On Thursday 7th December, the St Mary's hockey team travelled to Down Grange to take part in the second date of the Basingstoke School's Hockey League. From the outset, it was evident that this was a much more confident team then in the previous round, and the weeks of training had started to pay off. 

It was a long, cold wait when we first arrived, however, we were switched on for our opening match of the evening, taking on St Bedes and winning 1-0 with a somewhat controversial goal from Adam, AKA 'Goals'. 

The second match against St John's B followed immediately after, and with barely time to catch our breath, we continued our winning ways with goals from forward Nick, AKA 'Ping', and a second goal from 'Goals', living up to his nickname. The game finished 2-0 to St Mary's.

In the third match we played an incredibly strong Merton A. At the outset, the team were concerned by the sheer size of the year 6 opposition, but nevertheless we dug deep and kept a clean sheet with a 0-0 draw. It was an absolutely stunning performance from the team, particularly from Quin, AKA 'Clearance', whose clearances involved driving out of trouble from defence to have a shot at the other end of the pitch. 

Unfortunately that was where our luck ran out. In the final game, we took on a competent Kempshott A, whose positioning and skill on and off the ball was just too much for us to break down, and despite some fantastic defending from Charlie AKA 'Leftie', the speed of the older team meant that we were often caught on the break. This did however open up some holes for us to take advantage of, with a third goal from 'Goals'. Final score was 5-1 to Kempshott A. 

We look forward to building on this performance on 25th January. Thanks again to the coaching team for your support.