DMUK Widnes Wild Women - 12th May 2024 (photo by Paul Breeze)
The DMUK Widnes Wild women’s team have finished the WNIHL Division 2
North season with three extra league points following a decision by the League
Management Committee regarding two unresolved games.
The first game was the away fixture at Kingston Diamonds that was due
to be played on 27th January but had to be postponed as the Hull Jets NIHL (men’s)
team needed the ice slot for a Moralee Cup semi final match, which had to be
played that weekend.
It was not subsequently possible to re-arrange the women’s game for a
mutually convenient date and time so the result was eventually awarded as a 0-0
draw with 1 point for each team.
With Widnes having already beaten Kingston 10-2 at home in their first
encounter of the season back in December - and considering the fact that the
Diamonds’ only wins all season came at the expense of bottom team Grimsby - having this game awarded as draw comes across as a bit of a gift as the Wild
women would, probably have won the re-arranged game had it been played.
The other decision was a bit more complicated as the away game at
Grimsby on 24th February had to be abandoned at 16.47 minutes due to a serious
injury to a Grimsby player.
It was nobody’s fault and there was no foul play involved - the player
concerned just fell badly and needed to be taken to hospital with a broken leg.
Widnes had travelled to the game without a recognised netminder so
senior player Lucy Kirkham bravely stepped in to play in goal. At the time of the abandonment, the score was
4-1 to Grimsby, with the sole Widnes goal coming from team captain Charlotte
Cramp.
When a similar thing happened in a Wild women’s game the previous
season - and a Widnes player was injured in a game away at Whitley, the score had
been 0-1 to the Wild at the time of the incident and the result had been
allowed to stand.
This time, however, the LMC decided to award the abandoned game as a 0-5
forfeit win to Widnes, suggesting that
there must have been other aspects that needed to be considered.
The Grimsby team may well feel aggrieved that they missed out on their
only chance of a win for the season when the game was called off but – here again
- a full strength Widnes team would almost certainly have won the re-arranged
game, had it been played.
With the result being awarded as a 0-5 forfeit, it means that the
goals and assists scored by both sides do not get counted in the official records
and, sadly, nor does Lucy Kirkham’s heroic 16 minute stint in goal during which
she saved 15 of the 19 shots she faced.
The league decision means that the Wild women now finish the season
with five wins, two draws and seven defeats from their 14 league matches.
They end up in 5th place in the 8-team table with12 points
- 5 behind Leeds Roses who finish 4th and 3 ahead of Whitley Bay
Beacons who finish 6th.
The Wild women’s top points scorer for the season was Preston Gennoe with 16 goals and 5 assists from 11 games. Katie Fairclough was second with 10+5 from 10 games and Katya Oliver third with 3+5 from 9 games.
