Early on Sunday morning, 18th December, nine U12 Old Lought’s boys headed off to Surbiton to what they expected to be a very tough days hockey.

As an U12’s team they had originally been entered in to the plate competition of the Tony Smith U13 tournament. However, due to lack of teams they ended up in the full cup competition.

With a total of 16 teams entered the boys set about the day with realistic expectations, knowing that they would have to be at their best if they were going to be competitive.

Especially important was getting off to a good start and they set about this in their first match against East Grinstead. They hit the pitch running with lots of good passing and movement and created a number of good goal scoring opportunities. They converted one of these to win the first match 1:0.

A good solid performance which gave them the confidence to take in to the next game. In the second match against Ashford, they built upon this performance, ironed out a few crinkles, and earned a well deserved 2:0 victory.

Belief built and in the third match they produced their best performance to beat Horsham 3:0.

From arriving with low expectation the boys had played fantastically well and earned a place in the semi final against Surbiton Tigers. With their expectations raised and a possible place in the final at stake, the boys did tighten up slightly and the movement off the ball and passing became slightly more tentative, but much of this was due to the pressure exerted by the opposition. However, the boys put in a gritty performance and still managed to dominate much of the match and finished eventual 1:0 winners.

This earned them a place in the final against Surbiton Lynx, which proved to be their toughest test of the tournament. Surbiton had the first clear chance which was cleared off the line and the Lought’s boys responded with two quick goals. Surbiton fought back and the boys had to soak up a lot of pressure, but eventually the pressure told and the boys conceded a goal to make it 2:1. This built the pressure even more, but the boys produced an amazingly spirited performance, battled so determinedly, including a couple fantastic clearances off the line and managed to prevent the ball crossing the line again. The end result a 2:1 win to the Old Lought’s U12 boys. What a fantastic performance!! which exceeded all expectations.

The boys played some fantastic hockey, including superb movement off the ball, great passing and some really gritty defending. Their success today though was due to the way they played as a team. Congratulations to all the boys, it was a brilliant performance, and we were all very proud of you.