Junior Match Reports

This was the third game of the England Hockey Tier 1 Cup competition and the Guildford boys went into the match with East Grinstead full of confidence having scored 31 goals in their first two games and having not yet conceded a goal. The hosts were likely to put up a stronger test and in heavy rain the game began.

On Sunday 16 November we sent 3 teams to play at Old Kingstonians. After 3 time and location changes in the week before, amazingly we all managed to get to the same place at the right time. This seemed to take the home team by surprise as they drifted in with about 10 minutes to spare. More surprising to the home team was that another club (Camberley) turned up unexpectedly which naturally with 10 minutes to rearrange the schedule put the cat amongst the pigeons, or more aptly the springboks amongst the big cats as I suspect our South African host who had been to the rugby at nearby Twickenham the day before may have been celebrating his home nations success on the hallowed turf rather late into the night!!

What a wonderful November morning for a hockey tournament and, on behalf of the parents, thank you to Mark and the U8 coaches and helpers for executing such a large undertaking so smoothly. It was thoroughly enjoyed by both players and parents.

Our Girls Under 12 Shadows (A squad) produced an outstanding performance against a strong Surbiton side that top the table.

We turned up on a cold misty morning at Surbiton to play against their “Finches”. We were as usual nervous of playing Surbiton, but the girls were told to forget who the opposition team were on focus on their game...

Having had some relatively comfortable wins so far this season, we were keen to test ourselves against a team we knew would be fierce opposition. Overall, there was lots to be happy about. We more or less matched Surbiton and the girls can be proud of their performance...

On what was probably the last warm and sunny weekend of the year, Guildford Flames faced up to Sunbury & Walton Hawks in the league. We agreed to split the game into 3 segments to allow a bit of extra matchday coaching...

Tiffin Girl's School played host to this mini 7 a-side tournament versus Old Kingstonian. Played in wonderful conditions the boys found their feet quickly in the first game against OK “A” ­ emerging as victors with a last minute winner from Jordan...

The sunny weather of this Remembrance Sunday will stay long in my memory, as will the improvement of the Tigers as they played through the festival and the unbeaten streak of the Panthers...

In the second game in the boy’s Cup run, they were drawn against Woking. There is no disguising that this was an entirely one sided game, however goal difference may be important in the competition therefore the boys did what they were asked to do and kept the pressure on their opponents to the final whistle...