Boys' Hockey Results Archive

  The Derbyshire County Tournament returned in 2009 to Shobnall Fields, Burton-on-Trent. The last time it was held on this ground (it has been to Buxton, Repton School and Belper in the intervening years) was in 2000, nine years ago, when, yes, our U11 'A' team won the tournament, beating our U11 'B' team in the final!

            Our 'A' and 'B' teams met today as well (0-0, not recorded as a school match), but our chances of becoming county champions in 2009 had long since passed away by then. We scratched our way to a win in the first match, a goal from Jack M-M, and holding a strong Belper H.C. team to a 0-0 was a very good result as we were struggling throughout. Full marks to our defence of Elliott W, William H and, in particular, Hugo R who pulled off a string of fine saves. The stronger Burton team found a way through twice before we had two (or should I say three including v S.Anselm's 'B') matches against weaker opposition that we simply failed to break down. We beat Buxton U12's convincingly in January, today (albeit in 10 minutes) we couldn't find a way through against their U11's. It wasn't a good way to end the season …

            On very much the positive side, we only lost one match out of five against some quality opposition, but we lost our shape and touch when going forward and were not impressive in front of goal. Jack H did his best, though this was largely keeping the opposition at bay rather than in the attacking 'D', and Alex W showed some pleasant touches at times. Freddie H was active when in possession of the ball and used the right wing well, but we needed to see more from him when the opposition were in charge.

            In summary, praise again for our defence, but we were a shadow of the team we were starting to become in late-January before the snow came and then football took over … (I better say no more!). Six weeks without picking up a hockey stick? I wonder which of the other teams had gone six days without doing so …?! Let's not take anything away, however, from a successful, albeit truncated season. Including today we played 11 matches, winning 7, drawing 3 and losing 1. In all we scored 23 goals and conceded five.

            Our 'B' team worked hard to draw 3 and lose 3 of their six matches against some quality opposition 'A' teams. Our goalkeepers played well, we were strong out of defence with powerful clearances from Ben E, we worked hard in midfield with all three of Charles A, John W and Charlie L having good days, whilst Paddy D showed some plesant touches up front. Charles A was particularly thoughtful and successful in the way that he used the right wing whilst Charlie L was also strong on the reverse stick. Obviously we were out of touch due to the lack of hockey in recent weeks and the lack of astro training, unlike every other team there (I'd got this far without mentioning the word 'astro'!) and our worst defeat was 0-2, not an embarrassment here. Well done to draw with the 'A' team too!

JMHF