U12 Boys’ Hockey Progress to East Regional Finals

On Friday 28 February, the College hosted the U12 boys’ hockey county tournament.

The College’s U12 team started with a good result against their local rivals Hockerill, winning the match 4-0. Most of the hockey was played in the Hockerill half and the boys looked to build the scoreline to give themselves a good goal difference.

After a strong start, a much tougher prospect was to hand against Watford Grammar, but the team pulled through with a 1-0 victory. The boys played some of their best hockey to date in this fixture with Braedon M getting into lots of space down the right side of the pitch. The goal came from a short corner with Edward C scoring a nice stroke which was deflected past the goalkeeper in the last minutes of the match.

The third match was another tough fixture against Merchant Taylors’ School, with both teams playing some good hockey in patches. The boys hit a purple patch and were able to get another late goal through Josh L popping up at the back post to open the scoring, securing the win 1-0.

The match against Aldwickbury was a clash of styles with Aldwickbury looking to play very, “route 1 hockey.” The boys opened the scoring early through Charlie C after letting the goalkeeper commit he calmly flicked the ball over into the net. The boys defended stoutly but were unable to keep the ball from trickling in after a break down in play from a penalty corner, ending with a 1-1 draw.

With an hour gap between the fourth and fifth matches, the boys started slowly against Heath Mount School with some poor mistakes which allowed Heath Mount to show a stout defence. The change in players and the constant work rate allowed Henry H to drift through the opposition defence and placed the ball past the goalkeeper, ending the match 1-0.

The final match against Hitchin was a repeat of the boys’ first fixture of the term and was looking like the potential battle for a top two finish. This was a very well balanced match with both sides having good opportunities to score. The best chance for the boys was Charlie T just missing a deflected base line pull back, past the left post, ending the match at a 0-0 draw at full time.

Securing their place in the top two, the tournament went to shuffles against Aldwickbury School which ended 2-3, leaving our U12 boys as County runners up securing their place in the regional finals.