Champions of the Premier League – another undefeated season for the Ladies’ A!
With the 2022/2023 season coming to a close, we are delighted to announce Ladies’ A has been crowned champions of the Premier Division once more!
In the first half of the season, our team took time to find its pace as we welcomed some of new faces and young blood to the team: Julie Groos, Martina Anglada, Yammi Chui and Sophie Aranha. With the addition of new players, it means new team dynamics, more penalty corner variations and even more settling in. Thankfully, our first game wasn’t on till the end of September so our captain Katherine Mountain arranged friendlies week after week with the Men’s A to better prepare us for the season. The hard work pays off – in the following week, Ladies A already managed to climb on top with 11 goals scored in the first three games.
Just when we thought we were off to a good start, some of our players, including Tiffany Chan and Yammi Chui, went abroad for 2 weeks to umpire and captain the Hong Kong U21 in the Women’s Junior AHF Cup tournament 2022. Playing without a full team, our game against the Coyotez ended up in an unfortunate draw 0-0.
But this did not lower our team’s morale as we managed to bounce back with 4 wins against KCC A, Bauhinia, Valley A and Ladies B. Wrapping up the 1st round of the competition with 7 celebrated wins, 10 individual goals from Olivia, and a well-dressed Mariah Carey “All I want for Christmas is you” alphabet Christmas Party.
Our team enjoyed a well-deserved winter break while we bid our goodbyes to Amelia Denness who left us for the UK and the division’s top scorer, Olivia Levieux.
Onto the second half of the season, our team suffered a few injuries with Elena Hobson and Weeraya Ho who sadly had to miss the rest of season. However, there was some good news too: Leigh Cumings and Emma Sturgess came back on the team after giving birth to their cute little angels! We also had Shona Drummond who joined us for the remaining season. And perfect timing as well, with our new jerseys finally arriving.
Although the team continued to lead the league table, the games were played with much intensity as we strived to deliver good hockey and of course to compete for the top scorer title. At the time of submitting this draft, Leigh Cumings topped the chart with 15 goals and was officially crowned the Top scorer of the Premier League! Nicola Bruce was not far behind, with 13 goals under her belt while Sophie Foxall secured third place with a total of 10 goals. Not to mention, our Captain Katy had 8 while Samantha Hill’s powerful hitting landed her 5 goals. We just love to see all our players’ names up there!
Of course, this all could not be accomplished without our solid line of defence. Our Vice Captain Hannah Wright earned her MOM title as the “best defender” in training as well as in games. And we have Charlie Webb, who might not be the best person at cutting bread, but you can count on her to play all those long balls and attack aggressively on the right hand side. Angelina Mok continued to stand tall and protect our goal, conceding only 5 goals the entire season! An impressive record for any premier goalies to beat! What’s more, Melvina Cheng was finally able to cross the mainland China border just to play with us every week. Talk about dedication!
It is a combined team effort that the team could make it this far: 18 matches, multiple roster changes but staying undefeated and on top. Taking this opportunity, we would like to say a massive thank you to our coach Arshad for all the Tuesday training sessions – it is beautiful to see how the drills turned into goals every Saturday. Nikki Mclucas, for always cheering the team on from afar. And well done to Chappie, Ken and Lynsey, for working so hard to make the games happen and thank you everyone for all your continuous support.
Our team would like to extend our thanks to our sponsors as well, Odin Partners and Capco – without your support, it would not be possible!