Third Place – In2Hockey Finals
By Colin Pike
Surbiton’s Under 12 Girls finished third in the In2Hockey national club finals at Nottingham Hockey Centre on Saturday, after beating Lansdown 5-1 in the bronze medal playoff.
Surbiton’s hopes of finishing top of Pool C and qualifying for the final were dashed by Harleston Magpies, who won all four of their pool games before going down 1-0 to Sevenoaks in the final.
The games were played over two halves of nine minutes. Surbiton’s campaign began with a 6-0 win over Kirkby Stephen, Tegan Neal and Natalie Barnicoat both scoring hat-tricks. Neal scored in the third, fourth and 16th minutes whilst Barnicoat scored in the 5th, 15th and 17th minutes, all the goals coming from open play.
The going was tougher against Clifton Robinsons, Surbiton winning 2-1, Barnicoat putting Surbiton ahead in the third minute from a penalty corner with the other two goals both coming in the ninth minute, Neal doubling Surbiton’s lead before Josie Wong scored Clifton’s goal.
Harleston Magpies had Amie Hunt to thank for their victory, as she scored both goals. The first goal came in the seventh minute, but although Freya Atkinson equalised in the 11th minute, Hunt struck again in the 15th minute to preserve Magpies’ one hundred per cent record.
Surbiton bounced back with a 4-0 win over Leicester, Barnicoat scoring in the third and sixth minutes and Chloe Monk adding further goals in the eighth and 15th minutes.
Lansdown finished second in Pool D after beating Marlow 4-2 and York 1-0; going down narrowly to Sevenoaks 1-0 and drawing 2-2 with Belper.
Surbiton proved too strong, but Lansdown battled early, Tula Leach equalising in the sixth minute after Monk had opened the scoring for Surbiton from a penalty corner. Monk restored Surbiton’s lead in the eighth minute from open play with Lauren Ingles scoring in the 11th minute; Barnicoat scoring her seventh goal of the competition in the 15th minute and Josie Roux converting a penalty corner in the final minute.
Barnicoat just missed out on finishing as the top scorer, Harleston’s Hunt topping the goalscoring charts with eight. Martha Goodridge of Marlow joined Barnicoat on seven goals.