On Sunday 15 March, 9 young players, their Coach Stu and Team Manager Rich, their team's junior umpire Thomas, parents and siblings made the journey to Basingstoke Hockey Club for Hampshire's annual In2Hockey Tournament. The Club entered Tier 2 to join 4 other Clubs in what turned from a beautiful Spring morning to a cold and damp autumnal afternoon. The team cleverly took camp in Pitch 2's dugout for their warm-up, team talk and long wait before their first match scheduled for 1325 against Alton (who had already played their first game). Goalkeeper at the ready and highly proficient in dealing with short corners one came but the team were ready, no goal. The team took a while to get going but with the matches being so short at 12 mins one-way no goals were secured. Score 0-0. Straight onto the next game v Romsey for their second game too, and again another 0-0 score line - a great result with top of the table Romsey scoring 4 goals in their first game against Alton, which proved to be their saviour. So 2 points on the board and all to play for. Next up, sadly another hour's wait......and the rain had set in. That didn't stop them, being used to playing in the rain this season they came out beating Andover 2-0, getting some goals on the board from a short corner strike from Danny and a gentle back post tap in by Freddie with a super bit of teamwork to get it there. Taking Gosport to 5 points with one game to go to make their impact felt. Final game of Group A, Gosport play Aldershot and Farnham who at this stage were fighting for the top slot, trailing by goal difference needing 3 goals to secure the top slot! Having already played an Aldershot and Farnham team this winter, the team knew it was going to be tough having played them 3 times this season and winning just the one game. So the aim was to score goals, that didn't work out so defend defend and stop them scoring and get another point on the board. So they did, leaving A&F with just the one point and falling short of the goal difference they needed to overtake Romsey who had the early fortunate headstart against Alton. Gosport conceded absolutely NO goals, no other team in this competition both Tier 1 and Tier 2 could match that so the children should be super proud of themselves for this remarkable achievement, Coach Stu said he'd never been to a junior tournament where a team had left without conceding a goal and be so unlucky not to score more than the 2 goals. But with only just short of 50 mins hockey over a 3 hour period in the rain and miserable conditions for all, it was going to be tough. Thank you to everyone for your support on Mother's Day too, looked like our Mum's had fun though and that's what we're all here for - enjoy our sport with each other.
Well done to Danny, Freddie K, Rowan, Ryan, Oli, Oly, Josh, Bella and Elsie. Special thanks to Coach Stu, Rich and Thomas S.