Polo Day takes place on Sunday 24th March - that's this week!

This is a big internal club event in which everyone (yes - everyone in years 2-7) can take part.  All age groups are split into even teams to compete for the St Edmunds Polo Cup.  This is a tournament for all, and is about celebrating the social and recreational elements of what goes on within the Mini Section. 

Games start at about 09.00 and finish before 12.00.  We also use this occasion to present the annual awards to our players who have performed or progressed particularly well during the season.

For this to happen, Annie needs to know which players in Years 2 to 7 want to play.  If your child would like to take part please email her to confirm by the end of today.  It's the usual £5 fee.

Due to the size of the event we can't accommodate children who just rock up on the day - closing day for signing up is TODAY, Tuesday 19th March. If they aren't on the list then unfortunately they won't be in a team.

Little Sticks will also be running as usual in the Indoor, and they will have their own prize giving ceremony at the end of their session.

Pleaase contact Annie on annie@harebuilders.co.uk  today.

On a bright, cool and blustery Sunday morning at the Three Hills Sports Centre in Folkestone, the Canterbury Vipers gathered to put all their practice from the season into some meaningful context.

The first game was against Marden Tigresses. (An interesting battle of the coaches, two former CHC men’s 1^st Team captains and team-mates pitching their wits against each other!) It was a well contested game with some excellent play in the midfield from captain Rosie Hudsmith and Ruby Bradford. Mollie Janes popped up with the only goal of the game and our campaign was underway.

Next up were the Blackheath and Elthamians Dragons. Lara Mears, in the Canterbury goal, had a total of zero to do – a stat that perfectly demonstrated Canterbury’s dominance. Rosie Hudsmith forced our first goal, then persistent team pressure led to the Dragons goalkeeper and defender getting in a muddle and bundling the ball into their own net. 2v0 final score. 2 wins from 2.

Tunbridge Wells were our next opposition and presented a sterner test. We went a goal behind after they scored a very well worked goal. This preceded the best hockey we played all day. Some excellent passing hockey, notably from Maisy Keir and Olivia Ridge led to two goals in quick succession from Rosie Hudsmith put us on top and some fine saves from Lara Mears kept it that way. 3 wins from 3.

Our next opponents were Holcombe. Molly Holgate defended brilliantly to keep Holcombe at bay. It was an end-to-end affair. The deadlock was broken when Zara Coombs found herself in space and smashed the ball into the goal. Rosie Hudsmith doubled our lead from a penalty corner and 2vo it stayed. 4 wins from 4.

Bromley and Beckenham, tactically or otherwise playing with a kicking-back, were next up. Seizing every opportunity to shoot as soon as we got into the D, we ran out 5v0 winners. A hat-trick from Mollie Janes and two more for Rosie Hudsmith. Lara, once again, had a perfect game with nothing to do! 5 wins from 5.

A strong Sevenoaks team were our next opponents and presented a different proposition to the earlier teams. Their strong, fast and direct play took us by surprise and we seemed unable to cope with them. Didi Brooks was the standout player for Canterbury and was kept very busy in defence. Despite conceding three goals, the game wasn’t without its chances for Canterbury. However, the Sevenoaks goalkeeper was equal to everything we could throw at her. The game finished 0v3. 5 wins and 1 loss from 6.
 
The last game of the pool stage was against Ashford Comets. Without a supporting statistician we were unaware of the winner-takes-all nature of this contest when we started. Once again, Canterbury dominated the opening exchanges but couldn’t find a way through the Ashford defence. Maisy Keir and Didi Brooks mopped up the Ashford attacks with ease and showed great composure in picking out passes to the Canterbury midfielders. Olivia Ridge played superbly in midfield, creating some great chances for our strikers. Unfortunately for us, Ashford’s goalkeeper was in great form and we couldn’t find a way through. The game ended 0v0. 5 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss from 7. Statistics that exactly matched those of Ashford Comets. By virtue of a better goal-difference it was Ashford who progressed to the semi-finals alongside table-toppers Sevenoaks. 

All the Vipers played their socks off and should be very proud of their efforts. Big thanks to umpire Stu and to the supporting parents for doing what they do so well!

Report; Stewie Keir
 

Well what an afternoon we had.  With weather ranging from warm sunshine, to howling wind to hail and snow by our last game, we certainly encountered it all but that did not deter the Tigers who went from strength to strength  during the course of their 7 games in the County Tournament at Folkstone on Sunday 17th March.

Out of the 7 games played Tigers drew 3 and won 4 games including beating eventual tournament winners and runners up Sevenoaks Bears and Marden,  remaining unbeaten and only conceding one goal throughout the competition.  With each game the boy’s confidence grew and they demonstrated some great hockey with some superb flowing hockey, switching sides of play and at last finding the width that had been elusive all season.  Despite the great results this was just not quite enough to see the boys progress to the semi-finals, matching second place on points but relegated to third in our pool of 8 on goal difference, a really creditable result.
 
There were some real standout performances during the day with Connor ferreting around the defenders putting them under pressure from the 16s.  Louis Bennet scored 3 cracking goals literally almost putting a hole in the backboard with the force of his shots.  Leo work tirelessly in midfield with Lincoln switching play and defending when needed.  Tom was our utility man he executed his role well no matter where he was asked to play, exploding out of midfield making probing runs in to the “D” and sticking like glue to his man in defence. 

One of the best moves of the day was one of many visionary passes from Harry out of defence which Heath picked up having sprinted the width of the pitch took to the base line, rounded the ball placed a pass across the goal for Jude to deftly slot in to the goal, champagne hockey!!  Our defence was stalwart all afternoon with Ollie ably stepping up from U8s tending the goal making some important saves to keep the games alive and Hugo with glue on the end of his stick making important tackles, stepping up on his opponents and sending the ball forwards. Everyone made an excellent contribution and work tirelessly throughout.
 
The hockey played by the Tigers was really something they should be very proud of and expectations for these boys remain very high for the future.  Thanks to Annie and Lee for umpiring and for the parents who weathered the weather, kept the coaches and umpires supplied with tea and most importantly supported the boys throughout the very long afternoon.   

Good luck to the boys for the final tournament of the season at Canterbury and they all look forward to celebrating their season on Friday at the end of season disco!!
 
Team:  Ollie Triggs (GK), Hugo Fassum, Harry Ledger ( C ),  Heath Voisey-Stovell (2), Louis Bennett (3), Jude Leberl (1), Tom Harrop, Lincoln Goldsack, Leo Rolison, Connor – Grantham-Stevens  
 
Photo attached unfortunately Harry Ledger could not be found so is missing from the photo!!

Report; Vicki Beatty
 

The boys U12 Pumas arrived at Polo for the County tournament with the weight of expectations on their shoulders following a successful season to date. We kicked off against a competitive Holcombe team who had a good early chance to score.  However once we settled into the game we moved the ball nicely and scored a number of good goals to win comfortably.

As the wind began to whip up making play difficult, we had consecutive matches against Burnt Ash and Sevenoaks B. We played some good hockey at times, but struggled to adapt to the conditions and to break down some packed defences.  However despite this we managed to record two more wins.

Our next opponents were Ashford.  By this time we were in our stride and playing some good hockey.  We had almost continuous pressure scoring many goals and retaining possession for the whole game.  This then set us up for the crunch game in the pool against a strong Marden team.  The team played really well in this match, working hard to compete physically with the pace of the opposition.  We started on the front foot with a disallowed goal in the opening minutes and  never looked back.  We created some good chances and most pleasingly limited the opposition to no shots and only two shot corners in the game.  We eventually ran out 3-0 victors. 

Another routine win against Blackheath in the final group game set up a semi-final against the Canterbury Panthers. The semi final was keenly contested between two good teams.  We started well and managed to score a good goal on the break through Nathan Sumner.
However the Panthers came roaring back and put pressure on our defence.  It was a closely fought battle to the end, but we managed to hold firm to secure a place in the final against a strong Sevenoaks team.

The final was a hard fought and even contest with little to pick between the teams.  Both sides created some half chances and a few short corners each, however neither team could find a breakthrough.  The best chance fell to Rhys Harmer in the dying seconds however his shot from close range whistled tantalisingly past the post.  Thus we arrived at the nerve-wracking penalty shoot-out.  Rhys, Ollie Curtiss and Robin Cox all volunteered to take a penalty and we were underway.  In the first round the boys all scored with good finishes and Jacob got very close to two of their strokes, without finding that elusive save.  It went in to sudden death and as the finger nails were being bitten all-round, the boys scored a further six strokes between them.  With the completion about to go into its fourth round of sudden death Jacob produced a fine save to win the tournament.

This was a great result of which the boys should be proud, but there will be many bigger challenges ahead in the Regional tournament at the end of April.

Thanks as ever to all the parents and helpers as ever for making it such a good day and to Annie for her tireless work in organising such a great tournament.

Team:  Jacob Beer, Thomas Hutchings, Ollie Curtiss, Freddie McMullan, Rhys Harmer, Robin Cox, Nathan Sumner, Johnnie Devereux, Thomas Tan, Henry Goodwin.

Report; Paul Surridge

We sell our Adidas club kit at Polo Farm, this is run by Sally Hayes. The shop stocks all playing kit as well as outer wear, shoes, sticks and accessories. The shop will be open at the following times every week during the season;

 

As from 17 February the club shop will only be open on Saturday afternoons and Sunday mornings, other times can be agreed by contacting Sally Hayes by email on sally987@icloud.com or by text on 07702 317044.

There will be an end of season sale so watch this space for further information.