Beechwood Hockey Festival - Guernsey March 2010
St George’s mixed hockey team travelled to Guernsey on Saturday 13th March to take part in Beechwood’s annual hockey festival. The team, eight boys and one girl, Mrs Le Neveu and Mrs S. Jones met at the airport at 7.30am for the short flight to Guernsey.
We were met in Guernsey by Andre, Beechwood’s friendly caretaker who delivered us to the Elizabeth Memorial Field. Some of you who are reading this may have travelled on one of these trips, and no doubt, will remember the very old fashioned changing rooms that greeted us. What a lovely surprise to be faced with a brand new modern facility which had just been opened.
Our first match was against the Steelers, a mixed Year 7 and 8 team from Stroud, who proved to be a very quick and strong opposition. St George’s was woken up from their early morning start by a 2: 0 defeat. Jack Nicholls in goal played well and kept several more shots out of the net. Next we faced the hosts Beechwood Buccaneers. St George’s began to play their quick passing game and were pressurising the Buccaneer’s goal. Jordan Ramsay struck a well aimed shot to the right of the goal keeper who made a brilliant diving, stick save to stop the goal. The final score was a commendable 0:0 draw. St George’s then faced a Year 7 Ladies College team, the Chargers. Fired up from the previous game St George’s made some good attacking moves. Sandy Prosser on the right used his speed well and took an early opportunity to shoot for goal from the top of the D and scored. The Chargers responded, but good defensive play by Joseph Cabot and Thor Tiefenthal prevented them from scoring giving us our first win (1:0). The next game was against the Turks, a visiting side from Cheltenham. Joshua Daniels and Jordan Ramsay combined well and had several shots saved by some excellent goal keeping. St George’s dominated this match until the dying seconds when the Turks broke through and their centre forward struck a hard lifted ball at goal. Jack Nicholls calmly stopped it and cleared the ball out of the D resulting in another 0:0 draw.
After this match St George’s realised they were doing quite well and earnest consultation of the score board encouraged them that they had a chance of winning the tournament. They then faced another Beechwood side, the Bronco’s. Nathan Bouten as centre mid distributed the ball well and was ably supported by Laura Bailey and Michael Borman. Jordan Ramsay worked hard up front but neither side scored, another 0:0 draw.
In their final game against Cheltenham’s Navvies, St George’s was determined to win. Everyone played with commitment and this was by far St George’s best team effort of the festival. Joshua Daniels had a good shot saved by the goal keeper and he struck the rebound off the goal keeper’s pads which hit the post. Jordan Ramsay was on hand to neatly slot it home giving us a well deserved 1:0 victories.
In the final positions St George’s were equal runners up on points with two other sides but on goal difference they were placed 4th. The team improved throughout the tournament and displayed an excellent spirit; everyone was willing to swap positions and do the best for the team. Before returning home there was a chance to go ten pin bowling where Mrs Jones taught us all a lesson in how to bowl!