Ryedale School Year 11 Hockey Qualify for County Tournament

On Thursday 25th September, I took the Year 11 hockey team for their district tournament at Lady Lumley’s School. It was to be their last tournament of their hockey career at Ryedale so my expectations were high as they have always been a successful team.  Elke Morgan, team captain, has written a match report for the both the District and County tournament:

Back row (l to r): Laura Laycock, Katie Potter, Grace Walker, Natalie Carroll, Alice Powell, Alice Hall, Izzi Dwyer
Front row (l to r): Emily Capstick, Hattie Braithwaite, Catherine Ball, Elke Morgan, Hannah Foster-Rain

Our district tournament was held on 25th September at Lady Lumley’s. We started the tournament once again by beating Malton with a clear margin, this time it was 6-0, with three goals by Alice Hall, two from Catherine Ball and one by Izzi Dwyer. The match was both teams first game of the day so play started slowly but an early goal from Alice Hall soon quickened the pace, leading to three more goals by Ryedale before half-time.

Our next match was Scarborough College. We all put in a lot of effort but unfortunately lost 2-0.

We then stayed on the pitch to play a very exciting match against Ampleforth College. At full time, after some amazing saves from Hannah Foster-Rain, the score was 0-0. However, a winner was needed to decide who would go through to the county round. The match went to Golden Goal, Izzi’s strong cross went straight to Alice Hall’s stick. As the goal ran towards her, she played a short pass across to Catherine on the left post, who smashed it to the back of the goal. We were through to the county round!

The county tournament began with a 7.45am start at school and a nervous bus journey to St Peter’s School, York, where we also faced Cundall Manor and Ripon Grammar School.

Nerves were definitely showing in the first couple of minutes of the St Peter’s match, with a goal scored by Peter’s very quickly, waking us up and making us more determined. We played very strongly in defence with Grace Walker shining on the left. After some fantastic saves from Hannah Foster-Rain, we reached half-time still at 1-0 down. After a quick team talk we started the second half. Peter’s came back at a force, breaking our midfield and giving our defence a good fight before getting the ball past our goalie. The next few minutes were tense, a few near-goals from our attack and their strong defence. The last 30 seconds were a blur, Peter’s broke through and charged at the goal, and after a chaotic battle in our ‘D’ Peter’s managed to net another goal with the whistle blowing and the score being 3-0 to Peter’s.

After a quick drink and a stretch we were back on the pitch playing Cundall Manor. Our defence was as strong as ever with Elke Morgan, Alice Powell and Natalie Carroll clearing some near-breakthroughs from Cundall. After a messy fight in our D however and an accidental foot on the ball, Cundall gained a short corner and successfully managed to score a goal. The rest of the first half was fast and after a cross from Grace Walker over to Emily Capstick and then over to Izzi Dwyer the ball was played down into Cundall’s half. Catherine Ball received a cross from Izzi and sped down the wing, breaking their defence and scoring a perfect goal. This left the score at 1-1 at half time. We were unlucky in the second half, letting in two unfortunate goals even though our play was fantastic.

Our next opponents were Ripon Grammar School. They were fast, scoring a goal in the first minute. We battled hard though and at half time the score was still 1-0 to them. We persisted though, Hattie Braithwaite making a couple of breakaways. However after many attempts at their ‘D’, we succumbed to a sneaky goal from one of their forwards, and an annoying foot in our ‘D’ then led to a short corner which they converted successfully, resulting in a 2-0 defeat after another closely-fought match.

Players of the tournament were definitely Grace Walker, who played up a year group and was an outstanding addition to our team, and Hannah Foster-Rain who saved many head shots and hard balls, her phenomenal goalie skills saved our backs many times throughout the tournament.

It has been a pleasure to see the girls do so well in main hockey tournaments through their Ryedale careers, and to finish by qualifying for the County tournament is a terrific final achievement. I would like to thank them for the hard work and commitment that they have demonstrated over the years, and hope that future teams play with the same level of team spirit and effort.

Mrs Green (Head of Girls PE)