Westleigh Juniors turned up in force for the first tournament of 2025 hosted by Leicester Hockey Club. With over 60 children taking part across Under 8s, Under 10s and Under 12s and ten coaches in attendance supported by hoards of parents, grandparents, siblings and pets it was a real hockey family occasion.

With conditions just above freezing the children showed exceptional bravery throughout especially the Under 8s who were on first and played at altitude on the higher pitch. For most this was their first hockey of the year as the freezing start to January had meant no training was possible.

Westleigh fielded 3 Under 8 teams and across the teams 17 goals were scored with the boys team being a bit dominant and likely to be moving up to playing Under 10 hockey from now on. All teams did well though and despite the cold it was all smiles with some great learning and gameplay development going on which is what it is all about at Under 8 level.

The Under 10s were comprised of two all-girls teams and one boys team. As is usual for the girls they were playing against ‘mixed’ teams comprising mostly of boys. This did not deter the girls and both teams really got stuck in. Some of the defensive work was fantastic with some tackles striking fear into the hearts of most of the boys meaning that all scorelines were very respectable with the older girls team winning two matches and drawing one – a great achievement. Special mention for one of our Under 8 girls who played her first tournament in goal for the Under 10s, a fabulous brave performance well done! The younger girls team were often up against opposition twice their size but they persevered really well with some standout individual performances in attack which resulted and a fine goal in the last game. The boys did great and beat everyone but had some close games. Due to illness a few of the Under 8 boys had to step up an play for the Under 10s and they did a great job. All the boys are either one or two years under the age group for the U10s as well so a very good display indeed from them.

Under 12s were last up and by now the temperature had risen to at least 2 degrees above freezing so everyone was feeling much better now. We were able to field a separate boys U12 and girls U12 again this tournament and this has to be the way forward now for all our fixtures. The U12 girls were probably the most ferocious of the all the Westleigh teams and they really gave everything in their matches providing great entertainment and appreciation from the supporters. They managed to beat an all-boys Ashby team which was a great achievement. They had a good game against the Ashby all- girls team which they unfortunately lost but there were some issues with numbers and Goalkeepers which slightly spoiled the occasion – hence the grumpy team photo! The boys had a big squad with 10 boys in attendance and the coaches rotated the players expertly like it was a National Leage match. No teams could match the boys and many goals were scored. The last game of the tournament was against our good friends Charnwood and this game was possibly the highlight of the day, a fantastic close game played in a great spirit saw Charnwood win 3-1 with some excellent work from the Charnwood Goalkeeper keeping the many Westleigh strikes out.

Lots of success but still lots to work on at training in some hopefully warmer conditions! The Club would like to thank all the supporters for braving the weather and also Leicester Hockey Club for putting on a fantastic event.