It was a chilly start to the day for the U8s, luckily due to the beach-like nature of our pitch there was no chance the tournament would be frozen off. Before long the pitch was full of U8s all warming up and raring to go. This time we welcomed teams from West Bridgford, Beeston and Loughborough Town for a ten-team mini tournament. The teams Westleigh faced were certainly a lot tougher than we had faced before, but this did not phase the players and there was a lot of courageous hockey on show with last ditch tackles, diving shots and lot and lots of running! Some of the younger U8s did particularly well considering they were playing against mostly older children. It was good to see the improvement in the general play as the season has progressed and some of the goals on show were amazing team goals right off the training ground!

U10s

U10s split into boys and girls for the first time in anticipation of playing in the County Champs. West Bridgford Boys and Charnwood mixed were the teams we were up against. This was a good opportunity to play as a team and get used to playing in set positions. The girls did very well against all boys teams, a great challenge for them and one that will stand them in good stead when they play against girls teams in the future. Some really hard work and persistence by the girls paid off with some goals towards to the end of their fixtures, well done all. The Westleigh Boys v Westleigh Girls was a particular highlight with the girls not giving the boys any room at all to play plus some hard tackles went in from the girls!
The boys U10s played some very gritty hockey and managed to draw with a fabulous West Bridgford boys’ team with some textbook finishing. Special mention to the boys’ Goalie who made some amazing saves in only his second time in goal ever! Some work is needed on positional play for the boys, but they are a young team with several Year 3 players so the potential over the next few years is fantastic for this team. The older boys were amazing too encouraging the youngers ones on and the team really bonded. They played out a good draw with Charnwood and then for their second match against West Bridgford the tiredness had kicked in and they came out second best.

U12s

Last up was the U12s, against tough opposition with Ashby, West Bridgford and Charnwood all boys or mixed teams and again like the U10s the U12 split into boys and girls teams. The U12 girls played some super hockey especially against West Bridgford boys and they look to be a very good and settled team. U12 boys were missing some regular players which was disappointing but the players who turned up did amazingly well, and thankfully the opposition were kind enough to donate players to the boys team so we could get a game on. Both the U12 teams played good structured hockey and there were some nice goals scored and some great attacking play and some super shots were fired off!

Thanks again to all the Westleigh coaches, helpers and umpires and of course the supporters from the sidelines, it was another great day of junior hockey!