Women’s Blues

The Blues began their Cup campaign at home vs Reading. Cambridge dominated the possession from the beginning, linking play throughout the pitch. Good coordination and leading between the forwards, combined with a strong presence in the D quickly led to a goal for Cambridge in the first 10 minutes. Cambridge maintained their form throughout, scoring in open play and from short corners, resulting in a final score of 6-0. Scorers: Faye Kidd (3), Claire Bond (2) and Sophia Padt. MOM: Lucia Corry.

Nomads

The Nomads put out a strong performance against Oxford Brookes 2s (who sit two BUCS leagues above us) to progress through to the quarter-finals of the BUCS Midland Conference Cup. Cambridge looked dangerous from the start, finding the net in the first 15 minutes. But Brookes were also efficient on the break, and responded every time the Nomads went up. At 4-3 to Cambridge, the Nomads recovered from some shaky moments to hold possession and were rewarded with a final goal to see them safely through 5-3. Scorers: Michelle Teplensky, Felicity Holmes, Olivia Shears, Sophie Glanfield and Georgie Burrows.

Wanderers

It was always obvious that the Wanderers were going to be in for a great afternoon as they travelled to Iffley Road.

The Wanderers got off to a slow start, getting pushed back into their own half and failing to keep possession for any proper length of time. However, after 10 minutes passes started to be strung together throughout the team and it was evident that the Wanderers' forwards could outplay their opposition’s slow defenders as numerous chances were created. Oxford do deserve some credit though for their chances on goal – while very few if any shots in open play could be seen due to the Wanderers' defence ensuring they only had messy possession – most notably Larman at centre back – they created a few opportunities through short corners. The rest of the half followed suit with very even possession and chances as short corners were created on both sides of the field; all of these failing to be converted. It is worth noting some impressive saves from Eliott in goal and Will Archibald on the line to keep the score 0-0 at half time.

The second half started much as the first ended until after a few minutes ‘Dungeons and Dragons’ received the ball on the 25 and drove to inside of the D to finish the Wanderers' first goal with a powerful hit from a tough angle – embarrassing the keeper. It wasn’t long after, that a short corner eventually led to something; the opposition’s defender couldn’t take the humiliation from the Wanderers so decided to sacrifice his knee to stop a drag flick on the line. This of course resulted in a penalty flick which Fully didn’t fail to put in the corner. Now 2-0 up and going into the final third the Wanderers were in a very good position to finish the game off. But sadly a bit of luck went Oxford’s way as a bobbling ball unimpressively found its way through multiple players and to a forward on the line with an open goal – even he couldn’t miss that chance and suddenly Oxford were back in the game. The next 10-15 minutes were a bit of a struggle for the Wanderers as they were pushed well back and had to fight off a relatively strong midfield. But good rotations throughout the squad allowed the efforts from all involved to be exceedingly high and this added to some of Eliot’s saves that almost gave him MoM meant that the opposition’s attack was fought off and Wanderers could again start to use the speed that they had at their disposal. Ben had some strong carries with one in particular that involved a run of half of the pitch and an almost re-enactment of his earlier goal had it not been for a defender’s deflection. The height of the attackers gave way to some great chances though and with only a few moments to go, the crowd were silenced when a rebound from one of Ben’s strikes found its way to Kendall who slapped it first time high into an open net to effectively end all opposition hopes and to finish the game 3-1.

The Wanderers really laid down a marker before Varsity and morale will be high going into our next encounter. Scorers Ben Dudgeon, Will Fullwood and Alex Kendall. MOM Ben Dudgeon.