After a Quarter Final and Semi Final win against Repton and Trinity Croydon, the Hockey 1s became runners up in the National Tier 1 Cup final against Whitgift.
The Semi Final at the Olympic Park saw Cranleigh dominate the first 15 minutes creating a few chances, unfortunately not scoring on this occasion. On their first foray into our D, Trinity earned a short corner which they promptly dispatched to lead. Trinity scored after just 5 minutes of the second half to double their lead but Cranleigh continued playing exceptional hockey and finally scored with 15 minutes to go. Trinity had 3 players sent off as they tried to thwart the Cranleigh attacks and with just 3 minutes to go we got an equaliser from a rebound at a short corner. With the last play of the match, Cranleigh almost had another short corner to win it. Resulting in shootouts, both sides scored four each in the first barrage of five and so, to sudden death. Trinity scored, Cranleigh scored, Trinity scored, Cranleigh scored, Trinity missed…. and Cranleigh scored! Another amazing comeback cheered on by a screaming coachload of supporters.
The following day, the final didn’t start too well as we conceded in the first minute, but then we took the game to Whitgift and battled with them toe-to-toe for 25 minutes. After 20 minutes we unfortunately weren’t awarded a short corner and the subsequent 60 yard aerial yielded their second goal. Undaunted, Cranleigh responded with a penalty flick to halve the deficit. A crazy last five minutes of the half resulted in some interesting decisions, two goals for them giving a 1-4 score line at half time. Whitgift scored early in the second half and then a couple of times at the end as they controlled the second half, resulting in Cranleigh becoming runners up, in the national final. An incredible achievement.
It’s been an amazing journey for this group of players and it was great to have so many supporters to share the occasion. To end up with a Silver in the Blue Riband event was testament to both their skill and attitude.
Squad: Oli A., Barney B., Charlie C., Theo C., Zubin C., James D., Sammy D., Jamie F., Max G., Matt H., Fred H., Tom H., Toby K., Adam T., Harry W.
