Four GHC Under 12 Boys teams competed in the Surrey Cup and Plate Competitions that took place on Sunday 26 February. The As and Bs were in the Cup and the Cs and Ds competed in the Plate. The B team came oh so close to a semi-final in the Cup...
Squad
Luke, Ollie, Liam, Joseph, Cole, Toby, Gouldie, Archie, Ben
For the Surreys the B Team were in a pool of six with our first match being the toughest.
Surbiton A, 0-4 loss
This was a very tough first match as we there had been no pre-match warm up on the pitch as the Plate was in full swing. Surbiton on the other hand had just played their first match. We fielded our strongest defensive team and the boys did their best but despite some very plucky defence we were outplayed by Surbiton A who managed to put 4 goals past us. The score would have been higher without some great goal keeping from Luke. The learning from this game was the need for very rapid passing and also for tight marking.
Barnes A, 1-0 win (Gouldie)
This was a tight fought game and I asked the boys to make sure we won as this was my old hockey club (and their coaches personal friends). The boys responded admirably with some excellent team work and rapid passes. Our goal came from an excellently struck short corner from Gouldie.
London Wayferers, 2-0 win (Gouldie, Ollie)
The boys were now playing really well as a team with excellent defence from Joseph and Liam building into a very strong midfield comprising Toby, Ollie and Archie and finally Gouldie up front. Our first goal came from another very well struck short corner from Gouldie and our second goal came from some excellent passing involving Joseph to Toby to Ollie who fought his way in the D and scoring.
Spencer A, 0-1 loss
Spencer are our bogey team having knocked us out of the Surrey's last year in the BU10 knockout. The Spencer coaches once again complimented the quality of our players from what they had seen. Unfortunately we seem to bring the best out of them as apparently they had not been playing well until their game against us. Again we saw some excellent defensive work from Cole, Liam, Ollie, Archie and Ben. We needed a draw from this game or a win from our last game in order to reach the knock out stages.
Woking A, 1-1 win (Ben)
This was our final game and another we wanted to win as it was Ben, Toby and Gouldie's old club. Despite tired legs we again fought as hard as we could and went one goal ahead fairly early on but unfortunately Woking drew back late in the match.
Sadly 2 wins, 2 losses and a draw was not quite good enough to see us through to an all Surbiton, Guildford knockout. However every member of the squad made a significant and positive contribution whenever they were on the pitch and five of our team will still be in the U12 next year so the experience will not have been lost. Congratulations boys a really good effort and a great days hockey.
Nick K
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