Thank you very much to all of you parents for coming along and supporting in such a positive manner, particularly for helping to manage the teams with Pete and myself, and for the medical intervention! The children were as always excellent and really managed to play with the idea of good sportsmanship in mind. It is great to see nearly one hundred children loving our sport and participating in it so enthusiastically. It bodes well for the future.

As always in the first tournament of the year, the competition was stiff, and as many of our youngsters have moved up to the under fourteen category, it really was a learning curve in terms of who played with whom, where to stand when and whom to mark. There were many really good bits that I could highlight and several new faces having their first attempt at competitive hockey. A couple of special mentions. In the b team, there were some excellent tackles made by Emily, against children who were a lot bigger than her, brilliant. Some good positioning by Pearl and Cameron and good running off the ball from Chloe and Charlotte. There were many good passes by Ruby, Suzanne and Reuben. If we keep playing together and do all of the things well at once then I am sure some of the draws will turn into victories.

 League Table of the Lincolnshire League Under 12s, Division 1 and 2

In the a team some lovely tenacious play from Abbie ( very brave, well done) and Evie who probably have the most experience on the team. Superb tackles from Issy, not many people got past that block tackle, great defence. Again good movement on the pitch from Olivia and Katie who really started to get the hang of where to be particularly on our attacking and defensive short corners. As for Fraser and Eleanor, every team needs some players who are prepared to carry the ball away from trouble. Great stuff. Again, the first time out as a team together and you played well, the improvement from start to finish was clear for us all to see, so I look forward to some cracking goals next time. However, the hero of the day has to be Rob. A very young man, who played in goal for both of our teams and a couple of times for someone else. Rob saved a lot of goals today and has made huge improvements from last year. Well done Rob, you were my player of the day. Hope the knees are okay Katie, and be proud of any bruise that appears Abbie, the whole of the sideline was delighted at the way you came back on to play in the next game. Well done.

A final thanks must go to Tom and Pete who umpired for pretty much the whole day. We couldn’t have these tournaments without you. Tick off your first one Tom ( I think?) I was very impressed as was Paul Watts.
Thanks again everyone, see you all on Saturday.
Caz May