Sunday 16th February 2025 – WNIHL North Cup: Widnes Wild Women 5 - Telford Wrekin Raiders 5 (Match abandoned at 41.19) 
Cath Thornton scored her
first goal for the Wild Women
Photo by Paul Breeze
The Widnes Wild women’s team saw their cup game against Telford Wrekin Raiders abandoned early in the 3rd period - with the score standing at 5-5 - after an injury to a Telford player at Planet Ice Widnes on Sunday.
The game had started well for Widnes as Katie Fairclough fired them into the lead after just 2 minutes. Telford hit back with two quick goals but a second from Fairclough on 10 minutes levelled the score again.
The Raiders edged back into the lead just two minutes later and then 2 quick fire goals within 8 seconds of each other in the last minute of the period put them 2-5 ahead.
Widnes pulled goal a back on 24 minutes with a strike from Amanda Armstrong and then a goal from Cath Thornton – her first in Widnes colours – on 29 minutes – narrowed the deficit to just one.
There followed a tense spell of end- to-end hockey with chances at both ends but it took until the last minute of the period for the next goal – which fell to the Wild’s Rachael Pearce to level the score at a finely balanced 5-5.
A barnstorming third period looked to be on the cards but, sadly, it was not to be as with only 1.19 played, a Telford player suffered a heavy collision against the boards and collapsed onto the ice.
There was a significant delay while she received medical attention in–situ and, by the time that she could be safely moved from the ice, there wasn’t enough ice time left to play out the remainder of the game.
The two team coaches and the match officials decided to call off the game at that point and it was officially abandoned.
According to the official England Ice Hockey regulations, in the case of a match being abandoned due a medical emergency with neither team being at fault:
“Where less than 2 periods of the match have been played, a 0-0 draw will be declared with each team being awarded one point. Where more than 2 periods of the match have been played, the result at the point of abandonment will stand.”
This would suggest that the match will be recorded as a 5-5 draw, but that will still have to be decided by the League Management Committee after considering reports from the various officials involved.
The Wild Women are next in action on Sunday 9th March when they take on Sheffield Shadows in a league game at Planet Ice Widnes, 4.25pm face off.
