Gold for HC Knole Park's U14 Girls!
In a remarkable two days for the Knole Park U14 Girls at the Indoor Hockey UK Championships they ended up with two medals! The competition is an open competition and all domestic and international teams can enter. So on Monday the girls finally had the chance to play in their correct age group – the U14 Championships! The girls played superbly throughout the tournament.
In the group phase they won all three matches scoring 16 goals without reply. (Scorers: Lottie Bingham 4, Anna Faulstich 3, Summer Knight-Thompson 3, Bella Muñoz 2, Polly Brownlow 2, Mackenzie Ward & Jessica Lewis).
In the First Placed Round Robin phase they also won all three matches scoring nine more goals without conceding. The matches were against two invitational teams; JK Hockey & UK Lions, where the girls won 2-0 (Lottie & Summer) and 6-0 (Lottie 2, Anna 2, Summer & Amber Croll) respectively. In the final match of the tournament they beat last season’s runner’s up Surbiton 1-0 (Lottie).
Lottie Bingham top scored with 8 goals; and the rest of the goals were once again shared amongst the team with seven other girls also scoring. This included five goals each for Knole Park’s Player of the Tournament, Anna Faulstich, and the tenacious and skilful forward Summer Knight-Thompson.
Gold – HC Knole Park
Silver – UK Lions
Bronze – Surbiton
So close for the U14 Boys at the Copper Box Indoor Championships!
The U14 Boys finished a very credible 6th place at the U14 Copper Box Championships. They made the perfect start with two wins against Hertford (3-0 – Isaac Dale 2 & Riley Webster) and Saffron Walden (1-0 – Charlie Harrison), which meant the final group match against Canterbury would be the decider to see who would progress to the 1st Placed Round Robin. In a very high-quality match, both teams had opportunities to win the match, but it was the Canterbury team that stole the winner with less than two minutes on the clock. Indy Morris won a deadtime penalty corner, however the move broke down and Canterbury won the group.
Despite this set back the team remained positive and recorded the complete set of results in the 5th – 8th Championships with a superb 3-0 win over Oxted (Charlie 2 & Isaac), including an amazing individual goal from Charlie Harrison, a 1-1 with JK Hockey (Charlie) and a 1-2 loss against Surbiton (Charlie). The Knole Park Top Scorer was Charlie Harrison with five goals. Knole Park Player of the Tournament was the attacking defender Lars Hansen. The boys can be very pleased with how they played and developed throughout the tournament. Next year should be exciting!
Gold – Wotton Under Edge (Gloucestershire)
Silver – UK Lions
Bronze – Marlow
Overall, the club is exceptionally proud of all of its members for how they played across the 3-day competition. With very limited indoor experience in the lower age groups, all the children played some fantastic indoor hockey, improved throughout their tournaments and had fun whilst doing it! For the U14 Girls; you continue to amaze and impress! We wish you all the best with your preparation for the National Finals over the next few weeks.
This is the first tournament where Knole Park have entered multiple teams and it was great to see the club camaraderie developing already.
Congratulations to our Director of Hockey, Duncan Parnis, who has coached all the teams over the last few weeks in preparation for the Copper Box, and to Ruth Bingham for her invaluable coaching support and team management.
For those that took home medals – many congratulations! 2020 is going to be a fantastic year!