North West derby at Altrincham (Photo by Lisa Langford)
Saturday 3rd October 2026 – WNIHL Div2
North: Manchester Storm 0 –
Deeside Dragons Women 26
The
Deeside Dragons women’s team made history at the weekend when they took part in
the first ever North West women’s league derby, with a comprehensive 0-26 win away
to Manchester Storm in Altrincham on Saturday.
There
have been numerous women’s teams in the north west over the years – dating back
to the original Manchester team at the old Ice Palace back in the 1930s - but
they have always played in different divisions before now so this was the first
competitive league fixture of its kind.
Deeside
and the Storm “B” are both new teams in the league for this season and are
playing in the “Elizabeth” section of WNIHL Division 2 North. The Manchester
team is a second string development team for the main Storm “A” women’s team
that play in the higher “Valerie” section of Division 2 North, and it is composed
of mainly young and inexperienced players.
The
Dragons team also has a preponderance of young players who are in their first
season of senior women’s hockey but they also have a number of older, more
experienced league players within their ranks, so – on paper - this game always
looked likely to go Deeside’s way.
Niamh
Walsh opened the scoring for the Dragons Women after 46 seconds and they never really
looked back from there.
By
the end of the first period, the score was 0-10 to Deeside and, by the end of
the second, it was 0-21. Five more goals followed in the third period to round off
a comprehensive victory.
Despite
the one-sided scoreline, it wasn’t all one-way traffic and Chloe Smith in the Dragons
had to turn away 21 shots to notch up her first senior shout out and, while
Manchester may have conceded 26 goals, the over-worked Manchester netminding pairing
of Anne-Marie Spurrett and Laura Thomason actually kept out an impressive 71 from
the 97 shots that they faced overall.
Niamh
Walsh led the Deeside goal-rush with 7 goals and 2 assists but the scoring was spread
widely across the team with 13 different players making it onto the score-sheet
with goals or assists.
For
the record, these were: Charlotte McAdam (3+3), Lucy Kirkham (2+4), Emmie
Lauder (3+1), Teagan Walsh (2+0), Nylah Young (2+0), Sophie Royle (1+1), Ellie
Mitchell(1+1), Ava Langford, Evie Davies, Lana Botes, Alicia Smith (all 1+0) - and
Eleanor Johnson weighed in with a assist.
Following
the weekend results, the Dragons Women remain in second place in the Division 2
North table with a perfect three wins from their first three games. Leeds Thorns
are currently top, one point ahead of Deeside, but they have played two games more.
The
Dragons women are away to Nottingham Vipers this Saturday 10th
October and are next at home on the following Saturday 17th October
when they take on the Hull-based Kingston Diamonds at Deeside Leisure Centre,
6.30pm face off.
Niamh Walsh (#87) was the Dragons Women's top scorer
away at Manchester Storm (Photo by Lisa Langford)
Rather like the proverbial buses, you wait for 90 years for a North West women’s derby to come along, and then you get several coming all at once.
As
well as the four meetings between the Dragons and Storm B to played this
season, “Storm A” will also be playing Blackburn Hawks women in 4 league
matches.
The
two teams – who both joined the league for the first time last season – played
in different divisions in 25/26 but Storm A were promoted to the Valerie
section of Division 2 North during the summer, meaning they will come up
against the Hawks women’s team for the first time in competitive matches.
The
first meeting will be in Altrincham on Saturday 17th October, with the return
match the following Sunday - 25th October - in Blackburn.
