Senior Aspire Cup Tournaments

This season’s Senior Aspire Cup tournaments provided a feast of exciting matches and scintillating hockey. The competition is aimed at state schools and others who are developing their hockey programme with a view to competing in the Schools Cups in the future.

North Tournament

The first tournament on 2 November was held at Glenalmond for schools in the North, Highland and Midland Districts. In spite of the torrential rain, the five girls’ teams managed to complete their tournament, which produced 33 goals.

Cults Academy girls won their tournament with three wins, scoring 13 goals without conceding, but their last match against Kingussie High School was abandoned. Aberdeen Grammar School were runners-up after edging Millburn Academy from Inverness 2-1 in a cracking game. Millburn’s wins over Queen Victoria School and Kingussie gave them third place ahead of the girls from Dunblane.

The boys’ teams completed seven of their ten matches before the weather defeated them. It was a thrilling competition, with all but one match having no more than one goal between the teams.

At close of play, High School of Dundee topped the table after 1-0 wins against Grove Academy and Aberdeen GS, before beating Cults Academy. Harris Academy’s 2-1 win v Cults and 0-0 draw with Aberdeen gives them a chance to overhaul their Dundee neighbours with two games to play. Cults were unlucky to lose 1-2 to Grove before the Dundonians fought out a 0-0 draw with Aberdeen.

The three Dundee-based teams will play each other in a local tournament to decide who qualifies for the final.

Queen Victoria School v Millburn Academy

South Tournament

The schools based in East, South and West Districts played at Peffermill on 4 November, with McLaren High School kindly agreeing to travel from Callander.

On a sunny day in Edinburgh, Balerno High School triumphed in the girls’ tournament to qualify for the Aspire Cup Final. A gripping final against a talented Hawick High School team finished 0-0 before Balerno won 2-1 win on penalty flicks.
Earlier, Balerno had two 2-0 wins over McLaren HS and Hawick to reach the final. McLaren and Hawick drew 0-0, and the Borderers won their penalty shoot-out 3-1 to qualify for the final.

The six boys’ teams played in two groups, with the winners playing in the final. McLaren High School won their pool with hard-fought wins over High School of Glasgow (1-0) and Earlston High School (2-1). Earlston’s 1-0 against HSoG gave them 2nd place. Trinity Academy from Edinburgh topped the other pool with a 1-0 win v Glasgow Academy and 3-1 v Wellington School, who were unlucky to lose 0-1 to the Academy.

In a thrilling final, Trinity scored the only goal against cup holders McLaren to qualify for the Aspire Cup Final. A strong Earlston side beat Glasgow Academy 1-0 in the 3rd/4th play-off; and HSoG beat Wellington to finish fifth.
Congratulations to all teams for contributing to a superb couple of days’ youth hockey.

Trinity Academy v Glasgow Academy, Aspire Cup 

Aspire Cup Finals – Friday 17 March 2023 (venue to be confirmed)

• GIRLS: Cults Academy v Balerno High School
• BOYS: Trinity Academy v High School of Dundee or Harris Academy

Recent posts:

Back to all news
Back to top