V ’12: Ladies Hockey expect success

**How are Varsity preparations going?**

MB: They’re going fine actually. The second team’s match is before ours so we’re all going to support them, so it should be a good day of general club bonding. We play quite a lot of hockey, around four times a week, so I think that’s enough preparation!

ID: We do tend to go on the pitch and tend to think it’s going to be an easy match… [laughs]

MB: We’ve had quite a lot of success in the past so that always gives us a bit of a boost on the day. I think it’s always good to get out on the pitch and give 100% on the day.

ID: I guess everyone gets into it as we make quite a big deal of it as a club, so there’s loads of support; we make our own Varsity t-shirts, so it is quite a big deal. It’s definitely one we always aim to win quite well.

MB: We like to think of Hockey as the lynchpin of the Varsity games for Warwick as all five teams (three for the men and two for the women) tend to always win. The second team are away (but only at Westwood Heath so it’s only a short walk away), while first team are at home this year.

**Who are the star players?**

MB: For the first team, from my point of view, everyone’s crucial. We’ve definitely got some great players in every area of the pitch. I would definitely say Jenny Blow, who we rely on quite heavily in the defence. Obviously the keeper, we always depend on her too, and up front we’ve got some really rapid people so they’re going to be useful to run around the Coventry players. I think everyone will play a key role on the day.

ID: The same applies for the second team; I wouldn’t particularly select anyone. The goalie’s always crucial, we’ve got a good defence and some decent wingers – Jo Boddy on the right wing and Laura [Cree?] on the left who are really quick, they can get the ball, shoot down the wing and hopefully get some goals. My aim for the match – because we haven’t scored as many goals as we’d like this season, which has been a bit of a shame, I’d like to think we can score a good –

MB: Ten?

ID: A good ten, yeah! [laughs]

**What are the hopes for the rest of the season?**

MB: I’m looking at Varsity as the pinnacle of the season – I mean, we should definitely win, and the rest of our BUCS and Saturday matches (in the local Warwickshire women’s hockey league) for both teams are going to be really tough, so Varsity can hopefully act as a boost for the team’s morale.

**The team has struggled this season; is squad turnover one of the main reasons?**

ID: We lost quite a few from the first team and brought in quite a few faces, and it’s taken till this term to get a settled team. We had a large fresher intake, which is good news, but hard, because when you’re a fresher joining the club, your level of skill, fitness and dedication isn’t always that high, so we’ve got the numbers but it’s taken a while for everyone to get used to each other’s games.

MB: For us every year we seem to have a sort of cycle in the BUCS league (1A), where we get relegated and then promoted back into the same league. So last year we were promoted and this year sadly it looks like we’ll get relegated. But next year we’ll be back up so it should be fine!

ID: The second team narrowly avoided relegation, just around the bottom of our BUCS league last year.

**Final thoughts?**

ID: I’m just excited to be able to play Varsity in our final year, as I didn’t get to play last year or in my first year. It’s going to be a really fun day. It’s a big club participation day. Everyone comes; the third team, who don’t have a match, come to watch us, as will the men’s teams.

The second team coach, Chris Robbins, has a personal vendetta against Coventry. He started with us this year, and last year he coached at Coventry and didn’t like it at all! Apparently they were quite unprofessional and started drinking before the Varsity match last year, so we’re doing it for him as well!