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| Women Go Wild in Bristol (Photo by Wild Women IHC) |
The Widnes Wild Women finished off their
rollercoaster season in the usual manner with a weekend trip to Bristol to take
part in the annual end of season women’s jamboree.
The “Bristol Women’s Ice Hockey Friendship
Tournament” – to give its full title – is now in its 28th year and was played
for a number of years at Swindon after the previous Bristol rink closed down and
a replacement facility was being built.
It is a fairly unique competition as it involves
teams from the different EIHA divisions – Elite League, Division 1 and
Divisions 2 North & South - all playing against each other in one big
qualifying group, and there have been teams from abroad taking part in previous
years as well.
The tournament is a veritable masterpiece of
planning and logistics and this year’s schedule featured 12 teams playing a
total of 66 games. The group games are just 12 minutes each in duration, with
running clock, and the next game follows immediately afterwards with a brief
pause for ice cutting at certain points during the day.
Over the course of the Saturday - and the early
part of Sunday - all the teams play each other and the top four in the final
group standings go on to play in semi-finals and then a final – played with a
slightly longer match time - on the Sunday evening.
The Wild Women’s opening group game on the
Saturday was keenly anticipated as it was their first ever competitive meeting
with the new Blackburn Hawks women’s team who had joined the league last
season.
Blackburn had 5 former Wild Women in their ranks
which added a little extra spice to the occasion and it was they who narrowly
edged the all north-west encounter 1-0.
The Wild Women fared better in their next couple
of games - beating Lee Valley Vampires 1-0 with the only goal coming from
Eleanor Johnson and then the Ice Crushers composite veterans team by the same
scoreline, with Lise Gillen scoring the decisive goal.
A 2-2 draw with the Sheffield Shadows – with goals
coming from Gillen, again, and Catherine Fell - saw the only other Widnes point
of the first day’s play and they lost to the Bristol Huskies second team
(confusingly called Huskies #1 for this competition), Slough Sirens and the
Huskies top team without scoring a goal.
The Wild Women occupied a lower mid-table
position overnight and had little chance of qualifying for the semi finals but
there was still pride to play for in their remaining group games on Sunday.
They lost 2-1 in their first game on Sunday to
Oxford Midnight Stars – who, despite only being a Division 2 team in the
regular league season, went on to finish as runners up in the final tournament
table. Lise Gillen scored the sole
Widnes goal.
Following this early set back, Widnes finished
the group stage with a flourish as they won all three of their last games. They hammered Huskies #2 (the Bristol 3rd
team) 4-0 with goals from Fell, Gillen and two from Tayla Huxley-Richards, and
the narrowly edged Milton Keynes Falcons 1-0 with the goal coming from Lise
Gillen again.
Their last game saw a 1-0 win over Coventry
Phoenix with Leen de Decker scoring the only goal and that was enough to see the
Wild Women finish in 7th place in the 12 team table with 5 wins and
1 draw from their 11 games.
The top four teams in the group table qualified
for the semi final and these saw the main table-topping Huskies beat Huskies #1
1-0 and third place Sheffield Shadows beat second place finishers Oxford
Midnight stars by the same scoreline. The final between Huskies and Sheffield
finished 2-0 to the host team.
Lise Gillen ended the weekend as the Wild Women’s
top scorer with 5 goals and 1 assist while Leen de Decker and Catherine Fell
finished up with 1+2 and 2+1 respectively.
Tayla Huxley-Richards, Eleanor Johnson and Dee
Vause also managed to get on the scoresheet.
Widnes netminder Stephanie Drinkwater finished 5th
in the overall rankings for the group stage with an 82.5% Save Percentage and
an impressive Goals Against Average of just 0.91.
The Wild Women now have a few weeks’ break before
preparations start for the 2026/27 WNIHL season. They have some player trials planned and
interested parties are asked to make contact via the “Widnes Wild Women’s Ice
Hockey Team” Facebook page HERE.
The Wild Women are always keen to hear from
prospective new players – and anybody with prior league or international
experience is especially welcome.
