Poppy Ilderton writes: After our first full match last week, we were really enthusiastic for the tournament, even despite the rain! Our first match was against Maidenhead who agreed to let us play with all 9 players and was a storming start to the morning.Excellent play from the midfield and attack resulted in an early 3 goals, meaning one of the players had to be taken off. This didn’t stop the excellent hockey displayed, as a further 2 goals were scored and another player taken off. By the end of the match, Nico’s defence were a little bored as they had hardly touched the ball all game; never fear, the next match was to prove a little harder. The goal scorers in the first match were Ethan (his first hat trick of the day!), Mikey and Amir. Our second match was against Henley A. After some brilliant defending- finally able to show off some of their skills- and some excellent work by the midfield, we managed to score a textbook goal, set up by a cross from Jonathan and finished off by Ethan.

Unfortunately in the break between matches 2 and 3, the rain set in with a vengeance. We all retreated into the warmth of Rivermead but had to emerge for our next game against Henley B. The rain proved to be no deterrent for the goals though and we secured another 5-nil win. A plethora of goal scorers, including 2 for Mikey who had previously been playing in defence. Once again two players were brought off but Nico maintained his clean sheet. The final match was against Bracknell, who boasted some extremely skilful players; however we put up an extremely brave effort and won 1-0. It was top goal scorer Ethan who got the crucial goal, though it couldn’t have been done without the excellent saves from Nico, solid defending from Alex and Mikey, energetic midfield play from Laura, Bradley and Pheobe and the consistent hard work from Amir, Ethan and Jonathan upfront. Furthermore, congratulations to the whole team for their pleasant, polite and professional attitude throughout the tournament and being excellent ambassadors for the club as the host team. Special mention to Hugh for organising the schedules and to David, with school bell in hand, for masterly control of the whole morning.