County Under-18 Hockey Tournament

Date: Wednesday 1 October 2008

Twenty Kentish schools congregated in Canterbury today to compete for the title of Kent County champions at Under 18 level. Kent College, King's Canterbury, and the UKC acted as hosts for the morning group stages, and we were drawn in group 3, which played its 'round robin' phase down at Birley's, the main King's ground.

Group 3 was a tough group, with King's Canterbury, King's Rochester, Cranbrook, and QEGS Faversham, in addition to ourselves. Sadly, our only win of the morning came against QEGS, and defeats at the hands of all the other three meant that we did not qualify for the afternoon's knock-out stage.

So, it was back to School for afternoon lessons for the players, while staff stayed on to see the outcome of a final which featured Sevenoaks School, whom we play on Saturday, and King's Canterbury, who knocked out Kent College in the quarter finals.

Tournaments of this sort, win or lose, are great fun, playing teams normally off our circuit, and, hopefully, learning from the experience of playing at least 4 x 20 minute 'sudden death' matches. And the simplest of the lessons - win in the morning, and you don't have to return to the classroom for the rest of the day!