After being runners up at the Surrey Championships and narrowly missing out on an IAPS national place, the our U11s certainly knew what was needed to succeed at the South Regional Championships, held at Woking Hockey Club.
Although placed in a tough group, this did not faze the team and they started the day on great form, beating a very competent Forres Sandle Manor team 2–1. Whitgift was up next and, whilst both teams created many chances, CPS managed to steal a 1–0 win. This victory meant that they were already through to the quarter finals, even though they still had a game left to play. They went on to draw against Eltham College, hence coming top of their group.
The knock out stages were tougher. CPS faced St Lawrence School in the quarter final, which was a close match and a very high class game of hockey, which neither team deserved to loose. The match finished with a score of 1–1, and went straight to penalty flicks. CPS put all three into the bottom corner and unfortunately St Lawrence missed one; not a nice way to finish a game of hockey, but a win and a semi-final place all the same.
A similar game panned out against St Andrews in the semi-final where the game went to penalty flicks. CPS once again put all three flicks into the bottom corners and St Andrews missed one flick. CPS faced local opposition, Eagle House, in the final. CPS took an early 2–0 lead at half time, then the second half continued in the same vain, with CPS 4-0 up until Eagle House grabbed a couple of late goals and the final score was 4–2.
Harry Thomas, coach, said “This is an amazing achievement for our boys; Felix C, Jonah C, Luca de B, Scott W, Max D, Herb D, Josh T, Freddie F, Ben J and Will M. With no national tournament for this age group, they have reached the highest level attainable with the regional championship title. Each member of the squad played their part throughout the day, behaving in a very mature fashion and thoroughly deserving the accolade of regional champions!”
HT
