Swindon Flames Junior Tournament 290707

 

Swindon Skater Hockey Club’s Junior Flames hosted their annual invitational inline hockey tournament at the Croft Recreation Centre this weekend, in which teams from around the country competed in a round-robin competition for a place in the tournament final. The teams comprised of ; Ash Avalanche, London Street Warriors, Basildon Alstarz, Borehamwood Crusaders and Leasowes Sharks. 

The competition began on Sunday morning with a 9.15 am face-off between Avalanche, last year’s winners and Sharks. The game was a hard fought affair which ended in a 2 nil win for Ash and proved to set the tone for what was to be a full day of exciting, closely contested hockey.  

The Junior Flames managed wins over Warriors (2-0), Leasowes (2-0) and Basildon (4-1) and with drawn games against Borehamwood (3-3) and Ash (2-2) the team secured enough points to claim a place in the final. Borehamwood Crusaders following a nail biting “winner takes all” 4-3 match against Ash Avalanche clinched the other final place. 

The final was a similarly close affair – after taking an early lead the Flames reached halftime ahead, leading 3-1. The second half saw a determined Crusaders team reduce that lead and equalise in the dying minutes of the second half. With the scores level at 3 all extra time was required to separate the two teams. Again, The Flames took an early lead in the first period of extra time and added another goal at the beginning of the second period to make the score 5-3. Borehamwood continued to battle on bravely and with three minute left to play scored, ensuring an exciting end to the match. The defence stood firm and when the final whistle blew The Flames had deservedly hung on to a 5-4 lead. 

The Junior Flames lifted the trophy, donated by The Plough Inn, Badbury, for the first time in the competition’s 4year history. Sandra Lewis, the Junior Flames manager, said “ It’s been a great day for the club and a great tournament and it’s been fantastic to play against teams that we don’t normally come up against in regular league fixtures. We’re all really proud of how the team performed against some really top class opposition and we’re be looking forward to the opportunity to play against some of these clubs again in the National Championships at the end of the year”. 

As well as winning the competition outright, The Flames were well represented in the day’s individual awards with both Craig and Shaun Davies making the tournament dream team and Tom Poole winning the award for top goal scorer. 

Swindon Skater Hockey Club would like to thank all players, supporters and officials for contributing to a such a great day of hockey. Thank you and see you all next year.

Above are the winning Swindon Junior Team, L-R Ian Houston (Coach), Tom Ireland, Shaun Davies, Tom Poole, Drew Satchell, James Bayliss, Luke Vincent, Colin Offler, Chris Adamson, Miles Bailey, Craig davies and Becca Lewis

Below photograph is of (L to R) Shaun Davies (team captain and dream team defender), Craig Davies (dream team forward) and Tom Poole (Tournament highest scorer).