The Courier

The Girls' U10 hockey team gathered together for the Warwick Prep School Hockey Festival on Saturday 7 October.

During an exciting set of matches the girls truly showed what heroes they were!

The day began with a slightly nervous start against Bablake. Even though they were the youngest team at the tournament they eventually started to dominate the first game and were unlucky to come out with a draw.

The Croft came next and proved to be too organised for our girls scoring two to secure their win. Not deterred and after defending their very first short corner they faced Warwick Blue. The much older team were intimidated by the speed and aggression of the Crescent girls. Amy Robinson showed great skill and composure down the middle and passed the ball to the hard-working and tenacious Eve Ferguson who smashed the ball into the goal for the first score of the day, 1-0 to Crescent!

Warwick Red were next to face the increasingly confident Crescent team and were unable to pass the inpenetrable defence of the talented Lucy Hardy and Rebecca Monteith, who captained the side with great maturity. A long accurate pass from the determined Harriett Gray to Amelie Frere put Warwick on the back foot. Frere skillfully manouvered around the Warwick defence to score our second goal of the day. Confidence at an all time high Hattie Sarkies stole the ball with a super tackle and made a run for the goal skillfully dodging defenders along the way, a quick pass went to the unstoppable Frere who scored again, Crescent won 2-0!

The penultimate team to take on the girls were another big school, King Henry's. With a much older and bigger team it looked as if this would be a difficult match, but yet again, the Crescent girls were undeterred and showed great courage. The ever reliable Cara Ridd made crucial saves to keep the oppositon out and the team kept on pushing the ball into the D but were unable to capitalise on their great work, end result 0-0.

The last game was against Warwick Pink where the Crescent defence was not threatened throughout, and although our team were unable to score they remained a force to be reckoned with. 

The final results for the girls were two wins, three draws and 1 loss which was an incredible achievement as only three of the team were actually U10s. Several of the opposition coaches commented how well the girls represented the school and the skill of the Crescent team.

Well done to the following girls:

Lucy Hardy (Year 5), Harriett Gray (Year 4), Rebecca Monteith (Year 5), Amelie Frere (Year 4), Hattie Sarkies (Year 3), Eve Ferguson (Year 3), Amy Robinson (Year 3) and Cara Ridd (Year 5).

Clare Robinson

On Saturday, seven boys competed in The Foremarke Tournament. It was an impressive venue and well worth the travel. With a number of boys unavailable, Crescent took a young side and they did themselves, and the school, proud.

The boys worked really hard from the first whistle, closing down and putting tackles in. Unfortunately, they lost the first two matches but the sides were stronger (this included Mr Thackway's old school!). In the last group game, they drew 1-1 against Twycross in an end-to-end game, Fin Calder with the goal. This meant that Crescent progressed to The Plate Competition. In the semi-final, they conceded early and had to chase the game, as they had in each match. Tom Ferguson's ball over the top was chased down by Calder and he finished to restore parity. Crescent pressed for a winner. A lot of corners found the arms of the goalkeeper so Matthew Thomas advised, 'Keep the ball away from the keeper'! Harry Richards shielded the goalkeeper for a late corner meaning Ferguson found Calder who scored off his knee. In the dying seconds, Josh Gorbutt pulled off a world-class reaction save to keep Crescent ahead. Thomas pounced on a rebound late on to score but the whistle had already gone for full-time. 2-1 winners.

In the Final against Grace Dieu, Crescent again went behind early and then a fantastic strike made it 2-0. George Bell was energetic in the midfield and created chances but they did not find the net. With a few minutes left, Crescent went to a more attacking formation and Jamie Capelett started to launch long balls. Calder profited again as he scored his fourth of the tournament to give Crescent hope. The green and whites were now camped in the opposition's half but could not find the equaliser. They ended as Plate runners-up.

M Phillips