The Hockey Wales Youth Finals, sponsored by Friends of Welsh Hockey, took place in Wrexham on Saturday 4th May 2013 where 24 teams from 9 clubs took part in 8 finals.
The Girls U15 and U18 finalists had played pool matches earlier in the year with the top teams playing in the U18 semi-finals, in Welshpool on 17thMarch where Gwent beat Colwyn Bay and Swansea City beat Rhuthun and in the U15 semi-finals played in Swansea on 28th April where Whitchurch Saints beat Colwyn Bay and Gwent beat Swansea City. In the U15 Girls final, Whitchurch Saints beat Gwent 4 – 3, whilst in the U18 Girls final Swansea City beat Gwent 3 – 0. Thanks to Alan Brookes, Kate Oultram and Joe Turner for umpiring. The format for the boys U15 and U18 finals was the North champion v South champion – in both finals it was Colwyn Bay v Swansea City, with Colwyn Bay winning both. Colwyn Bay won the U15 match 2 – 0 and the U18 match 3 – 0, thanks to Jamie Hooper and Kevin Roberts for umpiring both matches. |
The mini hockey finals took place on the other pitch – there were 4 round robin tournaments each involving two North and two South teams. The U11 Girls was the first mini-final of the day Swansea City and Whitchurch Saints had both recorded wins in their matches against Llandudno and Nothop Hall so it was all to play for in the final round of matches. Llandudno beat Northop Hall 2 – 0 to finish in third position whilst Swansea City and Whitchurch Saints drew. Whitchurch Saints finished in first place on goal difference.
The U11 Boys finals followed – once again the final placings were dependent on the last round of matches as Whitchurch were on maximum points having win both their matches whilst Swansea City had drawn with Northop Hall and needed to beat Whitchurch to top the group. In an exciting end to end match Swansea City scored a goal to take first place.
The third set of mini-finals were in the U13 Girls competition where Dysynni had beaten Abergavenny and Swansea Bay but were drawn against against a tough Colwyn Bay team for their final match of the tournament, Swansea City and Abergavenny had both won one match and lost one match so it was all to play for. Dysynni beat Colwyn Bay to take the title, whilst Abergavenny beat Swansea City to take second place. The last mini-final of the day was the U13 Boys competition – calculators were at the ready going into the last set of games as Abergavenny had beaten Dysynni and Wrexham, Wrexham had beaten Whitchurch and Whitchurch had beaten Dysynni. An exciting game between Wrexham and Dysynni kept the crowd on their toes with goals for both teams, the final result was 4 – 2 to Dysynni but it could have gone either way. Whilst Whitchurch beat Abergavenny 2 – 1, Abergavenny won the title with a slightly higher goal difference than Whitchurch 1st Abergavenny, 2nd Whitchurch, 3rd Dysynni and 4th Wrexham. Thanks to the Hockey Agents (Nicci Ashcroft, Rae Ellis, Katie Hamer, Hayley Love, Julie McAdam, Angela Miles, Judith Powell and Bev Rogers) for umpiring all the mini-hockey matches. Back |