After two weekends with no fixtures, Bulkington D travelled to Alderman Smith School, to face Synergy B.  Amy Salisbury joined the D team as they prepared for a tough game. After a speech by captain Tracey and a warm up, the game began.

In the 1st quarter, the usual starting line up was slightly re-arranged: GS – Tracey Wheatley; GA – Melanie Price; WA – Becky Garbett; C – Clare Wetton; WD – Emilie Morris; GD – Amy Salisbury; GK – Angie Pallett. It was instantly clear that the game was going to be aggressive and tight, with the Synergy team marking very tightly and the Synergy supporters voicing their opinions very loudly. This forced some errors for Bulkington seeing them drop behind by 3 goals. The final score at the end of the first half was 10 – 7 to Synergy.

After the umpires told the Synergy supporters to calm down and a straight swap with Charlie Chinn taking Clare’s position at Centre, the 2nd half began. The Synergy defence were extremely strong, making it hard for Bulkington’s attack to get out for the centres and to convert the interceptions made by Emilie and Amy into goals. The second half ended at 19 – 15.

At half time, the sweetie box and oranges came out, giving the team a boost of energy. Angie, after playing well against two very good shooters, came off, with Amy dropping back to GK and Clare coming back on to GD.  Bulkington defence stepped it up with lots more interceptions being made as they put pressure on the Synergy attack. However, the Synergy defence still made it really hard for our attack to get out for the centres and get the ball into the circle. The score at the third quarter ended at 25 – 20.

Another change was made going into the 4th quarter with Becky changing to WD and Emilie changing to WA. Bulkington continued through the last quarter to try and chip away at Synergy’s lead. Unfortunately, this seemed to be too much of a challenge with the score at the  end of the game 33 – 26.

It was a good team performance by the D team, and if a few decisions and things had gone our way, the score could have been the other way round. Well done girls!