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Saturday 1st May 2010

Southern Regional Finals

Aylesbury Hockey Club Juniors rounded off arguably one of their most successful seasons with a trip to the Southern Regional Finals in Surbiton over the weekend.

An unprecedented 4 Aylesbury teams qualified for the finals in the Under 10 boys, Under 10 girls, Under 12 boys and Under 12 girls age groups. Each Aylesbury team were to face 15 of the top clubs around the South of England who also qualified for the tournament by winning their respective County Finals.

With no Aylesbury team ever finishing in the top 8 of the tournament, Aylesbury already considered it a success in making the finals.

Under 10 Girls

After winning the County Championships in beginning of April, Aylesbury Under 10 girls travelled down to Surbiton to represent Bucks in the South Regional Finals Mini Hockey Championships. There were four pools each of 4 teams from clubs representing their County right across the South of England. Aylesbury in Pool A were up against Horsham, Surbiton and Reading.

First game against Surbiton was a hard fought match with Surbiton's attack pressurising Aylesbury's defence from the start, which resulted in Surbiton being 1-0 up after 2 minutes. With half the time played, Aylesbury made a break from which Emily Taylor found the back of Surbiton's goal bringing the scores level, however Surbiton were not going to settle for a draw or a loss and even with some fantastic saves from Jess Potts in goal, Surbiton managed to get a second goal leaving Aylesbury with a 2-1 defeat.

Next team to face Aylesbury was Horsham, Aylesbury attacked strongly from the start not wishing to have a repeat of the previous game and Horsham rarely managed to get the ball down past the half way line to threaten Aylesbury's defence. However even with all the pressure and attack going in Aylesbury's favour they were unable to find the back of the goal for the whole 10 minutes of the game and finished with a 0-0 result. This meant they would need to win the next game and have luck on their side from the other pool game to be in the running for the Super Pools.

Last game in the pool against Reading was a hard match with the play switching from end to end all the time, a win obviously important to both teams, definitely an anxious and nail biting game for the spectators. Half way through the game found Aylesbury on the attack, with good passing and several shots at goal, one from Alice Rolfe found it's way past the Reading keeper, Aylesbury now had to keep the pressure on the opposition's defence to keep the score line in their favour; which they did.

At the end of the Pool stages Aylesbury were 2nd and made it through to the super pools and were up against Teddington A, Spencer HC and Surbiton; having already played and lost against Surbiton in the pool stage this score would be carried forward, so Aylesbury needed to do well.

Teddington straight away had Aylesbury pressurising them for the 1st half of the game but they weren't going to take it lying down and came back at Aylesbury making it an exciting match to watch; with both teams determined not to loose, at the end of the game the score line was 0-0, this meant to have any hope of going further Aylesbury would need to win their last game against Spencer HC.

With the knowledge that a win would get Aylesbury into the semi-finals for the cup, they were fired up to make sure they kept the cup within their grasp. Right from the whistle Aylesbury attacked and were not going to take prisoners on this game. Charlie Adams playing up at the very front, found the ball on her stick and wasted no time finding the back of the goal giving Aylesbury an early lead. With the team now really keyed up for a win, the defence stepped up and made sure the ball was intercepted and pushed back to the forwards which resulted in Alice Rolfe getting Aylesbury's second goal. Final score was 2-0 to Aylesbury and a place in the semi-final for the cup secured.

The semi final was against Woking who again proved to be tough competition and even with them being awarded a couple of short corners, Aylesbury's defence kept them from scoring and Aylesbury put Woking under pressure for most of the game. A very tense game for all watching and with a great sense of relief, Emily Taylor scored for Aylesbury giving them a 1-0 lead which they hung onto until the final whistle subsequently securing Aylesbury their place in the Final.

Ironically the final was against Surbiton who they played in their first match.
Having already played 6 matches against very good teams Aylesbury were dealing with injuries, cramp and fatigue, but they went out there and played with determination. It was a very closely fought game with both teams having even share of the ball. Aylesbury had a few shots at goal which unfortunately went wide and with no one on the post to make it count Aylesbury were unable to get themselves on the score sheet, with a couple of minutes to go Surbiton made a break and scored, although Aylesbury tried to pull one back, fatigue had taken it's toll and at the final whistle Surbiton took the Regional Cup for the South.

Although Aylesbury came second, they are now considered the second best team in the South of England and out performed their coaches expectations and also are the first from the Aylesbury Junior section to get this far in this tournament. The coaches would like to say thank you to each and everyone of them for their hard work and determination in training as well as the games.

The 9 team members were: Jess Potts (GK), Charlie Adams, Vanessa Bond, Fenella Charlton-Jones, Lucy Cooling, Ellie Kiely, Alice Rolfe, Emily Taylor and Emily Taylor.

Well done girls you ROCK

Under 12 Girls

Saturday afternoon saw the Aylesbury under 12 girls take their turn at taking on the best teams from the South of England at the regional finals. The team comprising 1 under 12, 4 under 11's and 4 under 10's were in a very tough pool against teams full of under 12 players.

The first group game saw them take on Oxford Hawks and an extremely high quality game ensued with both teams going close on several occasions. Despite the girls best efforts a very hard hit penalty corner gave Hawks the decisive goal. The second group game was against Mid Sussex and the Aylesbury girls were soon on the attack but unable to force home their advantage, just as it looked they were again not going to get their reward for their dominance Charlotte Oswald scored two quick goals to give the girls their opening victory. The final group game was against a very strong Woking side, but this didn't stop the girls from giving their opponents a very difficult game. Once again the standard of hockey played by both sides was of the highest quality and again it took a tremendous hit from the Woking captain from a penalty corner at the end of the match to snatch the points from the Aylesbury girls.

These results saw the girls enter the plate competition and despite the disappointment of not competing for the big prize the girls soon picked themselves up and their next opponents Wokingham were soon under extreme pressure. Whilst the Wokingham goal was living a charmed life the Aylesbury girls thought they were again going to be unrewarded when they finally broke the deadlock with a wonderfully worked penalty corner routine neatly finished by Aylesbury's player of the tournament Phoebe Teychenne. Aylesbury then faced Guildford for a place in the Plate final and again up against bigger girls Aylesbury were more than holding their own. Despite a number of chances for both sides it looked like the game would finish in a draw which would have seen Aylesbury progress, a penalty corner to Guildford right on the final whistle was to prove the heartbreak moment as another strong hit saw the girls defeated 1-0.

The Aylesbury team were then left with the knowledge that they had pushed some very experienced sides all the way in games and the fact that all but one of them would be eligible for next years tournament, the Aylesbury squad was: Robyn Cumberland, India Hibbs, Eleanor Hope, Mollie Howitt, Cliodhna McKibbin, Amber Miles, Alicia Momen, Charlotte Oswald and Phoebe Teychenne.

Under 10 Boys