WHC Oracle Edition 76
U16 Boys
South central indoor regional tournament - Winners!
Winchester 3, Trojans 0 (Nolan 2, Srikantha)
Winchester 4, Alton 2 (Jack 2, Nolan, Vincent)
Winchester 2, Reading 1 (Lander, Vincent)
Winchester 1, Marlow 2 (Nolan)
Winchester 13, Maidenhead 1 (Jack lots, Others some)
Indoor Regional tournaments have all the ingredients for a stressful experience – fast paced, short games, constant noise – but a regional tournament with the winner-takes-all prize of a national final place at stake takes adrenaline to another level. 12-minute matches between evenly matched sides really can go either way, and so it was no surprise that the top teams beat each other leaving the pool to be decided on goal difference. Last year’s tournament ended with Winchester on the wrong side of the goal difference calculation, and so this year the boys were determined to make sure that didn’t happen again.
The tournament started smoothly with comfortable wins against Trojans and Alton, with good contributions from the whole squad. In the next game, despite Winchester controlling the game, Reading took the lead with a well taken goal on the break. The response was impressive, with the boys calmly moving the ball well to create opportunities. Bertie equalised and Vinnie despatched a clinical winner to leave Winchester well placed with 2 games remaining. This is where it got interesting (if you were a neutral!), as Marlow, who had previously lost to Reading, snatched a narrow win somewhat against the run of play with Winchester starting to lose their cool and losing players to unnecessary cards. The tournament was now a goal difference scrap between Winchester, Trojans and Marlow all of whom had won three and lost one, with one game left each.
First up was Winchester v Maidenhead, with Trojans v Marlow to follow. Winchester needed to set a goal difference target and were somewhat fortunate that the last game was against the weakest team who were somewhat demoralised after a difficult series of matches. What followed was an extraordinary whirlwind of attacking play, scoring and running the ball back to the centre for a quick restart. Winchester withdrew their goalkeeper to add an extra attacking threat for the last few minutes which yielded a few more goals. By the end even the umpires had lost track of the score and so it took a while to work out that Marlow or Trojans had to beat the other by 6 or 8 goals respectively to spoil Winchester’s party. Neither team ever threatened to run away with their game and so the celebrations could begin.
The national finals take place on 11th January at the Derby Arena.
U16 Girls
South central indoor regional tournament - 3rd Place
With the effects of Storm Darragh still with us, on Sunday the U16 girls made the sensible decision to play in the Southern Regional Indoor Hockey Qualifiers with the winners advancing to the National Finals at the Derby Arena. We expected a tough day at the office playing some of the top tier 1 teams in the region - all with a long pedigree of indoor hockey.
First match on was against Trojans. This on paper was not a kind start but the Winchester players held their own. Ella made some fantastic saves and despite conceding early the girls grew into the game. Did Fran score, hit the post, should it have been a flick.... we will never know. Trojans ended up winning 2-0.
Next game was Marlow; the instruction ‘go and have some fun’. Violet, Venne, Chloe and Orla took this to mean terrorise Marlow. Winchester started to play some great indoor hockey and any Marlow counters were easily dealt with by Maddie "Block Tackle" H. Winchester raced into a 2 - 0 lead and ran out 2 - 1 winners.
Reading was the next game and they had already beaten Trojans. The girls were growing in confidence and started fast but Reading are a good side. The game was end-to-end with Ella once again making some top saves. Reading scored and with time ticking Winchester pulled the goalkeeper. Unfortunately this left us open to the counter and the game ended 2-0 to Reading.
The final match was against Maidenhead. As always the team saved the best to last. Some classic indoor distribution from Ally meant Winchester were always on top and ran out easy 3-0 winners.
Great credit to the team as - having gone with no expectations - Winchester finished 3rd overall, which was an amazing achievement.
U10 and U12 Boys
Braving cold winds with a 1C wind chill, Winchester U12 boys faced the U10 Winchester crew playing a year up in the league. What a game.
This was a tight match which kept both keepers busy. The U12s were a mix of players coached by a guest from the girls meaning the team had to deal with different direction and shape. They coped admirably and a fair 2-2 draw was the result. It was lovely to see quick passing and strong finishing from both sides. Working on defensive shape and quick restarts, without-forcing passes were the key learns.
Next up was the New Forest with no keeper and seven tall and athletic players. The game was edgy to begin with but Winchester’s came through and ran out 7-0 winners. A good day.
