Midlands Triumph in U18 Inter-Districts Indoor
Posted by on 13 February 2017
SUCCESS FOR MIDLAND AT U18 INDOOR INTER-DISTRICTS
13 February 2017
Midland won both the boys’ and girls’ U18 Indoor Inter-District competitions at Bells Sports Centre in Perth.
The girls’ competition got the day underway in both halls, with the matches set to be a tight affair between all the teams. In the first round of fixtures South put in a strong performance to beat North 5-1; South were in impressive form and clocked up five different goal scorers in the match. Then in the second game Midlands’ Emily Dark scored six goals in an impressive 8 -1 victory over East; Kirsty Jeffries scoring East’s goal.
West took on North in their first game, and a very competitive first half saw North take the lead in the first minute through Katie Charles. West then pulled back a goal through Margery Justice in the third minute. The game was end-to-end for the rest of the half with North finishing one goal up at 4-3. After the restart West seemed to inject some more pace into the game and took their lead to 9-4 to claim the three points.
In the clash of East versus South, East looked in control as they went up 4-1. Three of the goals were scored by an exciting Ella Watt. South made an impressive comeback to tie the game at 4-4 with their final goal coming in the 28th minute to secure a point.
The boys’ competition then kick-started with West taking on North, and in a fiery affair West took the lead 4-0. West had two players in the sin bin but managed to stay composed enough on the pitch to keep a clean sheet.
Midland then showed a strong performance against East. They took advantage of some ill-discipline within the East camp when one player received a green card followed by a yellow in the first half. Captain of Midland, Cameron Golden, scored five of his team’s nine goals, while the only East goal came from James Stuart.
In the girls’ competition, West increased their points tally with a strong performance against South. Margery Justice increased her goal tally for the day to seven when she clocked up four goals in this game. South scored through open play to deny West a clean sheet, and the game finished 7-1 to West.
Midland continued their goal scoring endeavours when taking on North. North started well and scored their first goal in under a minute for the second game in a row. Midland however could not be held, and nine out of ten Midland goals came from open play - the tenth coming from the spot. The game finished 10-3, meaning Midland and West topped the table on points with their head-to-head fixture next on the card.
The boys’ competition continued with Midland displaying a dominant performance over North. The Golden brothers tallied up a massive 14 goals between them in a match that ended 16-4. North’s goals came from a Christopher Moon hat-trick and a single from James Morrison.
When East met West the game started with a penalty stroke inside the first three minutes when an east player stopped the ball on the line with his body. The game was close throughout and at half time the score was 3-2. East then stormed ahead with three goals in quick succession. West resorted to a kicking back but couldn’t rein in the East lead and the game finished 7-6 to East.
Back with the girls’ competition, and it was time for the clash between the top two teams as West took on Midland. Both teams had taken wins from their previous matches and set this game up to be a highly competitive affair. At half time West looked to be in control with a two-goal advantage, however Midland came out fast after the break to score three goals in two minutes to take the lead. Marnie Richmond managed to slot in a goal from open play in the last two minutes of the game for the points to be split between the teams.
Then East took control of their game versus North, taking a three-goal lead by half time. A penalty corner conversion by Ella Watt in the second half settled the score at 4-0.
The final round of boys’ matches saw two high scoring games; East v North was an exciting affair at 9-6, as was West v Midland at 5-10. The final standings within the boys’ competition saw Midland finish first, East come in second place, West in third, and North fourth. The Byte Most Valuable Player award, voted by coaches, was Ewan MacKie from East District.
The final matches in the girls’ competition saw East take on West, with Margery and Kayleigh Justice scoring the five goals of the game to claim second place in the competition. Midland showed their goal scoring ability once again to finish their final game with seven goals to South’s one. The final standings in the girls’ competition was decided on goal difference, and saw Midland finish first, West finish second, South come in at third, East in fourth, and North finish fifth. The Byte Most Valuable Player award, voted by coaches, was Emily Dark from Midland district.
More Photos from Girls event: https://duncolm.smugmug.com/Hockey/Indoor-Interdistricts-17-Girls/
