HC Knole Park U14B go top of the Home Counties League!
HC Knole Park’s U14B team faced bottom of the table Sevenoaks U14B in what promised to be a tense encounter with plenty to play for both sides. The girls began the game fast paced and challenged the Sevenoaks goalkeeper numerous times within the first 10 minutes. It wasn’t long before Mackenzie Ward won the first penalty corner of the game after one of her mazy dribbles into the opposition’s D. Unfortunately, the girls couldn’t find the net and against the run of play Sevenoaks counter attacked and scored to go 1-0 up. This prompted the girls to move up through the gears and after some excellent play by Flo Burnop, Ines Gascoyne Day and Ella Walker; Celia Foster won the ball high up the pitch and she passed to Mackenzie who couldn’t miss for her first goal of the afternoon. The scores remained level at 1-1 until half time despite Sevenoaks surviving six more penalty corners, a shot against the post and their goalkeeper making some incredible saves.
After half time the girls continued to dominate the match and created chance after chance through some excellent link up play between Cara Gould, Lauren Foster and Belle Kramer. After some lovely play the ball fell to Mackenzie who carried the ball into the D, beat several players and slotted the ball past the on-rushing goalkeeper for her second of the afternoon. Harriet Medlen added Knole Park’s third goal shortly after, making the best use of her speed and skills! Despite another breakaway goal to narrow the score line to 3-2, Knole Park continued to press and secured the win with two more goals by Player of the Match Mackenzie Ward to take her tally to four and the score to 5-2.
Overall the girls should be very proud of their performance as there were many excellent examples of superb play throughout the game. The girls now sit top of their respective league and will head into the last four matches with high hopes of reproducing this excellent performance! A great way to start 2020!
HC Knole Park U14A go top of the EH Cup League!
The U14A Girls played the second match of their England Hockey Cup on Sunday against Bournemouth. Bournemouth have always had very strong junior girl’s teams in the EH Cup, so the travelling Knole Park team knew they would have to be on their game to compete.
The girl started at a fearsome pace, with the indoor hockey practice paying off and the girls were up within two minutes. A superb run from Olivia Breed was coolly finished off by Lottie Bingham. The second goal came from a very skillful run by Phoebe Gough-Cooper who laid the ball off to Summer Knight-Thompson to reverse flick into the empty net. The third came from a well worked penalty corner converted by Lottie for her second of the match. Phoebe then got in on the scoring after a sublime run by one of the many players of the match, Josefina Hippe down the left before squaring to Phoebe to roll into the empty net. To complete the first half scoring Olivia Breed scored a quick fire brace to make it 7-0 at half-time. One individual effort where she rounded several defenders and the goalkeeper and the other set-up by another trademark Lottie run!
Bournemouth put in a very spirited performance in the start of the second half, however the quality of the U14A girls shone through as Anna Faulstich scored the first two goals of the second half. The first was a rebound off the goalkeeper collected by Olivia and slipped back to Anna to flick into the goal and the second was a superb drag-flick from a penalty corner. One of the Players of the Match, Lottie scored a second half hat-trick to take her goals to six for the day! An unbelievable individual effort, was followed by a lovely bit of team play with Phoebe & Olivia and then another penalty corner routine with Phoebe picking up the assist! In the final moments of the game Lottie picked up two more assists laying the ball through to Phoebe and Olivia to score their second and third goals respectively and take the match to 14-0.
In a superb performance the Player of the Match was split between the attacking quartet of Josefina, Lottie, Olivia & Phoebe! Well done to all that played.
Next weekend the girls head to Wolverhampton to play in the U16 National Indoor Finals! All the best girls!!
The girls then play Canterbury away in the league in two weeks’ time, before Woking in the next EH Cup match in early February.
HC Knole Park’s U14 Boys produce the goals of the match in defeat!
On Sunday the U14 Boys travelled to Old Georgians in Weybridge. In what was always going to be a tough match following on from Winchester the week before, and the team hit heavily with poor availability, the boys were up against it from the start. A couple of early turnovers in defence saw the boys 3-0 down within 5 minutes. As the feeling of deja vu set about the pitch. However, it was the mental strength and quality of captain and Player of the Match George Glen who set about reversing the Old Georgian’s onslaught! Collecting the ball on the half-way line he rounded four or five defenders before smashing the ball into the bottom corner! The boys were on the score board! Moments later, Charlie Harrison did almost exactly the same through the left and rifled his shot past the OGs goalkeeper! The game was on! However, in a game split by quarters this was exactly the wrong time for a break! As the second quarter resumed, further outletting errors saw the team concede three more soft goals and the boys were a disappointing 6-2 down at half time.
In a similar pattern for the team this season, the second half was much improved. At the start of the third quarter Charlie made another phenomenal run, beating several players before slipping the ball to Isaac Dale to score the team’s third goal. However, that was to be it for Knole Park as the boys conceded four more goals and Old Georgian’s won the match 10-3.
There’s still so much to be positive about as the boys have not only improved this season, but they’re improving within the matches too. There’s no doubt that this team will be a force to reckon with next season when they are full age!
In two weeks’ time they travel to Guildford in the Premier League for “Part 3” of the KP v Guildford trilogy!
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