Spalding Hockey Club hosted the finals of the Spalding primary schools hockey tournaments at Glen Park, Surfleet.
All five of the season’s tournaments held during this school year have been fully subscribed with 20 teams from 13 primary schools participating involving over 150 children each time.
As usual, the teams were split into four graded leagues of five teams at advanced, intermediate and two beginner leagues.
Monks House A have dominated the advanced league in recent tournaments and went into the finals as favourites. However, they were made to work really hard in their opening fixture against a determined Ayscoughfee A team and had to settle for a goalless draw. They bounced back with convincing wins over John Harrox A (3-0) and Eye Primary A (4-0) and secured the title with a nervy 1-1 draw with Boston based Tower Road A in their last game.
In doing so, Monks House became only the third school to get their name on the trophy in the 12-year history of this competition.
Current holders John Harrox have won five times with St Norbert’s recording four wins. The other two years were lost to the COVID lockdown.
Ayscoughfee A and Eye Primary A tied on points for the runner up slot but Ayscoughfee A with their slightly better goal difference edged into a well deserved second place.
Following their opening draw with Monks House, they beat John Harrox A (4-1) and drew with Tower Road A (1-1) and Eye Primary A (2-2)
Intermediate winners Boston’s Tower Road B won three of their four matches, beating St John’s (3-0) before overcoming Gosberton Risegate (1-0) and Monks House B (2-0).
They were denied a clean sweep by the neighbours St Thomas’s in a goalless game.
Monks House B nearly matched their A team’s success, opening with two solid wins over Gosberton Risegate and St John’s (both 2-0) before losing by the same score to the league winners. However, they clung on to second place with a gritty performance against St Thomas’s which ended in a 1-1 draw.
The beginner A league turned out to be a real nail-biter involving St Norbert’s and Surfleet Primary.
Both teams won their opening three matches, St Norbert’s with three 1-0 wins over Pinchbeck East, Spalding Parish and Eye whilst Surfleet had the better goal difference having recorded wins over Eye (1-0), Spalding Parish and Pinchbeck East (both 3-0).
It was all to play for in the closing game with St Norbert’s having to win in order to clinch the title. They took an early lead but it was the local team that equalised in the closing stages, much to the delight of the vocal home crowd, to win the league on goal difference.
In the beginner B league, Ayscoughfee B got off to a racing start with wins over John Harrox B (5-0) and Gosberton Academy B (1-0) and looked to be on target for the title. But with a goalless draw against Gosberton Academy A and a defeat (0-2) at the hands of Tower Road C, they slipped to finish in third place.
There was precious little to separate the top two teams, Gosberton Academy A and Tower Road C who both won two and drew two of their games without conceding a goal. In the end, it was Gosberton Academy A who took the title on goal difference having scored five goals to Tower Road’s tally of four.
The huge success of these primary school tournaments has not gone unnoticed by development officers at England Hockey Headquarters.
Spalding Hockey Club are one of the very few clubs in England to stage competitive hockey tournaments for primary school children, and England Hockey want to use the template developed by the club in order to try and encourage more hockey clubs around the country to follow their lead.
