Lincolnshire Hockey were sadly beaten in the finals of the England Hockey County Championships in Nottingham last week

Last Saturday, the 1st of June, saw the Finals Day of the England Hockey County Championships take place at the Nottingham Hockey Centre, and Lincolnshire were drawn against local rivals Yorkshire in their semi-final match.

Against Yorkshire

Things did not go well from the start for Lincolnshire, as the Yorkshire side dominated the first half and looked by far the better side. They scored first and it was always going to be difficult for Lincolnshire to get back into the game. They faced a first half barrage of five penalty corners against them but, thankfully, Yorkshire did not capitalise with David Overton (Lindum Hockey Club) outstanding in the Lincolnshire goal.

The second half was better for Lincolnshire and whilst they never dominated the game at any time, they were playing much better hockey than in the first half. They had chances but did not get the goal they needed and the game was back and forth each end with neither team managing to score. Lincolnshire had a couple of penalty corners themselves but again failed to find the equaliser and with time running out it looked like they were doomed.

With barely three minutes left the ball came into the Yorkshire “D” and their captain, Alex Humphreys, appeared to have it covered and under control but his clubmate, Sam Perrin (Brooklands MU), in the Lincolnshire side saw the opportunity and robbed him of the ball on the reverse, turned and controlled a simple push into an empty net – to the jubilation of the supporting Lincolnshire crowd and his teammates. 1 – 1.

In the penalty strokes that followed, Yorkshire went first and scored – as did Lincolnshire on their turns, only for one player on each side to miss their flicks to make it 4 – 4 (Finding, Perrin, Johnstone & Wright all netting for Lincolnshire) and on to sudden death, with Lincolnshire going first this time. Lincolnshire scored (Finding) and Yorkshire missed, so our county side went through to the final 5-4 on strokes to play against Kent. All very exciting for the onlookers.

Against Kent Hockey

The final, unfortunately, became a bit of a one sided affair as Kent Hockey had strengthened their team since the Lindum weekend (they had lost 4-1 to Lincolnshire there) and pulled in four National League Premier players including England squad players Nick Bandarak (Holcombe) and Rob Farrington (ex Surbiton).

This was always going to be a tough one for Lincolnshire and they were soon 0-2 down, the second of which Bandarak scored with an exceptional piece of skill in lobbing Overton. Lincolnshire hung in but went a third goal down before Josh Pettinger (Lindum) latched on to a Chris Porter (Oxted) pass and deflected the ball high into the Kent net. 1-3 and Lincolnshire were back in the game only to give the ball away yet again and Kent scored number four.

Lincolnshire soon recovered once more when Rob Johnstone (Lindum) fired home one of his reverse stick specials into the bottom corner, giving Lincolnshire an opening if they could take it. Sadly, Kent grew stronger and killed the game with three more goals, winning the game in similar style to their semi final victory over Lincolnshire two years ago.

Lessons to be learnt again for Lincolnshire but a valiant effort in reaching the final this year and a great performance in the Preliminaries.

Lincolnshire Hockey’s Squad

David Overton GK, Matt Bell, Rob Johnstone, David Dykes, James Wright, Sam Perrin, Sam Temple-Baxter, Louie Sadler, Joe Finding, Ben Treadgold, Ross Booth (captain), Ben Read, Chris Porter, Stuart Cunnington, Josh Pettinger, Simon Miles.