After some hard work and great performances in their group games the Holyrood Academy year seven, eight and nine girls’ hockey teams were in action at the County hockey finals held at Millfield.
The year seven team made a perfect start in their group games beating Bishop Foxes 1-0, The Blue School 3-0 and Chilton Trinity 8-0 (with Matilda Clayton scoring a hat-trick).
This all led to them facing Sexeys in the final. In what had always been expected to be a tough contest, Holyrood slipped behind to a first half goal, but a half-time pep talk seemed to do the trick and parity was restored with an early second half goal from Millie Stoneman.
Two further goals followed in quick succession to give Holyrood a 3-1 lead and, boosted by some brilliant defending from Laura Miller, Holly Griffiths and Charlotte Lamb prevented Sexeys from getting a goal back before Phoebe Grinter took the ball down the wing and set up Grace Farmer on the back post to make it 4-1.
That proved to be the final goal of the final and so Holyrood were crowned County Champions!
The year nine team had won the competition 12 months before, but their start to the finals did not go as they had hoped as they were held 0-0 by Kings of Wessex in a game that also saw strong defender Hattie Withers ruled out of the remaining games after receiving a blow to the head.
Holyrood played Kingsmead in their second game where they had the majority of the possession and chances but couldn’t seem to find the back of the net. After a competitive twenty minutes the game finished in a disappointing 0-0 draw.
As all the scores in the tournament had been level, the result of Holyrood’s last game against King Alfred was the deciding factor.
The girls knew that if they played well and beat their opposition they still had a chance of winning the trophy. Everything seemed to click and the goals came fast with Amy Bristow and Crocus Douglass finding the back of the net quickly to make it 2-0.
Captain Heidi Warren and winger Lily Farmer worked brilliantly together as they outshone the opposition’s defence and set up two more goals to make the score-line 4-0 and seal a second successive County Championship title.
The year eight team played well throughout the day, but couldn’t get on to the podium and finished fourth in their competition with Sophie Finch being named player of the day. Shannon Preston, Holyrood Academy sports coach, said: “Wow, I think this is one of the best days I’ve had since I’ve been at Holyrood.
“All the girls have worked tremendously hard since September and it has really paid off. To win the competition with not one, but two year groups is an amazing achievement. Their work effort, determination.”
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