U13 Girls Win IAPS Regional Hockey Tournament
On Friday 6th October, the 1st VII girls’ hockey team travelled to Bede’s for the annual IAPS regional tournament. The competition was fierce, but the girls managed to come through their group undefeated, thanks to wins over St. Ronan’s, St. Michael’s and Hazelwood and two incredibly close draws against Great Walstead and Cumnor House. Thanks to their goal difference (and a number of clean sheets), the girls progressed to the cup competition as winners of their group.
In the semi-finals, they faced a strong Brambletye side, who put them under a lot of pressure, but they clung on to their clean sheet to finish 0-0 and take the game to shuffles. In her first-ever set of shuffles, Goalkeeper Harriet Jones managed to keep out two of the three Brambletye attempts with some outstanding pressure, and goals from Amélie Lawson and Ayanfe Afolabi took them through to the Cup final, where they faced Cumnor House for a second time.
In the group game, Holmewood had scored a late equaliser to secure a 1-1 draw, but the final was a much more confident affair and the girls played really well in what was an end-to-end game. It rightly finished 0-0 and again went to shuffles, but the goalkeepers were the stars again and after three shuffles the score was just 1-1. In sudden death, Harriet Jones made another excellent save, meaning that Holmewood could win the title with a goal. Amélie Lawson stepped up for the second time and while attempting to round the goalkeeper, was brought down in the circle. She confidently slotted the resulting penalty stroke into the corner of the goal to secure an incredible victory by the tightest of winning margins. The result means that both Holmewood and Cumnor House qualify for the IAPS National Finals at Haileybury School on 17th November.