Over the weekend of 25th – 27th July, Nottingham Hockey Centre hosted the final of the England Hockey Talent Academy Cup with a number of our junior boys and girls in action.
Boys
Boys from Southgate’s Junior and Men’s Teams played across three different Talent Academies at the TA Cup.
Hampstead & Westminster
Zack Michaels (U16)
Toby Whittaker (M3)
Hampstead and Westminster had perhaps the easiest weekend, having had disappointing results in their qualifiers to start in the bottom Group F. Heavy wins against Stourport (8-0), Stoke (7-0) and Bath (4-0) followed. Toby Whittaker scored an excellent backhand against Stoke, whilst Zack won MOTM in the same game and registered assists against Stoke and Bath.
Cambridge
Kitt Skillett (U16)
Cambridge, with a young squad were in Group E. Two tough 5-3 defeats were followed by a nerve wracking win on shuffles in the final match. Kitt, who’d scored a characteristic drag flick in the second game, bravely stepped up to take the first shuffle. No mean feat for a Year 9! The goalie saved, but Kitt swatted home the rebound on the backhand to help set up a thrilling victory.
Old Loughtonians
Sam Riley (U16)
Matt Burgess (M2)
Old Loughts were in the top Group A, and with a talented experienced squad looked like possible champions. An opening 8-0 thrashing of Beeston suggested that would be the case, but close tough losses against Exeter and eventual winners East Grinstead saw them finish third in their group.
East Grinstead’s victory showed both how strong and how closely matched the teams in London and the South East are. East Grinstead has trailed 3-0 to Ham and West in an earlier qualifier – their eventual 5-3 win putting them in the top group and sending Ham and West bottom.
With England scouts watching on at all matches, and the sun – mostly – shining, the boys TA Cup was an excellent weekend of high quality hockey.
Girls
The tournament took the format of 6 pools with 4 teams. Despite there being 24 TAs in action, Old Loughts and H&W ended up in the same pool, with six Southgate juniors represented.
Hampstead and Westminster
Freya Matthews
Millie Roxburgh
The team were unbeaten all weekend, finished 9th overall and were the second highest goal scorers in the tournament. Both Southgate girls had superb tournaments, with each contributing two goals over the event.
5-1 versus Team Bath
3-1 versus Northwest
2-2 after full time against OL – H&W won on shuffles
Old Loughtonians
Annabelle Korth
Genevive Castle
Lucienne Mercier
Sophie Fitzpatrick
The girls won one, and narrowly lost two (one on shuffles to H&W) but finished 11th in the table.
2-0 win to Team Bath
1-2 loss to Northwest
2-2 after full time against OL – H&W won on shuffles
Well done to all the Southgate juniors who took part in the TA Cup!
