BOA Junior National Championships 2014 - under 12'
Report on Junior Nationals held at John Charles Centre, Leeds Saturday 19 July 2014.
The best junior players in Britain came together for this competition at John Charles Centre, Leeds Saturday 19 July 2014, with 9 teams playing in the under 12 age group, 6 in the under 14’s and 7 in the under 16’s and under 18’s groups
Rochdale Underwater Hockey Club members took part in the Junior Nationals competition with 7 members playing in the under 12 age group, 5 members playing in a mixed Batley team in the under 14 age group, and 2 members playing for a mixed Xarifa team in the under 16 age group.
Under 12 team was Megan Walsh (playing with a broken finger!), Katie Moore, Laura-Jane Boughton, Isaac Rhodes-Dawson, Ella Tomlinson, Jacob Redmond and Tanya Harrison (c).
Their first match was against Plymouth u12 who scored 3 quick goals using a very fast attacker before we were able to reply. The rest of the match had some very good team play but we lost 6-2.
Next match was against Batley Barracudas A with a quick goal from Laura-Jane followed by 3 more from Tanya due to good concerted attacks which almost made the game one way traffic. There was a breakthrough by Batley with a goal just being averted by good defending right at the goalmouth. 3 more goals by Tanya and 2 from Ella saw the match finish at 9-0.
We then played Batley Barracudas B which was another high scoring game in our favour with a final score of 10-0.
Pembroke u12 were our next opponents, and although they had already lost to Batley B team, this proved a much more even match requiring a lot of good defensive play. Final score 5-2 thanks to Ella (2) and Tanya (3).
Xarifa u12 came next and this proved to be a very even match although they managed a last minute 4-3 winner.
Then TSW X u12, who were a formidable bunch able to score 12 goals against us without reply. It didn’t help when we allowed our defence to get drawn too far forward. They went on to win the tournament.
Final heats match was against TSW Y u12 who were nowhere near as strongas their other team and although they managed to take first blood we quickly responded with Ella’s equaliser followed by 2 more from Tanya and a final bonus goal from Isaac leaving the score at 4-2.
We had to meet TSW X team again in the play-offs and were able to hold them this time to 8-0.
Final match was against Xarifa who had scored a last minute winner against us in the earlier heats but were more determined this time and although Tanya managed to put 2 goals past them the final score was 6-2 giving us 4th place in the tournament.
Just outside the medals this time but plenty of good play and experiences to work on for next year. Tanya was our highest scorer and probably the highest in the tournament, with Ella a close second. Isaac worked really hard and was our goal maker and saver.
