Fun in the sun at quicksticks hockey competition

It was an action packed day of hockey as the South Cambs School Sports Partnership welcomed a record entry of 44 teams into their annual Year 5/6 Quicksticks Hockey competition. In order to accommodate all of the entries, the competition which took place at Comberton Village College, was split into a morning and afternoon event. Both sessions were organised with school A teams playing in a Cup competition and schools B, C and D teams playing in a Plate competition.

Glorious spring sunshine welcomed the 11 schools as they arrived for the morning competition which was played in a round robin format with teams playing all of the other schools in their pool in quick 6 minute matches. At the end of the group matches it was the teams from Guilden Morden and Linton Heights that qualified for the cup final. The final was really competitive with end to end hockey but Guilden Morden, who were playing in the event for the first time and are one of the smallest schools in the Partnership claimed the winner’s medals with a narrow 1-0 victory. The plate final was contested by the B teams from Milton & Bassingbourn and again it was a 1-0 score line with Bassingbourn claiming the victory.

The ‘Spirit of the Games’ award that recognises the team that has shown good sportsmanship and best demonstrated one or more of the sporting values of respect, determination, teamwork, honesty, passion and self-belief was awarded to Bar Hill A team for showing good support to their team mates and displaying honesty with the umpires. In the plate competition the sports leaders judged the Meadow B team as the winners for showing great self-belief and determination to despite losing their first of the tournament quite heavily.

With the mornings matches done and dusted it was a quick tidy up and fast turnaround before another 24 teams descended for a repeat show in the afternoon! Again there was some good hockey on display with the matches being played a quick pace. The cup competition proved to be extremely close with 3 teams (Histon & Impington, Coton & Harston & Newton) finishing the group on 10 points. With a superior goal difference though it was last year’s county finalists Histon & Impington Juniors that qualified for the final where they came up against a strong Jeavons Wood team. The final was played at great intensity and with a high standard of play from both teams. In the end a single goal won it for Jeavons Wood.

In the plate competition Steeple Morden B team overcame Histon and Impington C 2-0 in the final to take the winners medals with a 100% record. The spirit of the games awards went to Meldreth A team for showing good teamwork and support from the side-lines and Steeple Morden C team who were nominated for always giving 100% effort and being very respectful to the opposition and umpires.

Claire McDonnell, South Cambs SSP Partnership Development Manager said “It was great to see so many children enjoying the game of hockey; it was certainly a full on action packed day and there were some really competitive matches. You could definitely see an overall improvement in the standard of play this year with much closer shorelines than we have had in the past.
I must thank all of the leaders from Comberton Village College who helped us to run the event on the day; umpiring the matches, organising the results table and helping to coach some of the teams. They did a great job and we couldn’t have run the competition without them!”

The teams from Guilden Morden, Linton Heights, Jeavons Wood and Histon & Impington Juniors will all now go forward to represent South Cambs at the county School Games Summer Festival on Thursday 29th June. We wish them the best of luck.

FULL RESULTS

Morning Competition

Afternoon Competition

Please visit our facebook page to see further photos from the event.