Hockey Report, Spring term 2011

Team Date Opponents Venue Result
Boys U13 Mon 24th Jan Mount Temple A away Lost, 4-0
Boys U13 Tues 25th Jan Mount Temple B away Won, 2-1
Girls U13 Wed 2nd Feb St. Columba’s Coll. home Drawn, 2-2
Boys U13 Wed 2nd Feb Drogheda Grammar away Won, 3-0
Girls U13 Fri 11th Feb Mercy Convent away Won, 3-0
Boys U13 Tues 15th Feb King’s Hospital away Won, 2-0
Boys U13 Wed 2nd Mar Dundalk Grammar home Won, 3-2
Girls U13 Tues 15th Mar Dundalk Grammar away Drawn, 0-0
Boys U13 Mon 28th Mar St. Andrew’s prep home Conceded by St.A
(semi-final of under 13C league)
Boys U13 Wed 30th Mar St. Killian’s Wesley Lost, 2-0
(final of under 13C league)
Mixed U13 Tues 5th Apr Headfort Parents home Won, 3-1

BOYS
Won 4, Lost 2, Drawn 0
Goals For: 10
Goals Against: 9

Goalscorers:
Alexis de Germay 3
Michael Blakiston H 2
Sean Phelan 1
Callum Pery Knox G 1
Tomas Charlo Pumar 1
Jake Rowan Hamilton 1
Sean Cooper 1

GIRLS
Won 1, Lost 0, Drawn 2
Goals For: 5
Goals Against: 2

Goalscorers:
Annie Kavanagh 2
Kye Bradshaw 2
Steph. Stammschroer 1

MIXED
Won 1, Lost 0, Drawn 0
Goals For: 3
Goals Against: 1

Goalscorers:
Michael Blakiston H 1
Sean Cooper 1
Eva Lopez Lumbreras 1

The girls continued their successful autumn run of results: they are not scoring many goals, but their opposition are scoring even fewer! We have had a lot of draws, but the fact remains that the girls have not been defeated since December 2009: that is a 12-match unbeaten stretch. Considering the proverbial ‘re-building’ that we needed to do after that autumn 2009 season, this is very pleasing indeed. The girls have achieved it thanks to a tireless, high-energy approach to the game.

Kirsten Higgins led the team with great spirit and great powers of inspiration, and she received strong support from several senior players: Kye Bradshaw, our strongest player, and also Soren Higgins, Ali Stammshroer and Jane Walsh. Kirsten, Kye and Soren were the team’s colour-winners; but Ali and Jane both improved tremendously as the season progressed. All of these players egged on the younger ones.

I never had any difficulty finding a team, as almost every girl in the top forms was eager to play and, more to the point, was eager to improve her skills. Emily Hannon-Rubotham played for her second year in goal (she will be missed next year!). Eva Lopez Lumbreras, new in September, became a stalwart either in attack or in midfield. A host of Upper V girls made very positive contributions: Phoebe Langham and Sasha Cole (on the wings), Katy ffrench Davis and Susie Shekleton (in defence or mid-field), Lucy Mae Humphries, Josie Pollock, Daisy McKeever, Lucy hancock and Stephanie Stammshroer (all in attack).

Our youngest players were Annie Kavanagh (who scored several goals) and Anna Hayden. Elena Fernandez Garcia, Anna Pieper and Ana Sofia Vazquez Martinez all improved and got some playing time on the team. Once again, that makes for a list of over 20 players: thanks be for the spirit of involvement and contribution at Headfort!
A sign of how far the team had improved came with our relatively easy February defeat of a Mercy Convent team (by 3-0) that had pressed us hard before Christmas (when we were lucky to hold on for a 3-2 win). Well done to the girls for trying so hard always to improve their game.

The boys too had an excellent season, though they lost a couple of matches. We went down 4-0 early in the season to a very strong Mount Temple A team in the cup. These matches are always severely challenging, in that they take place early, on astro-turf, and against boys who have played hockey all through the autumn term (unlike ours who play mostly rugby then). The very next day we had to pick ourselves up and travel back to the very same school to play their B team in a league match; several of their A-squad players were involved this time too, but we held on for a very pleasing 2-1 win.

I won’t offer a blow-by-blow account of the rest of the season; suffice it to say that we again won our section of the Leinster Under-13 C league, and again competed for a second year running in the final of the competition. In this match we were defeated 2-0 by a very strong St. Killian’s team. We had a rowdy crew of parental supporters on the day, and though they may be a touch partial they all thought that with a little luck the result could easily have gone the other way: our boys created several good scoring chances, and were unlucky to concede one of the goals against us. The boys played with true grit and a good deal of skill, having to improvise for much of the time owing to their lack of familiarity with the astroturf surface. I was proud of them.

Sean Phelan captained the team, and played with speed and skill and some lovely touches. Michael Blakiston Houston (the sole returning colour-winner) was a stand-out player in defence – but one of those defenders who scores goals. Marcus Hayden was superb in mid-field (he hits the ball like a rocket), and Tomi Adeyefa in goal. Two newcomers to the game, Tomas Charlo Pumar and Victor Palhon, challenged each other for the right-wing. These were our colour-winners.

Alexis de Germay played very effectively for us on the left-wing, and topped the scorers chart. Sean Cooper and Callum Pery-Knox-Gore were our first-choice strikers, but Sholto O’Brien and Max Gurney got plenty of playing time too (Max latterly as a fill-in left-wing). Ben Whitley, Chris Yoo, Billy Minch and Mathias Leger were all more or less interchangeable at the back, and stalwart defenders they were too. Jake Rowan Hamilton and Alex Langan did good work in midfield.

Several other players showed promise and got onto the fringe of the team: Freddie de Montfort, John Walsh, Ollie McDermott, Hugo Gurney (learning how to keep goal), Kristian Mooney, George Guinness and Charles Moore. The fact that all of these will be with us next season bodes well.

The last match of the season was of course the parents’ match. This time I think the children were a little scared, for I told them I had assembled a fearsome line-up: Mrs Lucinda Blakiston Houston, Mr Adam Gurney (who as it turned out could not play owing to a two match ban for bad behaviour in a previous encounter: a serious loss to the parents), Ms Pippi Hinde, Mrs Sarah Langham, Mrs Marion McKeever, Ms Dorothy Niall, Mrs Ann Pery-Knox-Gore, Mr Gawn Rowan Hamilton, Mrs Jane Shekleton, Mr Tim Whitley and your truly. The match was superbly umpired by Mr Neville Wilkinson, who showed us all that he has a nuanced and elastic understanding of the advantage rule (and other rules).

I lined up over twenty children, both boys and girls, to play against this impressive line-up (the parents were a little shocked when they realised that there was nobody to substitute for them). The parents, still hurting after a series of losses on the trot, upped their game and rocked the children back on their heels when they levelled the game at 1-1. We parents thought that victory was at last possible, but then – what can I say? – fitness levels began to make themselves abundantly clear, and the game ran away from us. The children were rather dastardly and insisted on running (rather than crawling) all the way to the end, and then on rubbing our noses in yet another defeat. The cruelty of youth.

More seriously: as always, the children gave me my most enjoyable moments of the term. My thanks go to them for their dedication and good cheer. My hearty thanks also go to Mrs Liz Pratt-Jarvis for all the work she puts in to help two teams to compete at the same time – I would simply not manage without her. And thanks to Mr Peter Sheridan for looking after perhaps the last grass pitch in Ireland.
DSD

DSD