Super Sunday for Sevenoaks Juniors
It was an incredibly busy day for Sevenoaks Junior Hockey Club last Sunday with a multitude of matches happening both home and away – most of which were England Hockey league and cup matches. As the results started coming in throughout the day, it was quickly becoming apparent that it was one very special day for the club.

The U12A girls became Kent Champions in the County Tournament in Folkstone. They played 7 matches and had an incredible run of 21 goals scored and 0 conceded which means they are now going through to the Regional Finals.

The U14A Boys also secured a place in the Regional Finals with an emphatic 4-0 win against Brombeck (goals from Charlie Brooks, Will Corbin, Carlos Rees and Ben Rodenhurst) which put them top of their group with 14 goals scored and only one conceded.

The U12A Boys and the U12B Girls meanwhile did themselves proud in their Kent tournament and only narrowly missing out on a semi final place. The U14 A girls won their England Hockey cup match v a strong Marden side 3-2. Meanwhilet the U16A boys were very unlucky and very narrowly missed out on qualifying for the National Finals by conceding a goal in the last minute of their Regional Finals.

The club hosted the Regional Finals for Girls U16 and the Sevenoaks girls faced opposition from Cambridge City and Chelmsford. The first match was against Cambridge City and Sevenoaks got off to a flying start with a clinical penalty corner strike from Venetia Barker in the first minute. This was quickly followed by a reverse hit goal from Tilly Fox and then a well worked penalty corner routine saw Ryana MacDonald-Gay score and a well taken open play goal by Annabel Cheveley took the team up to 4-0 as they went into half-time 4-0 up. This was the perfect start. In the second half Lulu Stephens scored an impressive reverse hit to make the final score 5-0.

The second match against Chelmsford again saw Barker score from the first penalty corner within two minutes. Fox scored the next two goals from open play, MacDonald-Gay scored the fourth just before half-time with a thunderous strike after a strong drive into the D. The second half saw goals scored by Amelie Allen after a well worked passage of play, Cheveley scoring from close range and Fox scoring from a penalty corner routine. The match finished 7-0 to Sevenoaks. This impressive show of quality hockey from the U16A girls has secured them a place in the National Finals which will take place the weekend of 4th/5th April.

The U18 girls also had big day playing in the Quarter Finals of the England Hockey Tier 2 Competition against Sudbury. It didn’t take long for the Sevenoaks girls to cut through Sudbury’s defence with Amber Buggins crossing the ball into the D for Maisie Hinds to connect and put Oaks on the score sheet. With some 5 minutes before the half time whistle Oaks had to defend a short corner and goalkeeper Kat Pastron was quick on her feet to clear the ball from danger. The ball was successfully cleared to Claire Morgan who carried it up the pitch to make an early pass to Ella McCarthy who faced a fast approaching goal keeper. McCarthy kept her composure to skilfully take it around the opposition goalkeeper and dribbled it into goal. The half time whistle blew with a jubilant Oaks 2-0 up. Shortly into the second half Sudbury were awarded a short corner and managed to get the score up to 2-1. Sudbury had now boosted their confidence and exerted pressure as the final whistle drew nearer. With some 5 minutes to go Oaks found themselves drawing the game 2-2 which was the score at full time. This meant the girls had to collect themselves to face a penalty shoot-out. Sevenoaks goalkeeper Pastron was brimming with confidence and Oaks stepped up and slotted their first three penalties home. The pressure was too much for Sudbury who missed two chances and with Kat making a great save, Sevenoaks found themselves celebrating a win and deserved a place in the semi-finals of the National Cup Which will take place on Sunday 5th April.