THE Old Loughtonians U13 boys’ team, fielding five U12s have their sights set firmly on the England Hockey Finals at the National Hockey Centre, Nottingham on May 17th having convincingly won the East Championships at the weekend and adding to their Essex title won back in March.

On a hot day at Harleston Magpies Club in Norfolk the boys played some great team hockey and with some beautifully executed passing moves, often involving the whole team and in doing so brushed aside all opposition.

It took until the third match before any opponent entered their ‘D’ and half the tournament before they even conceded a short corner.

First up was Lincolnshire champions, Stamford Prep who were dispatched 5-0 and the second game was a 3-0 win against Bedford Prep. The boys came together for the challenge against the favoured Suffolk champs, Ipswich School, coming out 5-1 victors but disappointed to have conceded their first goal.

Next were Norfolk’s champions, Gresham’s who had yet to lose a game their entire season. The Old Loughts boys set about them with fervour peppering the goal posts and bar and exciting the crowd before finally coming out 2-0 victors and with everybody feeling emotionally drained after such an exquisite display of controlled hockey.

The final two games against Bishops Stortford College representing Hertfordshire and St Johns College Cambridgeshire were irrelevant as the boys had already won the title but nevertheless the boys managed 4-1 and 3-0 wins respectively, making them worthy East of England Champions.

The victory was tinged with some regrets as some of the Lought’s first choice players found themselves cup tied, having had to represent their schools in the earlier round.

Team: - Sam Jones GK, Tim Coupe GK; James Padfield, Albert Padfield, Daniel Samuel, James Albery, Conor Caplan, Rory Patterson, Chris Halls, Dylan Sandhu, Coach Ian Padfield and Manager Graham Halls.

In other games over the weekend, Old Loughtonians U18 boys played in the England Hockey Cup finals in the format of a round robin competition and were placed in third position closely decided by goals for.

The U15 boys were defeated in the last minute of the game against Reading in the England Hockey U15 Plate final with the final score being 2-1 and the U11 girls playing in the East U11 Championships representing Essex and won 2, drew 2 and lost 2 games.

The club’s Foresters side who have already won their Higgins Group London League Division this season won the Essex Trophy at the weekend for the fourth time.