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| Lise Gillen scored a hat-trick away to Caledonia on Saturday (Photo by Wil Evans) |
Saturday 7th December 2024 – WNIHL Div2N: Caledonia Queen Bees 4 - Widnes Wild Women 12
The Widnes Wild women’s team battled through hurricane conditions to head north to Scotland but it was all worthwhile as they came home with a 4-12 victory over the Caledonia Queen Bees on Saturday.
The Queen Bees are a new team in the league this season and are a second team to the Caledonia Steel Queens, who won the league title last season and are now playing in the higher WNIHL Division 1.
The match was played at the Border Ice Rink in Kelso which the Caledonia club use quite often and, as it is a good 50 miles further south than their regular home rink of Murrayfield in Edinburgh, is a bit easier to get to.
This was the Wild women’s first visit to that compact and bijou venue and it took them a while to get used to the unusual surroundings.
It was quite a close game in its early stages and the Queen Bees took the lead after just 2 minutes of play. Jemma Brown equalised for the Wild skating the whole length of the ice to do so - on 12 minutes and then Lise Gillen fired Widnes in front three minutes later.
Caledonia equalised with 2 minutes left on the clock and the score stood at 2-2 at the first period break.
Two quick goals within 45 seconds of each other at the start of the second period - from Gillen and Amanda Armstrong – put Widnes back in front and they never really looked back from there.
The Wild Women fired in two more goals – from Abigail Aldred (her first ever competitive goal), and team captain Charlotte Cramp – before Caledonia eventually pulled a goal back on 38 minutes.
Charlotte McAdam had left the game early in the first period after a hefty collision with the boards but bravely returned to the ice and was rewarded with her first Wild women’s goal with 54 seconds left in the second. The score stood at 3-7 at the second interval and the Wild Women looked well in control.
Caledonia scored their 4th goal 50 seconds into the third period but any hopes of their mounting a late comeback were well and truly scotched with 5 unanswered goals - from Victoria Connelly, Gillen again for a hat-trick and three more from Cramp – handing the Wild Women an emphatic 4-12 victory.
The Wild Women are next in action this Sunday 15th December when they take on Sheffield Shadows at Planet Ice Widnes, 4.25pm face off.
In a break from the league programme, this match is part of new cup competition that was introduced for this season to make up the number of games after the Grimsby team withdrew from competing.
Alongside their league meetings, Widnes will play Sheffield and Telford once home and once away in a three team “round robin” cup group that will decided an overall winner.
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| Charlotte McAdam scored her first ever competitive goal away to Caledonia on Saturday (Photo by Mark Bird Sports Photography) |
The Wild Women had THREE players called Charlotte in their team on Saturday – Charlotte Cramp, Charlotte McAdam and netminder Charlotte Jackson.
Please note that the goalscorer details for this report have been taken from Wild Women’s team coach Paddy Horner’s notes and NOT from the official gamesheet so there may be some discrepancies.
