On Sunday 6th March the Lydney Under 10 Girls took part in the Gloucestershire county round of the In2Hockey Championships.
Throughout the season, Gloucestershire Hockey put on festivals for players to gain match experience but everything is building up to the County Round. This is the one that counts, as there are medals at stake and the top two teams go through to represent Gloucestershire in the West Regional finals.
A squad of 9 nine girls were selected to play and the format of the competition was two round robin pools and Lydney drew Stroud, Cheltenham B, Gloucester City, Cirencester B and Lansdown A. The girls started really well and had three back to back matches coming away with three excellent wins. Next up was Cirencester B and Lydney were again on winning form. The final pool match was always going to be the hardest against Lansdown A. Despite battling hard the girls lost 1-0. So Lydney finished second in the pool and had to face Westbury, winners of the other pool in the semi-finals. After a nail-biting 12 minutes it was 0-0. So now to penalty flicks! Three brave volunteers stepped up to take a flick each and our Goalkeeper had to face three from Westbury – and heartbreakingly Westbury won 1-0. The girls then had to pick themselves up for the 3rd/4th play off vs Cheltenham A’s.
Agonisingly close again it finished 0-0 at full time and now to the second lot of flicks! Three more girls put their hands up and went forward. It was an exceptionally nervous time for everyone and it was very close with Lydney matching Cheltenham and the girls having to take multiple flicks to separate the teams but some fabulous goalkeeping snuffed Cheltenham out and Lydney were victorious. So the girls ended up in 3rd position and happily the girls collected their medals and were all thrilled.
We are all super proud of the girls – an excellent day of hockey and a great experience for them. Thank you to Gemma Baber-Williams and Cindy Jones for running the team and to Marcus for umpiring.
| Opposition | Round | GF | GA | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stroud | Pool | 3 | 0 | Won |
| Cheltenham B | Pool | 2 | 0 | Won |
| Gloucester City | Pool | 1 | 0 | Won |
| Cirencester B | Pool | 1 | 0 | Won |
| Lansdown A | Pool | 0 | 1 | Lost |
| Westbury & Utd Banks | Semi Final | 0 | 0 | Draw (Lost on PFs) |
| Cheltenham A | 3rd/4th Playoff | 0 | 0 | Draw (Won on PFs) |
In another exiting twist of events on the following Monday, Westbury and United Banks withdrew as the Gloucestershire representative in the West Finals.
So as the next highest placed team, Lydney have been ask to take the second place along with the team from Lansdown.
The West finals are due to take place on Sunday 3rd April at Clifton College – so we wish all the girls the best of luck and we’ll be there cheering them on.
Lydney Hockey Club 