On Wednesday 25 January Windermere School welcomed 7 schools, from around Cumbria, to compete in the County tournament for U13 boys’ mini (7-a-side) hockey teams. 8 schools and 9 teams entered and were placed into two groups to play a round robin before the top two teams in each group played off in semi-finals and a final. This would have been 10 schools and 11 teams were it not for the withdrawal of two schools late on.

It was fabulous to see so many boys playing hockey, especially on such a nice afternoon! The Windermere team should be immensely proud too, performances from every player improved in each game as confidence grew. Josh S and Seb L-B providing the goals, Morgan M keeping attacks at bay in goal, Jake L-S and Joe O’F proving to be solid defenders and invaluable in organising the team as Leon W took command of midfield while Daniel O, Tim-Yu S, Nick T offered width and forward momentum from the wings. A good team performance and a sound base on which to build for the future. Well done!

Windermere’s boys returned two wins and two defeats finishing with 6 points in group two, tied with both QEGS (Penrith) and QKS (Kendal), deciding the final placings in the group came down to the last round of games with Windermere being in second, third and fourth place at various times during the last game. Unfortunately, goal difference saw the team finish fourth and miss out on a semi-final place to QEGS, The Lakes School winning the group.

In group one, Sedbergh and Austin Friars (Carlisle) finished first and second respectively to give a semi-final line up of Lakes v Austin Friars and Sedbergh v QEGS. In two tight games the group one teams both made the final while the group two teams went on to contest the 3rd /4th play-off. Two more tight games followed; The Lakes edged past QEGS 2 – 1 to claim third place while the final finished 1 – 1, Sedbergh going on to win on penalty strokes.