At the Indoor Hockey South Heats, the U18 girls cruised into a 3-0 lead against CLFS before letting them back into it in the second half to earn a 3-3- draw. A 1-0 win over Reigate after should have resulted in a greater win considering the possession and control we had. Getting into their stride, Cranleigh finished with an excellent 5-1 demolition of Peter Symonds to win the pool and qualify for the South Finals.
JAGS were first up at the finals and we surprised them by rushing into a three goal lead with an excellent start, running out 4-0 winners. A tighter game against Wycombe High resulted in a 2-0 victory, and with other results working out well for us, we qualified for the semis with a game to spare, which we lost by the odd goal to King Edwards, Southampton.
From there we went on to the semis against a talented St George’s outfit, who in the end proved too strong for us, with three goals to stop us reaching the Nationals. Nevertheless, a really strong indoor campaign that means we avoid the Preliminaries next season again.
Squad: Heather Andrews, Lucy Atkin, Maddie Atkin, Floss Esplen, Tilly Gough, Rosie Hope, Ella Job, Issy Lock, Tess Shabo, Phoebe Timberlake, Alice Walton
The U16 Boys had a preliminary tournament to negotiate at Charterhouse. A comfortable 4-1 win over Charterhouse was followed by a tense 1-1 draw with Reeds. An excellent 4-1 win over a physically strong Wellington team was rounded off by an even better 3-0 against Lingfield to top the pool.
At the South Heats the boys started with a repeat of their good performance against Lingfield to run out 4-1 winners. A 2-1 victory that could have been more over King Edwards Southampton followed, and with other results including draws, they qualified for the South Finals with a game to spare. A final 0-0 draw with Reeds saw us once again top the qualifying group.
The first match at the South Finals was against a top quality and physically imposing St Lawrence team. An excellent performance saw us go toe-to-toe with them and even have more possession. They had just one short corner which they converted, whilst we had just one which their keeper saved. Trailing by that short corner from the first half, we continued to try to break down their impressive defence in the second half, but they nicked a second just before the end to win 2-0. Another tight game followed against Trinity. They scored midway through the first half, and then with a brilliant move we had the ball in the back of the net, but the hooter for half time went between the time the ball left the stick and crossed the goal line! We failed to score in the second half and they won 2-0. However, with St Lawrence beating everyone and Borlase beating Trinity, it came down to our last game v Borlase. A two goal winning margin would see us through to the semis. We were out of the blocks and playing fast effective hockey. A great chance went begging, we got a stroke, and missed, as well as two short corners that they saved, one brilliantly off the line with the keeper beaten. Somehow, it was 0-0 at half time and we continued to press in the second half but they got a breakaway to clinch the winner and progress to the semis themselves.
This was however an encouraging indoor campaign, especially considering how young the squad was.
Squad over the three tournaments: Ben Atkins, Freddie Baker, Barney Bridges Joe Caine, Ben Gaze, Sean Hope, Toby Kuhle, Will Petter, Josh Taylor, Scott Walker, Tommy Walker
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