This was the second tournament of the year for Westleigh juniors and our good friends at Charnwood Hockey hosted and did a fantastic job. Over 60 Westleigh kids were engaged in fun and competitive hockey across the age groups from 9am through to 2pm!
First up were the Under 8s, and Westleigh fielded three teams and also provided some players to help Leicester Hockey Club make up their team. All three teams did very well with some super hockey on show combined with lots of hard work and determination. It was great to see so many goals being scored by the U8s with some teams going unbeaten and living up the success of last years’ U8 group.

Under 10s were up next and Westleigh fielded one boys team, one girls team and a mixed team. The boys team lost a close first game to Ashby 1-0 but then comfortably won the remaining matches showing some good individual skills as well and nice passing and positional play. Credit to Samuel playing in goal for his first tournament who kept so many shots out throughout the tournament and also kindly played in goal for other teams who did not have keepers. The girls team had a lot of hard matches against mostly boys teams but they performed great with some good draws and narrow losses. The coaches were very proud of how the team played and all the games were very competitive. The mixed team were a very tenacious bunch and managed to defend extremely well throughout the day and did not concede a single goal. Again a common theme was emerging of amazing junior goalkeeping performances and Theo, also playing in his first ever tournament made multiple saves and really ensured the team did not concede a single goal all day. We normally try to keep these reports generic but the level of the goalkeeping by Theo was simply amazing with a lot of opposition parents and coaches commenting on it – well done Theo!

Last up, it was the U12s and Westleigh fielded a boys and a girls team. The boys drew their first game 0-0 and then won the rest of their games comfortably without conceding a goal in any of the games. Again more standout Westleigh Goalkeeping performances with Bentley making a triple save against Ashby and really keeping the boys in the game – great to see such dedication to keep the ball out of the goal! The boys played some really good hockey throughout the day, all of them sticking to their positions and moving the ball around the pitch with great accuracy and fast ball pace. The girls team proved to be a real rollercoaster of emotions for the parents watching. Their games were so full of action with last ditch tackles and clearances coupled with amazing effort in trying to score at the other end. They managed to draw their first two games and then were very unlucky to lose their final game by 1-0 as the opposition goalkeeper made a fantastic save to deny Isla a last minute goal. The tackles were strong from the girls and the opposition certainly knew they had been in a hard game of hockey each time!

Thanks for all the coaches helping out today, all ten of them! Thanks also for the parents supporting so well from the sidelines too. Perhaps one of the most special things to come from the day was not just the amazing hockey but the new friendship groups being formed from the U8s all the way through to the U12s. All the teams also watched and supported each other cheering loudly and celebrating together – hockey friends are for life!