The Chronicle 682

ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE 52

Hockey Summer League By Jamie Davies, Head of Hockey

The Oxford Hawks Summer League always offers a great opportunity for the girls at Teddies to experience a level beyond school hockey, and this year was no exception, especially in the wake of the Covid pandemic. Over seven fixtures, 35 girls took part with all year groups represented, a feat which bodes incredibly well for the Girls’ Hockey Club moving forward. The weekly meeting at 5.30pm at the Lodge, dressed in resplendent yellow kit, was the prelude to a highly entertaining sporting spectacle. 47 goals over seven games made for exciting Summer League Hockey. The campaign kicked off with a 5-4 win over Witney HC, a nail-biting affair that saw the lead change hands several times. Given that this was the first competitive engagement in nearly nine

months, the quality of hockey was impressive. Lila Howard scored two very good goals early in the second half to retake the lead and at 4-4 with 10 minutes to go it was Teddies who finished the strongest, Anna West finding the target for the winning goal. An inexperienced team found themselves 2-0 up against Headington when, perhaps suffering from altitude sickness, we conceded five goals either side of half time and despite a consolation goal giving Anna West a hat-trick, it was too late to turn things around. Against Banbury, we found ourselves 3-0 down after six minutes, a brilliant opening salvo from the team at the top of the league. Credit to our girls though: they dug in and started to get a foothold in the game, playing our passing game and ensuring the rest of the match was a close contest. The match against Hawks A after Half Term saw a return of the sun after some filthy weather and a return to winning ways. A high press and some wonderful passing were too much for Hawks A, with a Player-of-the-Match performance

against Banbury, the best performance of the summer was against Hawks B, where the girls combined composure on the ball with physicality off it. Hawks went ahead through a controversial goal that left the Teddies coaches calling for a video review but parity was restored moments later by Boo Haigh finishing off a superb team move. The final goal went to Hawks who had their keeper to thank for keeping the score as it finished. A brilliant campaign with lots learned and a massive thank you to the catering staff for looking after us in Cooper’s every Monday night. OPPOSITION RESULT SCORE Witney HC Won 5 4 Headington Lost 3 5 Wallingford Lost 1 5 Hawks A Won 6 1 Banbury Lost 3 6 Hawks B Lost 1 2 Oxford University Won 5 0

from Shell Freya Heath. While we were competitive in a losing effort

The 1st XI in the Autumn Term and, inset, after their 5-4 win v Witney