal, Wayne went round the keeper and got fouled, he tried to get his shot away still but the touch had knocked him off balance and the referee pointed to the spot. I stepped up and put the penalty in the corner and made it 2-1, game on. Literally about 2 minutes after getting back into the game we shot ourselves in the foot, however I was taking my thermal off so I never saw the goal, all I know is that it was the number 8 who I was supposed to be marking so I will hold my hands up to that, sorry lads, 3-1. This would often kill a team off but it actually encouraged us to go on again, I've had a complete mind block and have no idea who scored the second goal, I have a feeling it may have been Wayne but I really don't know. Anyone care to inform me? Anyway, apart from the same ball to that player on the left which Tunner dealt with well often, they had no further threat. Then as we broke away again, their defender stupidly pulled down either Wayne or Westy as the ball was going out of play and gave Connor no choice but to point to the spot. They say that a second penalty in a match is hard to score, not when your name is Jamie Herd it isn't. Swapped sides from previous penalty and even though the keeper got a touch, the pure velocity of the strike got it in, 3-3. There was only one team going to win it after that, we pushed on but never created any genuine openings, I wasted our best chance by striking wide with my left foot which is no real surprise. Once again we broke through their shaky defence with Abel who saw his good strike saved well, only for it to fall to our Asian wonder kid Ab, who cooly nodded home to put us ahead for the first time, 4-3. They pressed on slightly and moaned a lot to the ref, but created nothing of any real sort. After a poor clearance from their defence Westy played Hal through, the ball looked a lost cause yet Hal managed to cap a brilliant performance with a excellent finish to find the far corner. Even with the goal Westy was still furious with his pass, yet it was actually on a plate for Hal, suppose it shows the quality he expects from himself and rightly so. The game fizzled out with no real great chances for either side and we won 5-3, coming from 2-0 and then 3-1 down which shows a decent grit and kept our good streak going. 

MOTM; Whilst only playing the second half his physical presence up top was something we had missed, held the ball up very well, got himself involved in a little handbags moment, then capped it all of with a goal, Hal Denny. 

Cock up of the week; Has to go to our centre half, who thought he was Neymar with his new boots, shocking purchase, specially for our so called hard defender, good job you had a solid performance. This week is Sam Henderson if you hadn't guessed already. 

No game next week but as Gary said we play Northumbria away in 2 weeks so make sure you sort lifts out for after that match as we need a big squad, don't want people dropping out of away games as it would be a let down. Well played lads.