The Firminger Tournament

Date: Friday 7 March 2008

The second major Hockey tournament of the week took place today at Canterbury Hockey Club where the Under 15 squads of 20 Kent schools competed in the quest for the Firminger Tournament.

St Edmund's were drawn in a tough group, but nonetheless they should have progressed into the main afternoon knock-out stage. As it was, a 0 - 1 defeat in the first game of the morning against Manwood's virtually put us out of the reckoning by 9.10am! A 1 - 0 win against Norton Knatchbull, and a 0 - 0 draw against King's Rochester left us needing a win against Tonbridge to come in the top two. But another 0 - 1 defeat consigned us to fourth place in the group and the prospect of 13th place at best.

Best it was! Two 1 - 0 wins over Duke of York's and Harvey GS, and a late, tired 0 - 0 draw against Dover College gave us that 13th place.

After the morning session it was all we could hope for, but coach Leigh Millard was sanguine about the nature of tournament Hockey, and the real consequences of dropping points unnecessarily in the early qualifying stages. We are better than 13th in the county at this level, so some real disappointment is in order. Perhaps the same could be said abvut the England Football XI and a non-appearance in Euro 2008!!