Winchester Junior Hockey

We are pleased to announce that Jem Evans will be running 2 summer hockey camps in the school summer holidays.

Please see the Hockey Camp Information PDF for full details.

If you are interested please contact Caroline Brown who’s details are on the PDF.

An excellent season, but one that ended just short of any cup-ware! In the EH Plate quarter final, Winchester finally lost to Reading away, (but many of the team went on to play for Peter Symonds in the Colleges Cup at Bath on the 31st march – with great success!).

In the Hants Cup, an extremely close semi final match against Trojans saw Trojans grab a fortuitous equaliser and managed to hold on to the state of equilibrium. In penalties, Trojans managed to score the final flick – winning 10-9 on flicks to go through to the final.

And in the league, a commanding performance, playing carefully balanced sides to opposition but managing to steer an exacting course to the second consecutive league win. Well done to all who played. Andy.

The U18 boys EH Cup Plate match v Plymouth Marjon (Bar End 13.00) has been cancelled, as Plymouth cannot raise a side and have withdrawn. This will be a Bye to the 4th round on the 18th march.

Winchester v Surbiton U18’s: Won 10 – 0

Home at Bar End for this 2^nd Round EH Plate match, Winchester started at pace and right from the beginning simply delivered non-stop pressure hockey onto the Surbiton defence. Kieran Malloy opened the scoring, shortly followed by Matt Potter, then a cracking Luke Cole goal, all from open play, before Kieran scored his second just before halftime. In the second half, the plucky Surbiton side continued to battle out of their defence, but even when breaking out through the Winchester midfield, were calmly dispossessed by Robbie Hadfield, Chris Wiseman and Simon Craig in defence, ensuring that Howard Chaplin White, playing his first U18 match in goal, was rarely troubled.

Excellent tackling and calm determined play by Sam Broadhurst, Jamie Rawlings, Nigel Lucas and Sam Francis in the midfield, delivered a consistent flow of great passes to the forwards, who steadily increased the lead; two further goals by Matt Potter, three by Kieran, and a great deflection by Jamie Brooke completed a commanding performance from the Winchester side. Although an emphatic win, due credit to the Surbiton GK, who must also have made in excess of forty saves in this match.

U18 boys match v Surbiton at Bar End Uni pitch, pitch good, game on, spectators welcome. Match starts 12.30 prompt.

Bar End confirmed unplayable; Surbiton can’t travel – Likely replay or slip date is 12th Feb – time tbc

Away to Yateley in the first U18 boys league fixture since Christmas, a much changed Winchester side quickly gained control of the game, dominating possession in the surprisingly goal less first half. Nigel Lucas, Nick Goldsmith, Chris Wiseman, Ollie Gardner and Danny Rawlings totally closed down the midfield, and despite receiving repeated opportunities, the forwards failed to convert one of them.

The second half saw Winchester deliver a far punchier performance, ball pace up, passes incisively delivered, and real goal scoring opportunities started to appear. A fast break into the “D” after 7 minutes saw Harry Lewis open the scoring with a nicely slotted open play goal, followed 5 minutes later by a tenacious Felix Gaunt goal, slipped in just inside the near post. Winchester continued to ply on the pressure in the second half, and were duly rewarded by a series of short corners. With Nick Goldsmith smoothly injecting and Simon Craig faultlessly stopping, it just took Danny Rawlings to flick in his debut U18 goal, and for Robbie Hadfield to follow home a rebound to convert the final goal.

All in all a solid Winchester performance, with the defensive duo of Robbie Hadfield and Simon Craig calmly controlling all but the one final goal scoring attack by Yateley.

Winchester v Trojans – Won 3-1

Playing at home following last week’s fixture postponement,
this league match proved to be an extremely close game. Early pressure by
Winchester was quickly turned by Trojans, who delivered a cohesive approach to
the game, and continually put Winchester on the back foot. Several Trojan
chances were saved, GK Cam Black being called on to make several saves. After
20 minutes Winchester started to settle down, with increasing possession in the
midfield leading to sporadic attacks by Nick Goldsmith, Felix Gaunt and Luke
Batchelor, but to no avail. Just before half time it was Trojans who were
unlucky to end the half without a goal as Robby Hadfield made an unbelievable
overhead save, deflecting a rocketing Trojans shot to the top corner, over the
goal.

Second half and this time it was Winchester who
took the upper hand; Luke Cole, Sam Broadhurst, James Brooke, Sam Francis and
Keiran Malloy all linking well to break into Trojans D searching for the
elusive first goal. But it wasn’t until 20 minutes into the half that one such
attack lead to a short corner, and this time there was no doubt as Sam
Broadhurst opened the scoring. However, Trojans were not giving an inch, and their
dogged play saw them take the equaliser when a poor midfield pass by Winchester
was intercepted and quickly converted by a fast Trojans breakaway goal. However,
Robbie Hadfield, Simon Craig, Chris Wiseman and Ollie Gardner pulled the
defense together to mop up any further Trojans attacks, calmly returning
incisive passes into the Winchester midfield to build the gameplay. But in the
end it was the continual superior pressure by Winchester that came through.
With ten minutes to go, a Winchester free hit in the 23m area, interfered with
by Trojans, saw the resultant short corner converted by Kerian Malloy, and just
three minutes from the end, a superb move from Luke Cole via Sam Broadhurst found
Malloy, who beat three Trojans players before blasting his winning shot past
the Trojans Keeper. An excellent close match, but a deserving win to
Winchester.

Thanks to Ian Ellis for umpiring at short notice – top man!

This second round EH Cup match against Woking (last year’s
Plate Winners) was always going to be a great match, and spectators at Bar End
were treated on Sunday to a lot of first class hockey. Right from the beginning
the Woking side delivered an absolute broadside of pressure, taking every free
hit with immediacy and applying a powerful approach that always had two Woking
players on every Winchester player with the ball, making it exceedingly
difficult for the Winchester side to break out of their side with possession.
Woking repeatedly broke through the Winchester defence, and their opening goal
after 15 minutes play was the first of several good chances that were either
saved by keeper Sarkar, or just went wide. It took some determined play by Sam
Broadhurst and Kieran Molloy to wrest the ball back into the Woking half, but
the Winchester side could not find the form to look dangerous in the Woking D. A
short spell under ten men in the latter part of the half enabled Woking to get
two further goals, one quite weak, to gift the visitors a 3-0 lead at half
time.

A change of tactic strengthening the middle of the
Winchester game started to settle the team, and good solid
performances from Nigel Lucas, Chris Wiseman, Sam Broadhurst and Luke Cole
clearly moved the match back to Woking. Continual pressure on the Woking D led
to a multiple Winchester short corners. Jamie Rawlings converting the second
short, before two brilliant attacking moves by Keiran Molloy and Ryan Younger (both
of which on a better day would have scored), were desperately defeated by the anxious
Woking side. With 20 minutes gone, Winchester continued to build the pressure; Matt
Potter and Sam Francis both delivering penetrative attacking runs, Robbie
Hadfield on an unstoppable run from his 23m to the opponents D, but it was a
sudden breakaway goal by Woking that resulted, increasing their lead. Although
Winchester won a further quintet of short corners, only one was converted by
Jamie Rawlings. With time running out, Winchester were unable to recover further
from the first half onslaught; the result a 4-2 win by Woking.

Two matches against Reading and Bath at the fabulous Bath Uni sports ground (a pre cup friendly tournament) saw an excellent couple of matches – great hockey, great spirit, and quality fun.

A devastating start against Reading saw a 2-0 lead by end of first half – goal 1 from Keiran Molloy within 2 mins, and  second within ten minutes. A disallowed 3rd goal from Ed Ellis prehalf time caused a momentary setback.

Second half, playing across the squad, a revitalised Reading came back into the game, breaking back with two goals, before a fortunate decision provided them with a last minute winner – slightly against the run of play!

The second match against Bath was a multi-goal thriller; two early Bath goals were matched by thumping replies by Winchester – Potter and Malloy in rampaging form. Bath sneaked ahead; Winchester equalised. A quick reduction to 10 men for Winchester, and Bath drew ahead – 3-4 at half time.  H2 – powerful team play by Winchester really piled the pressure – 6 short corners – no goal. Then another cracking KM goal – 4-4. Cam Black saved 5 consecuutive shots in last five minute frenzy – Winchester missed another short- and Bath broke with a winner – 90 seconds pre end.

Two great matches – fab team spirit – tonnes of enthusiasm and team comraderie – really good – thnx to Rich Gaunt for whistling. Next home game – Nov 6th 11.00am EH Cup game v Woking – all supporters welcome. Tickets in advance only £8 – £10 on the day! (only joking – but would be worth it!)