Having gained their first points of the season against Yate last weekend, Bridgend Mens 1st XI change their attention to defending their Welsh Shield when they face unbeaten Llan & Caerphilly this weekend (Sunday) away at Hawthorn Comprehensive School.

After beating UW Aberystwyth in the Welsh Shield Final last season, Bridgend will be looking for another final appearance, against a side who always gives us a very tough game and who beat a weakened 1st XI in a pre-season friendly only a few weeks ago. Let’s ensure all availability is good. It’s a local game, so no excuses!

Full Welsh Shield 1/4 Final Fixtures are as follows:
Llan & Caerphilly v Bridgend
UW Aberystwyth v Cardiff Medics
Gwent v Penarth

After defeat last weekend to Newent in their opening Davis Wood Hockey League opener, Bridgend Mens 1st XI played host to Yate at Pencoed Comprehensive School and after a much improved performance on last week’s showing, secured their first points of the season after a 1-1 draw against their visitors from the West country. Bridgend started off the better team, with the midfield of Gareth Coleman, Rhydian Cole, Steve Murphy and the two Andys – Jones and Schofield taking control from the start, and it was Coleman who opened the scoring in the second half with a fantastic strike from the edge of the ‘D’. Picking up the ball outside the area, he beat a defender and then let fly with a thunderous shot which gave the keeper no chance. Despite creating numerous chances throughout an evenly played second half, a goal late on from Yate put paid to any hopes the home team had of gaining three deserved points.

Bridgend Mens 2nd XI, having gone down last weekend to UW Swansea, made the trip to the capital to face Cardiff & UWIC and it was veteran striker Ian Davies who got Bridgend a share of the spoils with a neatly taken goal. It was Davies himself who had a chance to win the game in the second half, but he missed a golden chance of securing maximum points.

Bridgend Mens 3rd XI also travelled to Cardiff, and after coming up against a strong home side, fell to a defeat by 11 goals to 0.

Bridgend Ladies 1st XI got their first win of the South Wales Premier Division 2 season thanks to a well earned win against Haverfordwest at Pencoed Comprehensive School. Having dominated the game for large periods, The Ravens were grateful to Louise Jones and the returning globetrotter Sian Rosser who scored the goals to secure all three points.

Well, we’ve done it, we’re finally on Twitter! So, if you’re a current member, an old member or even a potential future member, you can stay right up to date with the latest goings on at Bridgend Hockey on the world’s fastest growing social network!

Just follow @BridgendHockey to become part of the action. What’s more, those of you already on Twitter, why not help raise awareness of our great club, by sending out our link to @BridgendHockey and/or retweeting our tweets.

You know you want to…

With the league campaign now upon us, it was a disappointing start for Bridgend Hockey as the senior men’s team fell to 3 defeats on the opening weekend.

Bridgend Mens 1st XI made the trip to Newent and with a severely depleted squad due to injuries and unavailability and after a first half performance in which we never got going, fell to a defeat by 4 goals to 1. With 6 first team regulars not featuring, it was always going to be tough against Newent who had a playing squad on the day of 14, compared to our threadbare make shift squad of 11. Having found life tough in the heat during the first half, the second half at least did ensure that Bridgend made a fight of it thanks to a goal from Andy Schofield, but it was too little to late with the half time score of 4-0 proving too difficult a hurdle to overcome. Next up, it’s a home game against Yate at Pencoed Comprehensive School next weekend. Elsewhere, Bridgend Mens 2nd XI fell to a defeat in their first game back in South Wales Division 1 with a 3-1 reverse against UW Swansea, while a goal from Rob Sloane wasn’t enough to prevent Bridgend Mens 3rd XI from suffering a 6-1 defeat to a strong Gwent outfit.

Next weekend’s fixtures:
Bridgend Mens 1st XI v Yate (Home) – 1:30pm
Bridgend Mens 2nd XI v Cardiff & UWIC (Away) – 12:00pm
Bridgend Mens 3rd XI v Cardiff & UWIC (Home) – 3:00pm