Last weekend saw both the Under 16 and Under 18 girls play some great hockey to earn silver medals at the National Indoor Finals.
The Under 16s had a tough assignment against Millfield to start and it was no surprise that it was a ding-dong battle, but a 3-2 victory set us up nicely. Comfortable wins over Haileybury and Ripon meant we finished the first day and already qualified for the semi-finals. Our final pool
game against Repton was full of good hockey and the resulting 1-2 loss meant a semi-final against local rivals St. George’s.
As expected it was played at a frantic pace and we found ourselves 0-2 down. The girls didn’t panic though and grabbed two goals to draw the game and take it to penalty flicks. With Katherine Carr saving their first flick, we scored all 3 of ours to win a pulsating match. King’s Bruton had beaten Repton in the other semi with their two Germans being prominent and they produced a high-class display full of intensity to beat us in the final.
The Under 18s started their campaign with a slightly frenetic 2-0 win over The Perse, but followed it up by beating Malvern 5-1. The next day 6-4 and 7-0 wins over Dean Close and Queen Ethelburga’s respectively left us top of our group. The other group had seen 4 sides take points off each other and it went down to goal difference, the outcome of which was a semi-final versus Beaconsfield High.
As in the regional rounds we passed the ball around with pace in order to control the game and ran out 3-1 winners. So to Repton in the final. After they had taken an early lead, a couple of unfortunate penalty flick decisions effectively killed off the much anticipated contest between the two best sides in the tournament. The second half saw a well-contested game of really good indoor hockey in which we created three chances but their keeper stood firm and we were unable to close the gap.
A number of independent observers believed that the standard of play at the latter stages of each tournament was as good as it’s been for many years and we are really proud of the performances of both squads.
Richard Organ
Director of Hockey
