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Back Row: Sophie Sinclair Reeks, Penny Fletcher, Madeleine Gustavsson, Jakki Duncan, Abigail Hayes, Jodie Boyle, Vanessa Crickmore-Clarke, Sammi Boyle. Front Row: Elizabeth Wright, Leen de Decker, Katie Hills, Stephanie Drinkwater, Leanne Curry, Sarah Hutchinson, Charlene Chapman.
The Widnes Wild Women play their first game of the new season this Sunday 14th September at home to Sheffield Shadows, exactly 10 years - almost to the day - from their first ever league game.
The Wild Women were formed in the summer of 2015 when the erstwhile Manchester Phoenix women’s team moved along the M56 from Altrincham following a re-assignment of ice time arrangements there.
Their first ever league game was away to Slough Phantoms in the Women’s Premier League – at the time the second tier in the women’s ice hockey league pyramid – on 12th September 2015 and they came away with a 3-4 win.
The Wild Women’s first ever competitive goal was scored by Leen de Decker on 39 minutes and third period strikes from team captain Charlene Chapman, Rachel Cartwright – who has since gone on to be a 6-time Elite League champion and regular GB international player - and de Decker again handed them the win.
Widnes went on to have a very good season, finishing second in the WPL league table with 8 wins and 3 draws from their 14 games. They came a fairly distant 7 points behind champions Swindon Top Cats, who went through the season unbeaten, but the Wild Women were one of only two teams to take a point off the “Calendar Girls” that season with a 3-3 home draw on Merseyside.
The Wild Women’s team for that first league game was Stephanie Drinkwater (NM), Charlene Chapman (C), Rachel Cartwright (A), Leen De Decker, Abigail Culshaw, Emma Middleton, Lucy Kirkham, Emma Pearson (A), Megan Bowen Fell, Katie Hills, Catherine Bowen Fell, Katharine Holliday, Elizabeth Wright, Jakki Duncan & Rebecca Wilde - and Drinkwater, de Decker and Catherine Fell are still with the team 10 years later.
Drinkwater holds the Wild Women’s appearance record with 104 games over 9 seasons (the 2020/21 season was cancelled due to Covid…), de Decker is the top goals and points scorer with 104 goals and 150 points from 91 games while Fell is sandwiched between them in the all-time player standings with 22+33 in 92 games.
The Wild Women won the Division 2 North title last season and will be playing in WNIHL Division 1 North this season. This is the same level of competition as the Women’s Premier League was before it was renamed after a reshuffle and regionalised into North and South divisions.
The Wild Women face off the new season against Sheffield Shadows this Sunday 14th September at Planet Ice Widnes, 4.25pm face off – admission is free for all spectators.
