Harleston welcome large numbers
Harleston Magpies Hockey Club hosted a memorable day of youth hockey earlier this month with no less than 30 under-14 teams and 200 youngsters travelling from all over the region to compete at the event.
Harleston Magpies entered a total of three boys’ teams and four girls’ teams, a record number of team entries in this age group.
They were joined by teams from Norwich City, Dragons, Felixstowe, IES, Framlingham, Chelmsford, Blue Hornets and Bury St Edmunds hockey clubs.
The teams all played 12-minute matches in a seven-a -side format, making each of the encounters fast and furious.
Also, an additional seven young umpires from Magpies supported the matches, profiling the importance of getting more young people involved in that side of the game.
Jude Pottruff, aged 15, has recently qualified as a Level 1 umpire and said: “This tournament gave us a great opportunity to work on sharpening up our umpiring skills after a break from hockey over the summer.
“Being an umpire means you understand the rules, and this really helps your hockey game when you play in matches.”
Meanwhile, commenting on a successful day, coach and event organiser Jim Menzies said: “We were so impressed with the number of teams entered into our friendly under-14s hockey tournament.
“It just shows how popular the game has become in recent years.
“The club was packed and we saw some excellent hockey skills on display throughout the day from all of the youngsters.”
In terms of the champions, the Under-14 Girls’ Cup winners were Norwich City, with runners-up being hosting Magpies.
Dragons Under -14s won the Boys’ Cup, with Norwich City finishing up in second spot.
In the Plate finals, IES won the plate for the girls, with Bury runners-up, and Blue Hornets took the Boys’ Plate, with Felixstowe finishing in second position.