Leen de Decker (#5) attacks the Solway goal (Photo by MadMac Photography)
Saturday
31st January 2026 – WNIHL Div1 North: Solway Sharks 7 – Widnes Wild Women 4
The Widnes Wild Women put in an impressive performance on their latest
trip to Scotland but came out just short, losing 7-4 away to Solway Sharks
Ladies on Saturday.
The game saw a Wild Women debut for
Lydia Lutwyche, a Great Britain Under 18 women’s international player who is
also playing for the Wild Academy U19 (mixed) team this season.
Despite the final score, this game was
actually quite close and it took until the 14th minute for Solway to
open the scoring. They scored again 2
minutes later and took a 2-0 lead into the first break, but Widnes weren’t
outclassed by any means.
The Wild Women’s pressure on goal
eventually paid off with a goal from Leen de Decker on 23 minutes and this
sparked a frantic 2 ½ minutes that saw 4 more goals fly in.
Solway restored their 2 goal lead with
a strike 37 seconds later but Tayla Huxley–Richards pulled a goal back for
Widnes straight from the restart.
Another De Decker goal 45 seconds
after that saw Widnes draw level but they weren’t able to build any further on
this – despite outshooting their hosts during the middle period - and Solway
edged back into the lead with their fourth goal of the game on 25 minutes.
The score remained at a tantalisingly
close 4-3 at the second interval but, after a nail biting 10 minutes of back
and forth early in the third period, Solway pulled away with 3 straight goals to
lead 7-3.
Leen de Decker scored her hat-trick
goal on 55 minutes with a delayed penalty strike punishing a Solway holding
call but that was the last goal of the game.
Following on from their first win of
the season at home to Nottingham Vipers last weekend, the Wild Women can take a
number of positives from this away defeat.
Their four-goal haul is their highest of
the season so far and they pretty much matched the opposition in terms of shots
on goal over the 60 minutes of play.
Lydia Lutwyche contributed an assist in
her first game for the club and Elizabeth Bird was named Player of the Game for
Widnes.
The Wild Women are next in action on Sunday
when they go to Hull and back to take on league leaders Kingston Diamonds on Humberside
– 12.30 (noon...) face off. They are next
at home on Sunday 8th March when they host Solway Sharks at Planet Ice
Widnes, 4.25 pm face off.
