U13 Girls come 4th in Surbiton tournament
Hawks under 13 girls travelled to the second oldest hockey club in the world on Sunday for a big tournament and had the heartbreak of losing on strokes in the semi-finals to the eventual winners. This was a great tournament to be involved in, the Tony Smith Memorial at Surbiton Hockey Club and there were at least 24 teams involved, so for Hawks to come 4th was a massive achievement.
Hawks topped their table in the group stage, firstly beating Sevenoaks 2-0, with Emma and Frankie scoring, the first a well worked corner that actually looked planned. Next was one of the several Surbiton teams involved, the Swifts, and they were also dispatched 2-0, Emma with a brace. Next was the tough opposition of Guildford A, and although we dominated their keeper played well and the game was rightly drawn 0-0. Finally, the played their best game of the day against Wimbledon and beat them 3-0, Emma again scoring all three, despite missing a stroke and Annabelle had a great effort on the reverse that went narrowly wide. Into the semis and up against Guildford B, who switched keepers, which was not entirely in the spirit of things and again she kept them in it, although Emily in goal for us made one great save. 0-0 and to strokes, which we lost 2-1, a cruel way to go out but these things are a lottery and none of our girls had taken a stroke competitively before, bar Emma (and she scored this time!). Deflated, we then lost to a decent Surbiton side 0-1, conceding our only goal of the tournament in six games, but they were all exhausted by this stage.
Team:
Emily – a very welcome guest from Wallingford HC, who let in just one open play goal all day
Annie – very solid performance at the back and contender for MoM
Natalya – typically competitive and made some great interceptions
Tiggy – versatile and excellent stick skills (but shouldn’t have worn her dad’s socks!)
Annabelle – worked like a Trojan and unfortunate not to score on several occasions
Louisa – berated by her dad for being half asleep at the start after a sleepover, she warmed to her task and showed great skills
Gemma – one of the undoubted players of the tournament
Frankie – scored a great goal and full of running all day
Emma – scored 7 out of the team’s 8 goals, including some great team goals and bullet short corner
Thanks to the parents for driving across to Elmbridge the Sunday before Christmas and losing to the eventual winners showed how close we were to winning. I thought we were the best team there, but then I’m biased. Our thanks also go to Will Fulker and Molly Mopsa Hanson-Akins of Surbiton HC for their great effort in hosting.
1st - Guilford B
2nd - Surbiton
3rd - Surbiton
4th - Oxford Hawks
