It's fair to say the end of 2025 ended in disappointment for the men's first team. A loss to Heaton Mersey A at home and then losing the lead in the dying minutes to Cheadle A away with Wilmslow missing a number of players for both games.
The opening game of 2026 for Wilmslow needed to see the team get back on track and see them beat Brooklands A who were victorious in the opening game of the season back in October, a loss that again saw Wilmslow unable to field it's strongest team. There's a common theme here.
With a growing number of senior and youth teams being fielded by Wilmslow and increased pressure being put on the grass fields at the club we have taken the discission to block book the newly build rubber crumb surface at Dixons Newall Green School in Wythenshawe. Marked out for lacrosse, this is without doubt the best lacrosse field in the North of England and mean one Wilmslow senior team will always play whatever the weather. Last week Wilmslow A's 15-0 win vs Rochdale A was the only men's game played in the North West due to water logged fields at every club.
Within the opening 10 seconds Wilmslow's attack took their first shot of the game which was only just of target thanks to Eastwood working his magic at he faceoff X. Wilmslow must have had the first 7/8 shots of the game but could not find the net with shots missing the cage or the young Brooklands goalie making saves. It would be the away team who opening the scoring with their first shot of the quarter beating Wilmslow's veteran goalkeeper, Matt Croney, in the smallest of gaps in the top left of the goal. Only Oscar Mellor would score for Wilmslow in the first period and Brooklands took the first quarter 1-2 after a late goal.
Wilmslow had done all the the right things and knew it was just a case of placing a few more of their shots low, the offense continued to work hard and it paid off with Aaron Eastwood getting a hattrick, Chatterton with 2 and Mellor getting his second. With a score of 7-4 in Wilmslow's favour there was a positive feel in the halftime huddle and all knew there would be more goals to come.
The third quarter saw Wilmslow keep up to tempo offensively with another 6 goals, Ollie Thomasson and Sam Burgess bagging 2 a piece, Eastwood a 4th and Simpson-Pink getting his first. Although the Wilmslow defense had played very well, it did seem to be that checks were becoming more uncontrolled as the quarter went on and Wilmslow would play way for man down defense than they would like and at one point went down to a 3 man zone.
During the final quarter Wilmslow continued to score some great goals but also continued to take penalty after penalty. Brooklands would capitalize on that and score 2 goals, more discipline is needed going forward as past games have proven that stupid fouls cost us games. Wilmslow scorers in the forth period were Simpson-Pink, Chatterton, Eastwood and Burgess.
Huge thank you for Kenneth Rowlett for covering the game. More of Ken's action shots can be found on his Flickr page. Ken's colleague, Steve will forward his photos soon so stay posted for the link.
Lacrosse 17th Jan 2026 | Flickr
Next week Wilmslow face Cheadle A away in the first round of the Junior Flags.
