Carlisle's First Lacrosse Club, Border City Lacrosse, Prepares for its Inaugural Season

Carlisle’s first lacrosse club, Border City Lacrosse, has affiliated itself with England Lacrosse and will play its first league game on 5 October.

Border City has been working hard since they formed earlier this year to become an affiliated lacrosse club and play competitive fixtures and this has now become a reality.

They have also affiliated themselves with Lacrosse Scotland and, as they’re positioned so close to the border, will play their league games in the Scottish Lacrosse Leagues.

The new club was set up by a group of ex-players after becoming frustrated by the lack of opportunities to play lacrosse in Carlisle and across Cumbria more generally.

Led by ex-Heaton Mersey player and former England international Mike Orme with fellow coach, Dan Clements, the club train on Sundays at Harraby 3G, Carlisle.

Orme has been trying to build lacrosse around the very north of England for the past five years, working with Lancaster University and the University of Cumbria as well as running lacrosse sessions in schools.

In the past, he has also welcomed junior teams, including Heaton Mersey, to play against his fledgling Cumbrian junior teams.

This news is particularly exciting for anybody heading to the University of Cumbria in September as this new team offers another sporting option in a city that had previously been lacking in lacrosse.

Most recently, Border City played in the Edinburgh Invitational 6s tournament where they beat Scotland Grizzlies, Qatar, and Glasgow Lions to finish 6th.

Border City Lacrosse’s fixtures will be played over seven single day tournaments taking place between October and March.

The league will follow a touring format similar to that of the new professional Premier Lacrosse League, with each weekend featuring all teams being hosted in one or two venues.

The league tournament dates and venues are:

5 Oct - Stirling
2 Nov - Edinburgh
9 Nov - Dumfries
1 Feb - Carlisle
22 Feb - Glasgow
29 Feb - Dundee
7 Mar - Edinburgh

For more information about the club and how to get involved email cumbrialax@gmail.com or visit http://bit.ly/2z9VQOg.

Tough win over New Zealand takes England to semi-finals

England fought through a tough quarter-final match 10-8 against New Zealand to book a place in the World Championship semi-final.

Milly Home scored five goals to lead the side to victory with an MVP performance that set up a meeting with hosts Canada in the final four.

England were always ahead in the game but the All-Blacks never let the lead get to more than three, and when they made it 9-8 with 4:00 to play, the hearts were racing until England once again closed things out when it mattered.

As has been typical in England games so far, the sides traded goals in the first quarter as we looked to be entering ¼ time at 2-2 before a clean draw win and break from Liv Thomas to feed Home for her second goal with 00:05 in the quarter gave a 3-2 advantage.

After that morale boosting goal, it looked like they were set to run away from the Kiwis, as Home completed her hat-trick, followed by a score for Cece Green to open it up to 5-2.

Each side picked up another score each before the break, Home remaining hot with the final goal of the half for a 6-3 score line.

It was then going into the third quarter that New Zealand took a stranglehold on the game, putting England under pressure and turning the game into a real fight.

Unsworth and Jakeman both scored to cut the lead to one as New Zealand dominated the possession off the draw in the third.

Green scored an important goal to halt the All-Blacks run but another reply from New Zealand kept it a one-goal game at the 3/4 time.

After a slow third quarter, England used the break to regroup and inject some urgency to their attack play.

First Liv Thomas drove hard through the defence and made a well-placed shot up high, before Home did exceptionally well in tip-toeing the crease after taking a feed from Thomas to make it 9-6.

But if England thought they had finally broken the resistance, they were wrong.

New Zealand put up a direct game in the last 10 minutes driving hard to goal and managing to draw fouls from the England defence.

First Johnson and then Bolstad both scored from free position opportunities and with four minutes to play it was back to 9-8.

New Zealand won the ball from the following draw and it took a resolute defensive effort to repel their attacks, forcing the turnover and putting themselves on the brink.

England once again expertly ran down the final two minutes on the clock, moving the defence around and with time almost up Green completed her hat-trick and sent the players and supporters into raptures as they secured the last four spot.

England will now face a rematch against reigning World Champions and Championship hosts Canada on Thursday for a place in the final in the day’s marquee match, at 1am UK Time.

England Points: Milly Home (5,1), Cece Green (3,1), Liv Thomas (1,3), Georgie Southorn (1,1), Lucy Devine (0,1)

New Fan Membership Introduced for 2019/20 Season

As part of our brand new England Lacrosse Membership Platform, we are introducing a Fan Membership.

The new membership will be added to the existing Junior, Armed Forces, Student, and Senior memberships.

It is perfect for those England lacrosse fans, avid volunteers, or ex-players who are really keen to see lacrosse grow and help the sport succeed, but who do not require a membership to allow them to play, officiate, or coach in the sport.

In return for joining the England Fan Club you will receive: 

• access to the brand new England Lacrosse app;

• lacrosse news customised to your preference;

• priority access to England tickets;

• the ability to opt into the lacrosse volunteer database;

• the opportunity for Junior Fans to be an England mascot.

The Fan Membership will cost £5 a year and will benefit those people who love lacrosse and want to keep up to date with everything that happens in England Lacrosse.

England Lacrosse Membership Platform to go Live on 1 August 2019

As announced last week, England Lacrosse are delighted to be teaming up with leading sport technology provider, Sport:80, to improve our online member services.

We have spent the past few months getting into the fine detail of the new England Lacrosse Membership Platform with Sport:80. In that time, we have agreed a roll-out strategy to ensure a smooth transition to the new technology.

The new Platform will officially “go live” on 1 August 2019 and we wanted to take this opportunity to give you a little more information about some of the Platform’s features.

New this year, and in addition to the Junior, Armed Forces, Student, and Senior memberships, we are introducing a Fan membership.

This membership is perfect for those England lacrosse fans, avid volunteers, or ex-players who are really keen to see lacrosse grow and help the sport succeed.

In return for joining the England Fan Club you will receive: 

• access to the brand new England Lacrosse app;

• lacrosse news customised to your preference;

• priority access to England tickets;

• the ability to opt into the lacrosse volunteer database;

• the opportunity for Junior Fans to be an England mascot.

The new Fan membership will cost £5 and will benefit those people who love lacrosse and want to keep up to date with everything that happens in England Lacrosse, but who do not require a membership to allow them to play, officiate, or coach in the sport.

The other membership types also come with the following benefits:

• the ability to participate in EL regulated leagues, events, and competitions;

• a reduction on course fees for education products and exclusive access to additional seminars and training days;

• priority access to EL events;

• inclusion on mailing distribution;

• discounts with EL partners, such as our equipment provider STX;

• access to funding for lacrosse projects;

• inclusion and access to mentoring programme (officials);

• personal insurance package;

• opportunity for junior members to be an England mascot.

Our new England Lacrosse Membership Platform will provide members with greater control over their affiliation to England Lacrosse, meaning purchasing and renewing membership will be much quicker and simpler. Existing members will receive renewal reminder emails, inviting them to access their profile, prior to their membership expiring.

Members will have a customisable personal profile on the Platform with the ability to upload their profile image; they will be able to take advantage of innovations such as e-membership cards that can be saved to the Wallet App on your smartphone and will also be able to assign and manage qualifications, background checks etc. from their personal profile as well as enter all of our events online. The England Lacrosse app will provide members with the ability to display their live membership profile when required.

We are very excited about the next few weeks and the launch of the new England Lacrosse Membership Platform and we think the partnership with Sport:80 will be incredibly beneficial to everyone affiliated to England Lacrosse and involved in the sport of lacrosse. The launch of the new Platform will also streamline many of our own internal processes and allow our team to dedicate more time to the growth of the sport.

Lucy Lynch: England legend to become first ever centurion

As England take to the field on Tuesday for the European Championship semi-final, Lucy Lynch will make history in becoming the first England Women’s player to reach 100 caps for her country in a remarkable international career spanning 17 years and counting.

Our co-captain out in Netanya, Israel, the energetic midfielder’s career has been a storied and successful one with a truly outstanding record and Tuesday will be the latest milestone for the 35-year-old.

Lucy Lynch won her first England cap as a 17-year-old in 2002 with a win in the annual Home Internationals competition against Scotland.

Lynch was still involved at this time in the junior England set up, as well as representing the full England side, such was her talent, and would go on to be a star and leading goal scorer of the 2003 U19 World Championships.

Lois Richardson, England Head Coach in 2002, who awarded Lynch her first cap, remembers what made her stand out at such a young age.

“She’s got wheels!”, boomed an American accent across the pitch at the 2005 Lacrosse World Cup.

“Lynch was indeed ‘super fast’ and it got her noticed. But Lucy’s underlying potential only became clear to me over the next ten years.

“When I first scouted Lucy as a Caterham schoolgirl, she was raw, exciting, strong, competitive, possibly brainless, definitely a show-boater and undoubtedly a ’ball hog’! 

“For me, Lucy’s greatest strength was her cast-iron mentality. Under the toughest and most challenging match conditions I knew she was able to think correctly under pressure.

“This she did when scoring goals at vital moments, none less so than in a sudden death victory in the 2005 World Cup to take England to a Bronze medal”.

Lynch’s natural speed, mental strength and exceptional physicality belied her 5’5” stature and she was a dual sport international.

Representing England 7s Rugby 2005-2006, she suffered a horrific, potentially career ending, leg injury, with multiple breaks, putting her out of both sports for almost a year.

It also meant she was unable to take up scholarships at Northwestern and Denver, offered after she had such an impact at the U19 World Championships.

But she continued to demonstrate all the hallmarks that make her a respected and valued team mate in this time, still travelling with the squad helping with video analysis and stats while she rehabbed religiously.

Lynch recovered from her injury and instantly forced her way straight back into the starting squad for England.

She was finally able to fulfil her ambition to play division 1 NCAA lacrosse and received a sports scholarship with James Madison University, the first English player to take up a USA collegiate scholarship, opening the way for many to follow.

A big success at JMU, she returned to England to join the squad in preparation for the 2009 World Cup.

Lynch was a key member of the side who finished 4th, scoring 9 goals for the second consecutive World Cup.

2012 saw Lynch elevated to the role of vice-captain ahead of the 2012 European Championships, which England won, a role she continued for the 2013 World Cup campaign ending in another 4th place finish.

2016 was a significant milestone for Lynch, an integral part of the midfield that over-ran Australia in a 2-1 test series win, the first against Australia since 1989, followed up by a test victory over Canada, for only the second time since the 2005 World Cup 3/4th play off.

The momentum carried Lynch into her 4th world cup, a feat only previously achieved by an handful of other players, where the team finally returned to 3rd in the world rankings, beating Australia in overtime in front of a raucous home crowd.

And In Israel Lynch has begun to add the next chapter to the story, now as proud mother to son Leo, and captain of England, where she will win that 100th cap.

Her enduring career has seen her play with 149 other players on the journey to become a centurion and on Tuesday will be the first player to reach this milestone for England.

Current Head Coach, Phil Collier said of his co-captain: “Lucy Lynch is the kind of player that every coach would love to have in their team. She is 100% committed to the cause and completely professional in her approach to preparation for training and games.

“She sets high standards for herself and her teammates and is willing to play whatever role is required to help the team to be better.

“On the field she consistently performs at a high level, bringing speed and agility, together with mental toughness and a real competitive edge. Attributes very much needed by top class midfielders in today’s game.

“As she approaches her 100th cap for England, becoming the first player to achieve that landmark, she represents her country with pride and is a great role model for all aspiring young England players.”

While Lucy will bring up 100 caps on Tuesday, she will be no doubt be hoping that cap number 101 will bring her a fourth medal at a major championship, and who knows for how long she may go on playing, setting the standard for all to follow.

England’s semi-final against either Ireland or Czech Republic will take place on Tuesday at 3.40 UK Time and can be watched Live on the Olympic Channel at www.olympicchannel.com

Written by Alex Carnegie-Brown

James Madison University - 2008

2012 European Championship

2012 European Championship

2017 Women’s World Cup

2019 Women's European Championship

2017 Women’s World Cup

2019 Women’s European Championship

England deliver quality display to down Israel and go 3-0

England put in their best performance of the tournament so far to defeat unbeaten Israel 12-3 and move to 3-0 for the Championship.

A tenacious defensive effort combined with clinical execution in attack saw the side run out comfortable winners in a game being billed as a potential future gold medal match.

Israel had easily seen off Germany and Scotland before this point but the strength in depth and stamina told as England pulled away the longer the game went on.

The first quarter was, as probably expected, a cagey affair with both teams eyeing each other up but not making much stick.

Emily Resnick did put Israel ahead and it looked like they would take a ¼ time lead before an interception from Emily Gray set Megan Whittle on a stunning fast break in which she ran three quarters the length of the pitch to score and make it 1-1 at the end of Q1.

At the beginning of Q2 England began to step it up a level, winning good ball from the draw and making it count.

Whittle scored another brilliant solo effort, before Jenny Simpson and Liv Wimpenny both finished off free positions.

England’s defence had been dogged and determined throughout the match but were often called to be just on the wrong side of legal, picking up a remarkable six yellow cards throughout the game, including a period at the end of the half being two players down.

However, the man down defence was impeccable and when called upon, Katie Greenwood make numerous point-blank saves to deny Israel any momentum.

England’s final goal of the quarter was an absolute hallmark of their play all day. Tremendous pressure on the redefend hassled and blocked off all routes for the clear and Wimpenny then completed the interception, fed Simpson who was free to score and make it 5-2 at the half.

Israel did set the nerves running a little after the break, closing things to 5-3, but a dependable Whittle struck once again, and when Alex Drewe got on the board after she had already had one disallowed for an illegal stick, the game was almost won.

Drewe scored again just 28 seconds into the final quarter, and from that point on England were in full control.

Whittle, Simpson and a Claire Faram brace all added to the total as the girls ended on a 7-goal streak, demonstrating their dominance and continuing to maintain their standards to the final whistle, running gout 12-3 victors.

The win sets up a classic crunch encounter against old rivals Wales (Sat 20 July 11am UK Time) who are also 3-0 ,with the winner likely to go into the semi-finals as #1 seed.

England Points:Megan Whittle (4,0), Jenny Simpson (3,0), Alex Drewe (2,0), Claire Faram (2,0) Liv Wimpenny (1,0)

England Lacrosse Appoints Sport:80 as Technology Partner

England Lacrosse has appointed Sport:80 as its technology partner to develop a new England Lacrosse Membership Platform which will evolve the way we administer the sport and engage with people participating in lacrosse across the country.

The new platform will aim to provide members with all the tools they require to manage their online engagement with the sport, beginning with membership registrations and renewals for the 2019/20 season.

The vision of the partnership is to work towards a single platform whereby members will be able to manage their lacrosse profile with ease and enter all EL sanctioned tournaments online, among a host of other features.

England Lacrosse has also invested in the development of an England Lacrosse App, designed to work in unison with the England Lacrosse Membership Platform. This means EL members will benefit from a number of innovative features including Single Sign-On (SSO), event calendars that display competitions, courses and camps delivered through the EL Membership Platform, and a club locator that automatically updates as and when your club data does.

Sport:80 were selected as England Lacrosse’s new technology partner after a robust tender process which involved detailed independent and in-house assessments.

Sport:80 has a proven track record of delivering systems of this nature for a wide variety of other National Governing Bodies of Sport (NGBs) and sports organisations including Archery GB, Table Tennis, British Fencing and British Weightlifting.

In the coming weeks, we will continue to release updates with regards to the new platform.

For more information about Sport:80: https://www.sport80.com/