The ISA U11 Boys Hockey Tournament took place at the Lee Valley National Hockey Stadium in the Olympic Park on Tuesday 1 February. Taking part were 18 teams from across the country all excited to be competing again. Crackley Hall’s team of nine boys had an early 6am start and arrived just in time for a brief warm-up before embarking on their first group game. These boys haven’t played a hockey match since Junior 3, so were a little nervous! Despite this, they played well, finding their feet quickly. In the first game, they had all the pressure, but the opposition scored a very good goal on the one break they had, resulting in a 0-1 loss.
The boys kept their heads high and found the goal in the second game, playing well as a unit and winning 2-1. With an outstanding goal by George Moreton as he dived to the floor for a deflection and a second goal from a clinical finish by Olly Moore. In the third game, the boys faced Langley (a specialist hockey school). It is safe to say that Langley’s skills were more at the level of youth/senior hockey, with reverse stick shots to the top corners of the goal in each of their games. They were the dominant team of the tournament. Our boys were really gritty in defence and conceded only two deflected goals, not allowing any direct shots at goal in the D. They were unlucky to score themselves on a couple of occasions. Result 0-2 loss. The last game of the pool had to be won if the team wanted to finish second in the pool and make the Plate finals in the afternoon. The boys had what was probably their best game of the tournament, winning by a decisive 2-0.
So, the boys moved onto the Plate semi-final knock-out competition and faced Alleyn Court Prep. The Crackley boys were clearly the better team in this battle and were unlucky not to score a handful of goals. They won the semi-final 1-0. They then moved onto the final where they faced St Anselm’s School and were treated to the most fantastic opportunity. They were allowed to run out of the tunnel onto the pitch with music playing, just like at real Internationals! What a great experience for them.
The final was a really close fought game, with opportunities for each team. Neither could find the goal and the score was 0-0 after 12 well-fought minutes. They then went on to 5-minutes Golden Goal. Again, the boys fought hard, and the score remained 0-0. That left penalty shuffles (which is essentially where the attacker taking the penalty has 8 seconds to run from the halfway line to the D and take the keeper on 1-on-1 to score a goal). Three very brave and nervous boys stepped up (Sidney Penn, George Moreton and Olly Moore). Again the teams were so evenly matched. With the scores 1-1, then 2-2, then Crackley’s next effort was saved. Marley Hardwick then saved St Anselm’s first attempt but couldn’t get back to his feet quickly enough to stop the rebound. Some devastated boys stood there, supporting each other for a few minutes but they quickly regathered and stood proudly to collect their silver medals.
A really huge well done to them all, we are incredibly proud of this team.
Playing in the squad were: Olly Moore, George Moreton ©, Sid Penn, George Knott, Dillon Horan, Marley Hardwick, Harry Faulconbridge, George Wilcox, Jack Phillips-Gore.
Olly Moore was our player of the tournament and Sid Penn and George Knott were the most improved player. Most outstanding in goal was George Moreton and top goal scorer was Olly Moore.
Watch the boys running out on to the field here.