HC Knole Park U12s both won medals in the U12 Boys and Girls ‘in2hockey’ Kent Cup competitions this weekend. A remarkable achievement for a club that only has enough players to field one team in each competition! Overall the club played 16 matches and won 12 of them! Drawing twice in the girls competition knock-out matches and only losing to Canterbury in the boys competition. The Girls scored 17 goals with Celia Foster top scoring with seven goals. The Boys scored 23 goals with Mack Copp top scoring with 10 goals and Isaac Dale with 8 goals.
U12 Girls win Bronze! On Sunday, HC Knole Park entered the U12 Girls Kent Cup for the first time. The girls got off to a flying start beating BromBeck 6-0. A hat-trick from Celia and singles from Ines, Izzy and Lettie was the perfect way to start the competition. Next up were Tunbridge Wells B-Team. Goals from Ines, Georgina and Celia gave the girls a 3-0 win. Against Canterbury A it was the same score line and the same scorers with Izzy swapping in for Georgina. Next up was Sevenoaks B team. Two excellent goals from Lettie and Betsy were the difference as the team won 2-0. In the final group match the girls defeated Blackheath 2-0 with Celia and Betsy scoring. Topping the group the girls qualified for the semi-finals. In a slightly peculiar tournament format, the three group winners qualified, plus the best runner-up. Last year’s winners Sevenoaks had also won all their group matches and outscored us by two goals so they were ranked #1. Knole Park were ranked #2 and then the final group winners, Tunbridge Wells A, were ranked #3. Marden then came through from Tunbridge Wells’ group as the best runner-up. The semifinals were therefore: Sevenoaks v Marden & Knole Park v Tunbridge Wells. In one of the performances of the day, the girls played out a completely one sided semi-final. Creating chance after chance the girls were so close to winning the match, but for the inspired goalkeeper in the Tunbridge Wells goal. The match finished 0-0 and went to penalty strokes. The girls scored their first two strokes and Annabel had saved T.Wells’ second flick, which meant the girls had a chance to win, but their third stroke was saved. In the third round of sudden death penalties the Tunbridge Wells GK once again came to their rescue - and made the save to knock the Knole Park girls out. To the Bronze Medal match: Still disappointed from the semi-final, the girls conceded their first goal of the day. However a super goal from Celia brought the teams level. Further chances came and went, before the match finished 1-1. To penalties again and this time the Knole Park girls learnt from last time and won the shoot out to pick up a bronze medal! Many congratulations to all the girls in what has been a phenonmenal season. Their improvements have been out of this world!
U12 Boys win Silver!
On Sunday, HC Knole Park’s U12 Boys entered the Kent Cup for the first time. Having had a very positive season so far the boys were in good spirits and excited to get their Cup season underway! The boys made a blistering start winning their first three matches: 3-0 v Ashford (Mack, Isaac 2), 5-2 v Holcombe (Ed, Moritz 2, Isaac 2) and 1-0 v Blackheath (Moritz).
Up next would be the two matches that would define the group. Last year’s winners, Canterbury, followed by last year’s runner’s up, Sevenoaks! A tall order! In a superb game of hockey against Canterbury the boys were on fine form. They created numerous chances, only to be thwarted by the excellent Canterbury goalkeeper. Against the run of play Canterbury scored a last minute close range goal and that would be how the match would finish. A tough defeat to take, but without time to dwell on the defeat, the team had to go again against Sevenoaks. In an outstanding performance the quality and the skill of the young Knole Park team tore through the Sevenoaks defence and it wasn’t long before Mack and Isaac combined to score three goals between them to win the match 3-0. Mack claiming two and Isaac the other. The performance of the day and all of a sudden the defeat to Canterbury was a thing of the past! In the final two matches the boys continued their winning run with comfortable wins against BromBecks, 4-1 (Ed, Isaac & Mack 2), and Tunbridge Wells 3-0 (Mack 2, Isaac). Knole Park had qualified for the semi-finals as runners-up behind Canterbury and would face the other group’s winners, Marden HC. In what can only be described as one of the finest U12 Boys performances of all time(!), the team ran out 4-0 winners with Mack and Isaac again being the main protagonists. A hat-trick from Mack and one from Isaac was the exceptional way to win the semi-final. And through to the final where they would meet Canterbury again. The Knole Park boys gave it everything they could, but just couldn’t find a way past the Canterbury goalkeeper. Canterbury were much improved from earlier in the tournament and they ran out 2-0 winners and took the gold. Having come through the harder group and with the Silver medals around their necks, the boys were delighted. They are now also through to the Regional Finals taking place at Surbiton Hockey Club on Sunday 26th April. Many congratulations to everyone that played!
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