Midlands Festival – Riverside
The hockey festival for month six of 2017 season was hosted by Harris H.C. at Riverside Dundee on Sunday 25th June.
Possibly, due to the closeness of the school summer holidays, the response from our youths was a little disappointing and we barely had enough players to enter a single team into each age group.The weather was reasonably kind and we only had three short light showers to contend with which did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of all concerned.
First up was our U11 squad playing four-a-side on small pitches with no goalkeepers and with only four players on call we had no subs either. Our squad of William Poole, Hannah Lowe, Ewan Cameron and Heidi Cameron really performed well as a unit with Hannah providing a safe, sound base at the back, Ewan and Heidi providing great support across our midfield and William showing speed and accuracy of shooting which few could match.
Game 1 against Madras was not without incident with them fielding one good forward who kept Hannah rather busy to about the mid-point of the game before William got going with fast breaks mainly down our right flank and four well taken goals plus one from Ewan gave us a comfortable 5 – 0 win.
Game 2 against Grove Menzieshillwas a fast end-to-end battle which caused a little more in the way of problems for Hannah but the speed of William created even more problems for the opposition and this time nine goals from William and two from Ewan gave us an emphatic 11 – 3 win.
Game 3 against Dundee Wanderers was the closest game of the day with the scores tied at 1 – 1 with four minutes left until once again that “goal-scoring” machine of William got going adding five more to our total giving us a win by 6 goals to 1.
Game 4 against an all-girl Stirling Wanderers side was rather one-sided with Hannah spending most of the time camped on the halfway line with William netting 9 times and Ewan once for a 10 – 0 win
Game 5 against the host club, Harris Harriers, started evenly enough and after five minutes play both teams had two goals in the bag then two good interceptions firstly by Ewan followed immediately by Heidi at the very next hit-out allowed them to find William who was lurking on the edge of the shooting area (I would like to think that was a deliberate ploy but I fancy William was feeling the pace and was more than likely taking a rest) so another three to William and one to Ewan for a 4 – 2 win.
Game 6 against Kinross should have been a take-it easy and enjoy it but by now there was no holding them and our team ran riot with William scoring TWELVE and Ewan 1 in a 13 to nil win (with no subs and only four players on the pitch anyway I was not able to do much about it).
At the end everyone was full of smiles – except William – who was disappointed that he had only managed FORTY-THREE goals and not the 50 he had set himself as a target.
Our U13 squad of Ciara Wilkie, Robyn Hewie, Ashleigh Walker, Megan Thomson, Naimh Pudney, William Poole, Adam Lowe, Christopher Tweddle, Owen McKenzie and Greg Wallace were next up for their seven-a-side quarter pitch competition.
Game 1 V Madras was a competent display by all concerned considering they had not all played together before and despite Madras only fielding one girl to our five we dominated midfield with Ciara coping easily with anything that got close to our shooting area and Christopher and Owen causing them all sorts of problems on both wings we ran out worthy winners by three goals to Nil (Goals by Christopher (2) and Owen).
Game 2 V Stirling Wandererswas a fairly even affair but we took our chances, they did not, and the game finished 3 – 0 to us with goals from Greg, Owen and Christopher.
Game 3 V Monarchs could be regarded as a bit of a “steal” with the opposition enjoying the lion’s share of the good attacking moves which, had it not been for some heroic defending by Ciara, they could have been three up before we managed a single shot at their goal. With them pushing for that opener we caught them on the break, not once but three times and before long William had his hat-trick and with Christopher adding a fourth the 4 – 0 win flattered us slightly.
Game 4 V Grove Menzieshillsaw us pitted against a big skilful team who had obviously played a lot together and another good performance by Ciara was not enough to keep them at bay and we were soon three – nil down but the “never-say-die” attitude of our players resulted in goals from Owen and William and for a while it looked as though a draw was possible but two late goals by the opposition put paid to that notion.
Game 5 V Harris Hawks was less frantic and we moved the ball about well and tackled well not allowing the opposition to settle. This was another game where William was able to expose weaknesses in the Harris defence as he helped himself to five further goals and a team 5 – 1 winning margin.
Game 6 V Kinross could have been our undoing and we were soon two nil down to a fast moving outfit but thanks to goals from Christopher and Megan we were back on level terms by the mid-point of the game then two further goals firstly by Owen and a personal second from Christopher saw us win the final game by 4 – 2
With a final tally of WON 5 LOST 1 it can definitely be considered a good performance by the Dunfermline Carnegie outfit. It was also a personal triumph for William Poole who had now achieved his target and amassed 52 GOALS for the day to that stage.
Unfortunately, our U15 squad did not fare as well as the other age groups in their eight-a-side event due to our more regular players being involved in an eleven-a-side tournament in Edinburgh and two of our expected players failing to show. With only six players lining up pitch-side it was full marks to 9 year-old Ewan Cameron and 8 year-old Heidi Cameron for offering to make up the numbers. Thanks also to Ciara Wilkie, Megan Thomson and William Poole for staying to play after their efforts for the U13’s.
Our squad was Ciara Wilkie, Megan Thomson, Sarah Cromwell, Anna Cameron, Cy Simpson, William Poole, Heidi Cameron, Ewan Cameron.
Game 1 V Madras was a promising start and three goals from the visibly tiring William, one from Cy and one from Sarah gave us a comfortable 5 – 1 winning opener.
Game 2 V Dundee Wanderers was a much sterner test with the opposition netting three times to our one, scored by guess who – William.
Game 3 V Stirling Wanderers exposed our players who had already played at least eight games and we could not match their speed and power and a 5 – 0 defeat was the result.
Game 4 V Grove Menzieshillwas just as painful with us unable to retain possession for more than about three passes but having said that our all-girl defence managed to prevent them getting in too many telling shots and although we did concede five goals without reply the effort put in by all of our players was immense.
Game 5 V Harris Hawkswas against a squad all of whom seemed to be about four or more inches taller than our biggest so it was no surprise their speed and reach put us in all sorts of trouble. The game ended in a defeat by four goals to nil.
Despite the disappointment all of our players, to their credit, gave their all and did not let their heads drop. A great performance by Heidi and Ewan who showed no fear of the bigger, faster and more physical opponents and to William who increased his goal tally by four more to a manificent 56 for the day despite looking though he was running in water for the last three of his 17 games. Not unexpected with only three minutes break between each one of those games.
Round SEVEN of the midlands Festivals will likely be the last Sunday in July at St Andrews University – date and details still to be notified.