Emerging District Festivals round off youth season

The youth competitions season finished on a high with two entertaining District Festivals at the Glasgow National Hockey Centre. 31 exciting matches, played in front of appreciative crowds, saw the Districts’ Emerging squads, a mix of U15 and U16 players, compete against each other.

It was a good weekend for East District, with their Purple and Sky teams finishing 1st and 2nd in the Girls’ event; and Sky and Navy being top teams at the Boys’ tournament. However, all the District teams should be proud of their efforts.

Emerging Girls Festival

The weekend started with seven teams playing each other in the Emerging Girls’ round-robin tournament on Saturday 17 June.

The day started with an excellent 1-1 draw between South and West Yellow. Teagan Greene scored the only goal as South beat West Pink 1-0, before they lost to the two East teams. West Yellow beat Highland 4-0 and drew 1-1 with Midland, before losing to East Purple.

East Purple won all four of their matches before the lunch break, beating West Pink 4-1; Midland 3-0; South 3-0; and West Yellow 6-0. There were nine different goalscorers, led by Nicole McAdam (4), Alexa Forbes (2), Lily McLeod (2), Charlotte Smart (2) and Anna Coutts (2).

East Sky also went into the break unbeaten, with wins over Highland (2-0); Midland (4-0); and South (5-0). Isla Hathorn, Freya Ballantine and Emily Appleson all scored doubles.

West Pink got their first points of the day in a 3-0 win v Highland. Katie Reid, Kirsty Pollock and Yasmin Lamb scored the goals.

The afternoon session provided some excellent matches. Purple won the battle of the East teams 2-0, through Alexa Forbes and Joanna Hirst, before a 6-0 win against Highland gave them top spot. Amelia Leitch and Kerryn Liversage scored their second goals of the day. Purple’s 24 goals came from 10 different scorers, and they only conceded one goal in six games – a real team effort!

East Sky finished runners-up with wins over the West teams: 2-0 v Pink (Isla Hathorn and Thea Wright scoring); and 3-0 v Yellow, with a hattrick from Isabella Paton.

South earned a well-deserved third place with wins against Midland (3-1) and Highland (2-0). Beth Laing, Syke Straker, Ava McLean, Robyn Ford and Ellie McLaren hit the target.

Midland were fourth with wins against Highland (4-0) and West Pink (2-1). Leigh Arbuckle (2), Lauren Cramb, Carmen McDermott, Fern Nissan and Farrah McCulloch scored the goals.

The West teams drew 3-3 in the game of the day to leave Yellow 5th; and Pink 6th. Ellie Burns, Lucy Wilson (her fourth goal of the day) and Hannah Reilly scored for Yellow; with Emily Bacon, Yasmin Lamb and Katie Reid replying.

And finally, Highland girls should be proud of their efforts. After a 4am start and a long bus-journey, they played some great hockey and entertained the crowd.

East Purple’s captain, Charlotte Smart collected the salver to round off a great day’s hockey.

East Purple Emerging Girls Festival Winners 2023

Emerging Boys Festival

The Boys’ event on Sunday was an equally enjoyable day, with loads of very close matches.

South and East Navy fought out a 0-0 draw, before East Sky beat Midland 2-1. Fergus Allan and Finlay McFadden got Sky’s goals after Angus Nichol had put his team ahead.

An impressive performance from South saw them beat Highland 4-0. Jack Sewell (2), Lewis Gray and Archie Sainsbury scored the goals. Then it was the ‘East derby’. Noah Gray put Sky ahead before a late equaliser from Alastair McLellan to make it 1-1.

Highland put up an excellent performance against Midland, with goalie Logan Wood making a series of great saves. However, an unstoppable reverse shot from Ben Cluett gave Midland a late 1-0 win.

A really close match ended up 2-0 for East Sky against South, Max Males and Noah Gray scoring. Then East Navy turned on the style with a 5-1 win v Highland. Jacob Jolly (2), Martin Cunnane, Jack Cameron and Alastair McLellan hit the target, with Adam Bradley’s consolation getting the biggest cheer of the day!

Midland’s Murray Cameron was the match-winner against South in a hard-fought 1-0 win. The quality of goalkeeping in this match and all day was excellent.

East Sky won the tournament with a 2-0 win against Highland. Early goals from Milo Demarco and Evan Leivesley sealed it, but Highland put in a superb performance and were unlucky not to take something from the match.

The day finished with a cracking match in the fight for runners-up. It looked like plain sailing for East Navy as they went 3-0 up with 8 minutes to go, with goals from McLellan, Cunnane and Cameron. However, Midland hit back through Murray Cameron and Daniel McConnachie to create a thrilling finish, but it ended 3-2.

Edward Batty, East Sky’s captain, collected the trophy for his team, as the curtain came down on a great season.

Both days were run superbly by our technical officials, led by Chris MacDonald and Graeme Berry. All our umpires did a fantastic job, and thanks also to all our volunteers and the team at Glasgow Green for their hard work.

East Sky – Emerging Boys Festival winners 2023

 

 

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