It’s December, so as usual, the annual trip to the Real Club de Polo Barcelona was on the agenda for the Junior Section.  This year, in a departure from previous seasons, we decided to take only the very youngest age groups, with teams in the U9 boys’ and girls’ age groups.
 
There was a great enthusiasm to sign up and we considered entering more teams in the age groups – we accepted the invitation to take part.  Through October and November there were significant withdrawals and the whole tour was under threat,  However, I shouldn’t have worried,  our core of players held fast and with only just the right numbers we were on our way.  The squads were minimal, but we couldn’t have wished for a more rewarding gang of boys and girls (and parents) to have taken part – they were brilliant!
 
I was very proud of all of the young green and white army - they were great ambassadors for Canterbury HC - photo below shows the travelling boys and girls.

Annie Hare

The U10 Boys sent their development team to Marden for the inaugural Xmas tournament.  The new facilities were certainly impressive and inspired the team to start the tournament strongly controlling the game well from the outset leading to a 3-1 win over the hosts Marden with Rhys Jones scoring 2 including a deft reverse slap and Tom Harrop chasing down a defensive error swiftly to score a great individual goal.
 
New up was Sevenoaks 2s again Canterbury controlled the game but a lapse in concentration defensively allowed the opposition to score.  No matter Canterbury responded with another goal from Rhys and a great effort from Louis Bennett.
 
So in to the semi finals as winners of the group and up next was Sevenoaks 1s.  Certainly a sterner test but good strong defence and distribution releasing the midfield to advance forwards well leading to two goals from Leo Rolison.
 
So the final was reached and a second fixture against Marden.  By this point Marden had woken up and improved proving a very stern test for Canterbury.  With a great triple save from Ben Beatty keeping the boys in the game the defensive unit of Ali Ridge and Harry Ledger held strong and released the midfield and forwards to pile the pressure on the Marden defence.  The deadlock was not broken until the two minute form the end what Lincoln Goldsack entered the D and scored from a strong early strike. 

Game over and Canterbury finished winners of the Tournament.  A great achievement for a developing side and a deserved end to the first half of the season.
 
Many thanks to the dedicated parents for accompanying their children all the way to Marden for such an early start.  Thanks to Geraint for support on the side-lines.  Thanks also to Toby and Jonathan  our two Youth umpires from U16s they stuck to task throughout the tournament putting their recently acquired umpiring skills to the test.  This was a great opportunity for them and they acquitted themselves very well.
 
Now for a well earned break for U10s, see you all in the New Year.
 
Team:  Ben Beatty (GK), Ali Rigde, Harry Ledger, Rhys Jones (3), Tom Harrop (1), Leo Rolison (2), Lincoln Goldsack (1), Louise Bennett (1)
 
Report Vicki Beatty

The U12 boys, Canterbury Panthers attended the annual Marden Christmas Tournament on Sunday, and turned in a superb performance.  The opening mini league featured games against Old Bordenians and Marden A-team.  In the opening match against Old Bords, we started a little bit slowly, with passing going astray and players running into tackles.  However once the first goal went in, the team settled down and won comfortably 8-0, with some good goals, notably one where Archie B and Martin L-C interchanged the ball on the left before Archie drove to the by-line before slipping a lovely ball into Adam McH to score. 

The next match against Marden would be a tougher proposition.  A win or draw would see us avoid the Canterbury A-Team in the semis, so the lads were very focused.  This showed straight from the whistle where the speed and movement of the team was excellent.  We quickly went 4-0 up with some excellent play, including one great team goal where the ball was switched from left wing, back to the defenders, then into Thomas N up front, who laid it off beautifully for Jonny D to smash home.  Brilliant.  After going 4-0 up, the Marden coach switched his team around and we were suddenly under pressure.  Marden swarmed forward and were constantly thwarted by some great tackles by Will S, Thomas G-S and Henry G at the back.  Marden pulled a goal back, but it was too late to stage any major comeback, so we triumphed 4-1. 

This put the Panthers into the semi-final against Eastbourne.  We started very slowly in this match and we conceded an early goal.  This however spurred us into action, and we quickly equalised and went on to dominate the rest of the game, running out 4-1 winners. 

This set up a final against Canterbury A-team, the Pumas,  which ended in a 2-0 defeat a described in the Puma  report below.
 
Team:  Barnaby W, Will S, Henry G, Thomas G-S, Archie B, Martin L-C, Adam McH, Thomas N, Jonny D

Report; James Long

The U12 boys team, the Pumas travelled to Marden on a sunny Sunday hoping to finish the first half of the season with a strong performance.  The first game was against a keen Eastbourne side.  We started well and produced some pleasing hockey with the ball being passed quickly and accurately.  We took some time to get the break through, but once the first goal came, the floodgates opened and we went on to win 7-0.  We followed this up with a match against Marden's second team.  This was something of a mismatch which made it difficult to keep the same level of performance.  We played well in spurts and won 6-0.
 
With the pool games won, we had a half hour break ahead of the semi-finals against Marden's A team.  Despite going through a good warm up, we started the game sluggishly and Marden scored a well worked goal with their first attack.  This rocked the boys and it took a few minutes to regain their composure.  We began to lay siege to the Marden goal, but despite a great deal of pressure, could not find the target.  The Marden keeper made some good saves and we wasted a number of promising opportunities.  With time running out we were awarded a penalty stroke, only to see their keeper pull off a great save.  It looked as if despite all the pressure we would fall short, however with hardly any time to spare we forced the equaliser and took the game into extra time, golden goal.  The boys really took hold of the game, with Jacob in goal now largely a spectator.  We created a number of great chances and Rhys finally made the pressure count with a well taken goal, cue much celebration.
 
The Canterbury Panthers had produced a strong win against Eastbourne to set up an all Canterbury final.  The final was a really close affair, with the Pumas going ahead, only to then concede a penalty stroke.  Thankfully Jacob made a fantastic save to keep us ahead.  We had a number of good chances to score, but Barnaby in the Panthers goal was in good form, keeping us out.

With seconds to go, the Panthers won a short corner and the game was on the line, however having kept it out we broke at pace and Robin rounded the goalie to clinch a hard fought victory.
 
Overall a really pleasing performance from the team.  A good way to end the first half of the season and now to head off to the Copperbox after some Christmas downtime!
 
Report; Paul Surridge
 

The U12 girls arrived after a very nice lie in (some very fresh faced happy parents too) because of the 1230 start at Marden, all in a very merry and upbeat spirit. We had two pool games to play then fingers crossed a further two games if the girls progressed.

First up were the Host's A team Marden, from the start our girls looked up for the challenge and it was end to end stuff, within 5 minutes a very clean hard hit shot from Freya Sonnen who was playing up front made it’s way into the Marden goal 1-0 Canterbury. After a flurry of attacks (and some outstanding saves from our GK) the score was 1-1 but our defensive line of Kate Hooker and Poppy Gault, who was playing in defence for the 1^st time, had some outstanding tackles to keep the score line 1-1, but after some heavy pressure from Marden at the closing stages the final score was 2-1 to Marden. But big big praise needs to go to the team because if you took a picture or both teams at the final whistle you would have thought Canterbury had won 6-0. All the girls had such praise for each other including the opposition on a game played the way it should be. All about Fun and playing together.

Next up Sevenoaks U11 team, the girls, after some very hard games against their U12 teams, felt a little nervous but this was short lived. Our TEAM out played 7Oaks from the start to finish, some great team work in the middle from Lucy Carter who was playing a more defensive centre role with Izzy Kitson  and Mirium Thorpe on the Wings, all three girls linking well together and proving to much for the 7Oaks side. Izzy Kitson scored our 1^st goal followed shortly by 2 Goals from Lucy Carter all three goals being set up nicely from great stick an ball skill from Freya Sonnen our lone striker. Final score 3-0 but at least 3 girls could have had hat tricks if the goal had been moved 3Inches to the left hahaha.
 
Onto the Semi final against Eastbourne who had dominated the B Pool group games, a real challenge lay ahead for our team. But once again end to end play both teams having their chances. Defensively Dana Kuhn was a solid wall on the left stopping attacks an runs when she was called upon but with the score 0-0 and minutes to play Eastbourne kept the pressure on and with two players on the far post and our GK out of position here we go 1-0........ but Our girl in  Goal had other ideas and recovered and saved on the line. Chloe Solley work hard on the left wing to help link defence and the attacking plays with her great ball skills, which helped to provide Freya in the D But the pressure proved to much from Eastbourne. Final the score 1-0 to Eastbourne.

Our girls were now in the 3^rd/4^th position playoff against Marden B team. The team out played Marden from the start never letting up Winning 3-0 to take 3^rd position. Goals from Lucy Carter and Freya Sonnen finished of a great afternoon of Hockey.

I feel the only way I could pick a player of the tournament was to pick the whole team, most of the girls I played out of position to see how they would play, they performed above my expectations so a very happy Coach.

Lastly a mention goes to our Goalie Neave J-Fox (Coaches head on) from the 1^st  game Neave had to make a number of crucial saves keeping Canterbury in the game until the very end, then in the Semi-final again Neave made a number of goal line saves making Eastbourne’s attackers work until the very end. As her GK Coach I’m very proud of her perfomance.(As her Dad I had to control my shouting an cheering from the sideline)

Report; Darryl Jeffery-Fox

After a long drive to Teddington’s Christmas Invitational tournament our Canterbury U12 squad got their competition underway against London Wayfarers. The game started with some nerves from all the girls but these were only short, the game was end to end with both teams having their chances but sadly no goal came from either side. Although near the end Izzy Kitson came the closest but even with a drive for a hard incoming ball could not be turned into the goal. Final score 0-0. 
 
Next came what turned out to be the toughest test for our girls - Surbiton, but within a minute or so Savanna Truelock and Lucy Carter drove hard into Surbitons half the ball rattled about in the D before Miriam Thorpe turned the ball into goal. Maybe the tide had turned the girls now expected Surbiton to push hard and so they did, Kate Hooker and Freya Sonnen had great games in defence and weathered the 1st 2nd and 3rd wave of attacked and Neave J-Fox in goal made some crucial saves but they could not hold on forever and the equalizer finally came. Then in a blink of an eye 2 more goals had appeared. The girls kept their heads up and kept pushing but by the final whistle the final score was 5-1 .
 
The final game of the day saw us playing the host's Teddington Brown team with only a 60 second break from the last game. On they went wanting to get a result and from the whistle the girls played well as a team, Poppy Gault was working hard on the right wing defensively and attacking but like the first game it was a very evenly matched affair. On the left Dana Kuhn tried hard to feed the midfield and defensively stood her ground when needed. With only a few minutes left in the game Teddington got a Penalty Corner, after a shot was saved by Neave and the ball bobbled around the D a shot going wide took a deflection and Bang the ball was in the goal. The all the girls kept on pushing for an equaliser but it was not to be and the finally score was 1-0 to Teddington.
 
All the girls should be proud of their performances against some very tough competition and now look forward to the Christmas Break.
 
Report; Darryl Jeffery-Fox