The end of the Lent term saw the Girls’ U18s Hockey team take silver as they were crowned National Runners-Up at the National Outdoor Hockey Finals, held at the Nottingham Hockey Centre on 20th March 2018. It was a tough day with the tournament condensed into one day due to the snow. Two and a half hours of hockey in a little over five hours proved just too much, as Repton took the title with a deflected short corner in the second half.
The day started with a comfortable 3-0 win over Oakham School that could easily have been twice that but their England under 18 keeper played very well and they made an amazing save off the line at a short corner. Next up was Sedbergh School against whom we once again dominated, running out 4-0 which could also have been twice that. That left us with our final pool game against Millfield School – both sides with two wins, 7 goals for and 0 against – winner takes all. Cranleigh continued to take the game to the opposition and kept Millfield to only two incursions into our D in the whole match, but we only managed to score one so the game was still close as they defended resolutely.
Once again there was less than an hour’s break before the final. Repton meanwhile had beaten their two main challengers, Dean Close and Framlingham College and their third pool game was against a weak St Peter’s School York side that enabled them to rest their main players. Repton were fast out of the blocks and took control of the first 10 minutes creating a couple of good chances, one of which we saved off the line. The second 10 minutes of the half saw us come back into it, but there was no score at half time. The second half saw Repton take control at the start again as we had to reshuffle our resources and they finally scored from a deflected short corner. Not to be deterred, Cranleigh fought back and for the last eight minutes they put Repton under pressure earning four short corners in the last five minutes including two in overtime. But it was not to be as Repton kept us out to take the title.
Richard Organ, Director of Hockey commented “In all my years coaching that was the most brutal tournament schedule I’ve ever witnessed – 40 minute game, game off, game on, game off, game on, game off, Final. I was amazed and very proud of how the girls somehow found the energy for the last 10 minutes to almost snatch a draw.”
Squad: Claire Abrahamsen, Zoe Allchurch, Izzy Boddington, Ella Bounous, Emma Davis, Laura Graham, Coca Hall, Becca Harnby, Katie Hauger, Charlie Hills, Rosie Hope, Pippa Lock, Lydia Murphy, Izzy Petter, Millie Regan, Fifi Robinson, Amy Thompson, Amber Walton
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