Rewind | The Fly 2021 Women’s Final

With just three weeks to go until the opening day of the 2024 The Fly season at the Manchester Regional Arena, we’re rewinding all the way back to 2021 and the inaugural season of The Fly, taking a little look at the women’s final match in that exciting first year!

Picture the scene. 8 August 2021. Lilleshall National Sports Centre. The country was still tentatively finding its feet again after the coronavirus pandemic and The Fly was in its opening year taking place over two weekends. Two very hot weekends.

The first weekend had gone with a bang with our four men’s and four women’s teams quickly coming to terms with the speed of this brand new then-Olympic-proposed Sixes version of lacrosse.

Saturday 7 August had seen the final group stage matches take place as well as the semi-final matches to determine the first ever The Fly finalists.

Women’s Final: Forge v Swift. Men’s Final: Forge v Rise. A double final appearance for Forge. Lacrosse legends such as Tom Bracegirdle, Ming Trinh, Ben Page-Laycock, Emilie Chandler, Alice Ripper, and Liv Wimpenny in their rosters.

Forge women would take on a formidable Swift side coached by the inimitable Carina Bates. They’d won all four games before their final appearance with a team featuring the likes of Katie Greenwood, Laura Merrifield, Laura Warren, Torz Anderson, and a young up-and-coming star by the name of Anna Neville.

Swift started out of the blocks quickly working themselves into a three-goal lead midway through the first quarter after goals from Anderson (x2) and Warren. Swift by name, Swift by nature.

Forge goalie, Chandler, kept her team in the game with a couple of expert saves before Ellie Jones and then Anna Saunter hit back for the team in grey (Forge hadn’t yet found their iconic green colour!) to make it 3-2 two minutes before the quarter-time break.

Two minutes is a long time at The Fly and Forge found this out the hard way with Hannah Whiteley and Warren’s second restoring Swift’s three-goal lead.

Jones hit her second of the match on the stroke of quarter-time to put Forge within two heading into the second quarter.

Early in that second quarter, Swift really came into their own and threatened to run away with it after Warren and Anderson hit their hat-trick goals to open up another three-goal lead at 7-4.

But Forge are not to be meddled with and they stormed through the next few minutes and eventually found themselves ahead in the game for the very first time after goals from Saunter, Jones, Wimpenny, and Alex Drewe made it 8-7.

Such is the nature of The Fly and Sixes Lacrosse, however, the game swung in Swift’s favour once again within the final 10 seconds of the half as Anderson, playing out of her skin, equalised before Emma Brown struck to ensure the team in sky blue headed in a goal to the good at half-time.

The third quarter started as the second had ended: with Swift firing on all cylinders. Defender India Chadwick hit her first and Anderson scored her fifth as Swift opened up yet another three-goal lead.

Forge like the chase, though, and found themselves back in front after goals from Drewe, Jones, Saunter, and Wimpenny without reply from Swift saw the score at 12-11.

As happened in the previous quarter, this visibly irked Swift and a strong final couple of minutes in the quarter that yielded goals from Brown, Merrifield, Miranda Nicholes, and Warren, despite another Forge goal from Saunter, had Carina Bates’ players heading into the final eight minute quarter two goals ahead at 15-13.

Now, Swift finally followed through with what they’d been threatening to do all game in the fourth quarter and started to run away with it.

Warren and Anderson and then Merrifield and Brown scored either side of a Wimpenny goal for Forge to see them open up a 19-14 lead.

Jones tried to galvanise her side, scoring her fourth, but it was too little too late and Neville and Anderson took Swift’s tally to 21 shortly after.

Another consolation goal for Forge came through the impressive Jones with 40 seconds to play but it wasn’t enough and Swift were crowned the first ever The Fly champions!