THC U10s squad compete at the Witney Hockey Festival

Well, what a first weekend of competitive hockey that was!

This weekend saw two teams from the THC U10s squad compete at the Witney Hockey Festival, and put in some amazing performances.

Under some glorious autumnal sunshine, both sides started strongly with the U10s unlucky not to win the first game against Wallingford, yielding to a late goal to draw 1-1 – excellent performances all round, and to the delight of the coaches, some evidence that they have their ‘ears on’ at training on Saturdays!! Straight into the second game against Oxford Hawks, a goal from Charlie saw us cruise to a comfortable win, with a midfield performance from Emma and Abigail setting the benchmark for determination and movement (and for tip-tap practice showing through!). We dominated in the 3rd game too, building on some fantastic defensive play from Jasmine, Tilly and Ned between the posts to feel unlucky to come away with a 0-0 draw. It all came together in the final game against Oxford, with the whole team getting back into their stride – Alessandra and Poppy shoring up the middle of the pitch, yet more running from the unstoppable twins and Charlie, Maurits hustling for possession. Romy put in a first-rate game in the forward line, putting enormous pressure on their defence and creating the platform for Leo to pop in 3 centre forward’s goals.

A fantastic first tournament for the U9’s with lots of fun had by all. The first two games saw strong performances from our U9’s with close draws in both games which could have gone either way, both teams fighting very hard to secure the win. Lovely midfield play from Mia, Savanah, Paige and Ivy moving the ball through from the back to create great opportunities for our forwards. A great start to the season. Great passing, solid defence and determination at the front, very exciting to see! The third game brought a very well deserved 1-0 win for the U9’s with Toby sending a lovely ball through from the back which Bella picked up, pushed through the Wallingford defence and scored. We lost the last game 1-0 but the team fought very hard and were unlucky not to come from an early Banbury goal. Thank you to Ned who added a new element to the U9’s game and gave solid keeping for us. Overall, an exciting and determined performance from our U9’s which highlighted the results of all that hard work at training!

Overall the U10s finished a very close 3rd out of the 15 teams with much comment from the opposition coaches about the whole Thame group becoming a ‘force to be reckoned with’.

Praise indeed!