On Wednesday 20 November, the U12 hockey team took part in the IAPS Hockey Finals at Rugby School. The girls travelled up to Rubgy the day before and stayed overnight in a hotel. They were ready and raring to go on the day of the tournament.
The first game of the pool stage was against Foremarke Hall. We knew that this was going to be a tough game. Foremarke Hall scored early on but Danes Hill kept their heads up high and equalled the score. Despite a lot of chances the score finished 1-1. The next three games the girls knew that to win the pool they needed to score a lot of goals. So that is what they did! They beat Taunton Prep 3-0, St Mary’s Hall 6-0 and Hazlegrove 4-0. This meant that they had scored 14 goals and only conceded 1. This put them through as 1st place and through to the cup competition.
The next match was crucial as it was a knock out game. The girls again demonstrated their strength at scoring goals and beat St Faith’s 5-0. They were thrilled to be through to the semi-finals and played local school Cranleigh. This was an exciting game and both teams had chances to score. In the last 10 seconds of the 14 minute match, J.Thompson scored the winning goal to put them through to the finals.
The final game was against last year’s Year 6 IAPS winners, Cliffton College Prep. What a final this was! Danes Hill scored 2 goals early on and then Cliffton came back to score. C.Moorhead then dribbled through every player on the right side of the pitch to score. Cliffton did not give up and once again they found a gap in our defence and scored another goal. Danes Hill came straight back and C.Moorhead scored once again, mirroring the last goal. on the final whistle Danes Hill won the match 4-2.
The girls were crowned U12 Nationals IAPS Champions and received the winning cup and gold IAPS medals. C.Moorhead also received the player of tournament award and was awarded an Osaka hockey stick.
We are extremely proud of all of the girls. It was a wonderful team effort and every girls must be congratulated on this outstanding achievement.
