The Repton HC U18 Girls delivered a near perfect set of games (five wins and one draw) to win the Club National Super 6s title for 2018 at Whitgift School over the weekend. 

Our U18 Girls were coached by GB international and ex-Repton school girl Ellie Watton who stepped up as a guest coach for Repton HC for the tournament. With only 8 players, and only one outfield sub, the girls showed their skill and fitness over a gruelling weekend of matches. The team was led by Hannah Davey who was top scorer for the weekend with 20 goals, a fantastic achievement given the next top scoring player of the tournament notched up only 10! 

The format was two pools of five teams with the top two going into semi-finals and winners on the to the final. With four wins and a draw against Surbiton HC the girls went into the semis top of their pool. The semi-final against Bath Buccaneers ended 5-5 but was won 2-1 on penalty flicks with credit going to GK Katherine Carr for some vital saves. The final was against Ben Rhydding HC who Repton had already beaten in the group stages. Repton HC opened the scoring and it was 1-1 at half time before a nail biting second half saw Ben Rhydding taking a 2-1 lead. Repton quickly reversed this with two goals from Hannah Davey in the space of a minute.  Davey slotted her fourth of the game two minutes later and, as the game ran down, Ben Rhydding scored a third with one minute still to play. The Repton players were exhausted from the five games but showed excellent game management in the last minute to close it out and become National Champions! 

GB International Ellie Watton commented:

“A brilliant weekend with a lovely bunch of girls.Thank you Repton Hockey Club for having me as a guest coach and well done to all those involved over the weekend, particularly to Ben Rhydding Hockey Club who played some great hockey in the final”

Repton Hockey Club had three other teams in the National Super 6s Finals, the only other Club in the country to achieve this was Surbiton. The U18 boys played in Telford and dominated the group winning their initial three games and guaranteeing the top spot in the group before slipping up to Norwich HC in their final group game. A semi-final against Doncaster HC was lost 1-3 which was a disappointment for this talented group as missed opportunities and fine margins are the hallmarks of the indoor game. The team had easily beaten the eventual winners Guildford HC 6-4 in the group stages and, whilst they played some fantastic hockey over the weekend, will hopefully learn from the experience with the majority of the players available for the competition next year. 

The 16 Girls who were looking to retain the title they won last year had a similar experience to the U18 Boys, topping their group with four wins from four games including some excellent wins with a tight 4-3 scoreline vs Canterbury HC and a 3-1 win against Surbiton HC.  They were beaten by Marlow 0-3 in the semi-final who went on to win the U16 National title in a tight match vs Stourport HC.  Stourport HC had pipped Repton HC to the Midlands indoor title at the regional competition (0-1) and it is a great show of strength of junior hockey in the Midlands region with clubs gaining the number 2 and 3 places.

The U16 Boys, looking to improve on last year’s runners up spot were led by England Under 16s player Xavier Teyletche, who has recently been awarded the prestigious Higgins Hockey Writers Player of the Year award for the U16s.  The team drew their first game but were disappointed to lose their three other pool games by narrow margins - the young team remained enthusiastic throughout and improved their performance over the weekend against talented teams from all over the country.

Martin Jones the Repton HC Head Coach commented:

"The weekend was yet another fantastic one for our club and is testament to all the hard work done by so many, both on and off the pitch.   These National Finals enabled forty of our most promising youngsters an opportunity to test themselves against the best players in the country. We are proud of each one of the squads and delighted that our U18s girls, with the smallest squad but inspired by Ellie Watton, produced such an outstanding result."

The club committee would like to thank our brilliant team managers, Kim Brown, Kelly Newton, Adrian Davey, Kate Kaczmarczyk and Catriona Hatton who worked incredibly hard both before and during the tournament to ensure all the players had a great experience both on and off the pitch over the weekend. The success of the teams is due to not only the hard work and skill of all the players but also to the dedication of our indoor coaching team so a big thank you to Head Coach Martin Jones, Simon Clague, Ellie Watton, Ben Clague and Tomas Landa ! Thank you to all the parents and supporters and importantly, as ever, our thanks for their generous support to all the club sponsors ...Stratstone BMW; The Bulls Head Repton; SCC ; Chatsworth Cabinets; Mitsubishi Jofson; MT13; Repton School; First Choice Food Service and Tandem.