Repton Cup 2018
Posted by on 28 July 2018
Last week, in glorious sunshine, our U14 boys and girls had the opportunity to play in the inaugural Repton Cup. The tournament had an International feel with teams from Spain, Germany, USA and the UK and brought together high quality teams that don’t usually play one another. Our young players had a fantastic week that included training sessions and fun social events alongside lots of hockey.
Current GB International Erica Sanders, with her sister Pip, coached our girls team who gelled well throughout the five days and will have learnt plenty from playing such high quality opposition. A new coach for the Club for next season, Emma Thornbury, herself a former Irish International coached the boys group and was supported by Men’s 1st XI player Matti Thomas. Thanks very much to them for all their hard work throughout and for their excellent input.
Playing each team twice gave us the opportunity to check our progress and the improved results second time around, against WC Eagles (USA National Champions) and Bremer Hockey Club (Third place in the German National Championships), showed exactly that. Notable performances included Izzi Evans, who probably had more to do this week than she has done in matches all season, and who made a number of excellent saves and Bronte Brough and Scout Butler who did well trying to contain some outstanding players.
Our boys team consisted of players from four different year groups, which may account for some of the inconsistent performances, but when they clicked they played some excellent hockey. Otto Schneck played very well in goal, and Olly Ewart-White looked at home despite playing some boys a few years older. Our boys were the master of the shoot-outs, winning a couple of drawn games by this method, which bodes well for competitions next season!
This was a really enjoyable week for all involved and hope that this event becomes an annual event which will continue to challenge our players against some of the best players in the world for their age. Thank you to U14 girls sponsor SCC and new U14 boys sponsor Frederick Cooper for their support of these teams and we look forward to a really exciting 2018/19 season ahead for this age group!
For photos of the tournament please go to http://www.hockeytoday.co.uk
