NEWSLETTER. Club Announcements

Transcription

1 NEWSLETTER Sunday 22 nd -29 th March 2015 Club Announcements Welcome back to Marden Russets Junior Section s newsletter, which is ed to members, families and friends every week. Photos of matches or any hockey-related issues are always welcome. News needs to be with Carol Ridge: familyridge@fastmail.co.uk by 9am every Tuesday morning. You can also view the newsletter on the Marden Russets website in the Juniors section, along with archive copies from earlier in the season, club registration forms and this year s Junior Brochure: Distribution is handled by Junior Administrator, Joy Henson: russetsmarden@yahoo.co.uk End of Season Successes Last Sunday was the final hockey session of the season for most age groups but Marden Juniors are certainly finishing with a flourish! After a huge 3-2 win against Wimbledon in the quarter finals last weekend, the U16 Boys now face a big semi final match versus Teddington at 10am this Sunday in the Mercian Cup and then finish their season with a match against The Coaches on Sunday 12 th April at 11am. Both matches are on the Marden home astroturf so come along and support them if you can and be inspired by some fantastic hockey. We have a particularly talented group of boys in our oldest age group this year and hopefully many of those who leave the junior section will stay on with the club to play senior hockey: our juniors are the lifeblood of Marden Russets and we do as much as we can to integrate the juniors with our adult teams. Our U16 Girls will also play the Ladies 1 st XI at 12.30pm on Sunday 12 th April. Many congratulations also go to our U12 Girls, who overcame many bigger clubs to come runners-up in the County Championships, only losing to Canterbury on penalty flicks in the final: a tremendous achievement! They will now go on to represent Marden Russets at the Regionals.

2 Sunday Summary The Week That Was U8s Last Training Session U11 Girls Last Training Session Amanda Payne-Cook & Ben Palmer, U10 End of Season Mixed Matches and Awards It was a great end to the season and fantastic to see so many keen children in attendance for a Mixed Mini Tournament last Sunday. Our Young Leaders, Antony and Hamish, took on umpiring, whilst Ellie and the coaches encouraged and guided the teams. The matches were fairly even as we balanced the teams in terms of ability and gender and hopefully the children enjoyed the session as much as we did. It was wonderful to see how much they have progressed and improved during the season.

3 U10 Mixed contd When play finished it was over to the Clubhouse for presentations. The children tucked into hot dogs in a packed clubhouse, as the Young Leaders were thanked first with team signed cards, Wackysox and large Easter Eggs (so they could go to work!). I made the presentations to the girls in Clive's absence, (and as my husband commented, I'm not a public speaker so sorry if I was not dynamic in my thanks!): three engraved trophies and medals were given out to Annie Moore for Player of the Season, Grace Barras for Team Player of the Season and Evie Hemming (unfortunately absent) for Most Improved Player of the Season. The whole team received a signed certificate from Head Coach, Clive, and a chocolate Easter egg. Thanks to all the parents and children for getting together to give me two wonderful bunches of flowers. Hope to see you all next season as U11 Girls with Clive as Head Coach and Manager. U10 Boys Coach, Ben Palmer, really enjoyed the season finale: it was a great morning and fantastic to see girls and boys of all abilities playing so well together! U10 Boys Awards: Player of the Season Will Goddard; Team Player of the Season - Nick Bernhardsen; Most Improved Player - Cody Walsh. Ben Palmer s presentations U10 Award Winners

4 Richard Day, U12 Girls A great day for the club and the U12 Girls as we qualified for the Regional Championships, representing Kent along with Canterbury. 14 teams from across the county met at Tonbridge School, all trying to finish in the top two to win a place in the Regional Championships. It was a great Marden team effort; we had a tough group but managed to win all of our games without conceding a goal, beating: Brombeck 2-0, Canterbury 1-0, Gillingham 2-0, Sutton Valence 1-0, Tunbridge Wells B 1-0, Sevenoaks B 1-0. Finishing top of our group allowed us a semi final against Tunbridge Wells A, whilst Canterbury battled against Sevenoaks in the other. We knew that Tunbridge Wells were a strong side but our girls were in no mood to let them win. In an impressive 12 minutes of hockey we scored three excellent goals and our opponents hardly got into the game. The final was Canterbury v Marden: we had beaten them in the pool game so felt we had a great chance of becoming champions. A frantic game in which Canterbury scored a goal midway through the game, as they outnumbered us in attack. However, the Marden team spirit and determination brought us back level a few minutes later despite a flurry of attacks in the last two minutes we could not get the all-important goal and the final ended up as a 1-1 draw. So it was down to a penalty shoot-out to decide first and second place, and unfortunately we lost out. Finishing runners up and qualifying for the Regionals is a really great achievement and all the girls should be proud of themselves. Overall in the competition we scored more goals than any other club and only conceded the one goal in the final. A fantastic team effort and well done to Joanna Saunders, Ella Allfrey, Evie Duncan, Chloe Day(c), Maisie Milldam, Eve Wright, Issy Marshall, Ella Aitken and Harriet Bonney - next the Regionals!

5 Rob Hillier, U12 Boys U12 Boys Southern Counties Regional Tournament An early start at Surbiton Hockey Club saw the Marden U12 Boys entered into what turned out to be the pool of death! They faced three very strong teams from Haslemere, Surbiton and Reading and needed to get off to a flyer if they were to progress through to the Cup quarter finals. They held Haslemere well although went down 2-0, but struggled to cope with Surbiton's tempo and lost 4-0. The remit for the boys, however, was to enjoy themselves and they picked themselves up wonderfully to take a well-deserved 1-1 draw with Reading. With that, the Under 12s progressed to the Plate quarter finals. Upon hearing some of the subsequent Cup quarter final scorelines though (10-0 and 9-0) it became apparent that they had been in a very tough pool. The Plate quarter final was an exciting game against Southgate, which saw two goals from either side by full time. Needing a winner to progress through to the semis, penalty flicks were taken. The confidence shown by our flickers and goalkeeper meant that victory was never in doubt and Marden won 3-0 in the shootout. Fareham were next up in the semis and by this stage Marden were really proving that they could hold their own at this level. It was a very tight game and unfortunately the boys came unstuck 2 0 through some very well-taken short corners. There was some very impressive hockey on show at the tournament and I am very proud to say that the Marden boys held their own admirably. If they had been tested at this level more regularly during the season I am convinced that they would have had the ability to have made a real statement. It was a great achievement to have made it to this tournament and they should be congratulated for their efforts. Enjoy the summer!