Harleston Magpies U14s qualify for England finals after regional success
The Magpies’ U14s girls youth team who have qualified for the England Hockey national U14s finals in May Picture: Bex Pottruff - Credit: Archant
Harleston Magpies are celebrating after their U14 girls team became regional champions on Sunday – and qualified for the England Hockey U14s national finals in May for the second year running.
After three well-fought matches for the girls, who hosted the regional finals at home in Weybread, they were delighted to be crowned champions, and now look forward to the national finals on May 12.
Harleston welcomed Spencer hockey club from London, Amersham and Chalfont and Southgate hockey clubs for the regional finals.
Jim Menzies, coach and team manager, said: 'It's really fantastic to see our hockey club getting our U14 girls team through to the final stage of the competition for the second year on the trot.'
The girls' first match was against Spencer hockey club, and to their credit they started more fluently than Magpies and retained possession well, mostly in their own half.
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Menzies said: 'After a few minutes, our girls then seemed to throw off the nervous shackles and really got into the game. They opened the scoring when a goalbound shot was stopped on the line by a foot and was awarded initially as a short corner, but was then overturned in an umpire consultation and calmly dispatched into the bottom left. A couple more goals saw a win and our first points of the day.'
Magpies beat Amersham and Chalfont before finishing off with a 3 win over Southgate.
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It was not just the Magpies girls U14s impressing at the weekend. Magpies also fielded four U12 girls teams at Dereham's Alex Hill Mini Hockey Memorial Festival and won the tournament convincingly. This was their last Norfolk tournament before the East U12 final in April. Magpies also finished runners-up in the silver tournament.
Magpies three U10 girls teams finished a very respectable third and sixth in the gold tournament and sixth in the silver tournament.
With the season coming to a close, Magpies are turning their attention to next year and will be hosting their summer taster course for Year 1 to Year 7 boys and girls in June. Email hockeycamps@magpies-hockey.co.uk for details.
