Inter-House Hockey - Boys' Finals

Date: Tuesday 23 March 2010

The last junior hockey matches of the season were the final stages of the Inter-House competition for 2010, and both games were full of interest and excitement to the bitter end.

In the 3rd/4th place play-off, Warneford and Wagner were locked at 3 - 3 at the end of full time.Max Bungay and Daniel Gladwin (2) had led the way for Warneford, but Wagner battled their way back into it with Josh Best-Shaw and Ben Al Shaikh (2) taking the tie to penalty strokes. This shoot out was won by Warneford who scored all three of their strokes; Wagner managed to convert just the one.

The final was, in theory, evenly balanced but Baker, who could field only eight players, fell foul of the goalscoring skills of Lawrence King, who scored his second consecutive hat-trick for Watson, coolly dispatching three of his four one-on-one chances against George Inscoe. Watson contained the Andrew Pittard threat - he got free once at the start of the second half to equalise for Baker, and he had a second disallowed for 'feet' - and took the trophy 3 - 1. Spare a thought for Nils Christopherson: poleaxed by a blow to the mouth late on, but playing an integral part in a wholehearted Watson team performance!

Seniors play their finals on Thursday - can Baker get a degree of revenge against Warneford? It will be an interesting afternoon!

The final hockey action of the day took place at the Astro after school, and much later at the Cafe de China. Andrew Middleton's Invitation XI beat the 1st XI 7 - 5 in a game in which attacks clearly dominated! Deeble added a further four to his season's tally, and skipper Ben Pape, one. The prolific Adam Hart, despite the build-up, did not find the net! The annual Hockey Dinner then attracted twenty or so of the senior players and Messrs Middleton and Buckingham. Awards were made to Oscar Jackson - the 'Pilgrims' Player of the Season, to Dom Barrett - the 'most improved player of the year', and to Harry Callaway - the 1st XI 'Player of the Season'. Ben Pape was 'runner-up' in this category.