We met at Caludon castle armed with our new kit and may I say we looked brilliant! The warm -up was good as we had the  pleasure of doing it with our A team and we did the biggest cut the cake I have took part in. It felt like a real club warm-up well led by Rosie. We were very nervous when we saw the Henley line up, they had some experienced players and some of us felt very nervous taking the court but we had good support that we shared with the A - Steve and Shane Brassington were there I'm not sure whether it was to watch there girls or check out the talent!!!! Our top supporters of Stacey, Amz and Sue were there along with super subs Emilie and Mel.
 
The first quarter didn't start well the attack took time to settle against a very strong defence Henley had scored 6 goals before we converted but we worked hard. Lynz had a very strong WD and was superb keeping her composure after getting a few knocks. The defence were brilliant as usual Jo was up against a very experienced Sue Sully, Jo did well to stop her controlling the game. Riz was her usual superb self picking up tips and interceptions at every oppotunity. We finished the quarter 9 -7 behind we made an excellent come back after a nervous start. Alot of this was due some excellent feeding from Kerrie into Fran and them both rebounding well.
 
The second quarter Bulkington felt alot more confident Kerrie came out well on the centres and worked hard with Lynz and Lisa to feed the ball into Fran who was extremely tight marked which had to made the attack think and work before feeding the ball in. Jaks  got her WA sussed and made some excellent interceptions and helped the attack bring the ball up the court. The attack again were very tightly marked but Lisa made some good runs into space and feeding the into Fran who help her space well at half time the score was 15 -12
 
We made a change in the third quarter with Captain Kerrie sacrificing herself for Mel. It gave the added bonus of some height in the circle. Mel played awesome making the defence work hard as Bulkington had two tall players to feed into. Rhian and Jo were reading some of the little passes between the GS and GA which made the attack work hard to get the ball in. Lisa and Jaks (who was now marking a youthful player) marked them tightly causing Henley to make alot of errors. The attacked worked really hard we were closely marked but we were determinded not to let the defence down playing little short passes and making definite moves we managed to pull the score to 19 all at the end of the quarter.
 
Despite her excellent game so far Jaks wanted to put Emilie on for fresh legs but the team disagreed and persuaded her to stay. (I think secretly it was because she had to play her mate Tracey Murphy who moved from centre to WA). Henley put another experienced player on but we were not detered we were very happy be so close and even stand a chance of winning the game and went into the last quarter full of fighting spirit - which we needed as the game got a little tense and some very close marking from Henley didn't put us off our stride.

Fran was superb a GS and had alot of pressure but converted well I think she scored at least 80 per cent of the goals in this game. Jaks marked her player well and even drew blood with her efforts causing us to call for injury time. At this point Mel was feeling a little despondent but after a little chat with her attack went on to make an excellent move and score a brilliant goal. Bulkington went from strength to strength fighting for every ball especailly Jo. It did become to look like a bit of a rugby match at one point.

The final score was Henley 26 - Bulkington 22 we were so pleased to get so close to a team who had easily won every match they have played. I am sure this with give us confidence when we come to face some of our stronger oppositions. Every one worked 100% and fought for every ball (sometimes quite literally, we would give englands rugby team a run for there money). Lisa got a well deserved players player - she works tirelessly every single game and gives 150% commitment to the team, (and after telling the opponents they weren't allowed to pick Rhian as she got it nearly every week!!!!) Great game girls!!!!