On Thursday 15^th March, the St Mary's hockey team travelled to Down Grange to take part in the fifth and final date of the Basingstoke School's Hockey League. On our arrival, we were disappointed to learn that we had slipped to 11^th position and that some of our previous games had been friendlies, unbeknownst to us. Despite this, we were determined to play our best hockey yet and end the tournament on a high.

Our first game was against 3^rd place St Mark’s A, where we managed to hold them to a 0-0 draw, an impressive result given their position in the league in relation to us.

We then played St John’s A for the second time in the tournament, so assumed this was a friendly, where again we drew with no team being able to break the deadlock.

Our third and final match was versus local rivals Great Binfields where we played possibly the best game all tournament, with excellent passing play throughout the team which resulted in a 3-1 win with goals from Alexis and Adam.

Well done to all the children involved and it was wonderful to see the progress they have made both as individual hockey players and as a team throughout the course of the tournament. Thank you to Dave Watton at Basingstoke Hockey Club for organising the league, and to all the parents for their excellent support on and off the pitch. We finished the tournament with a total of 21 points and now eagerly await the results of our final position in the league table.