Schools quick off the mark in hockey competition
It was an action packed day of hockey as the South Cambs School Sports Partnership welcomed a record entry of 45 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.
Teams from the 27 schools taking part were organised with their A teams playing in a Cup competition and schools B, C and D teams playing in a Plate competition. Teams then played in a round robin format, playing all of the other schools in their pool in quick 7 minute matches.
The event was part of the county wide School Games programme with the top 4 schools qualifying to represent South Cambs SSP at the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough School Games Spring Festival on Thursday 22nd March where they will take on the winning schools from Cambridge, East Cambs & Fenland, Huntingdonshire and Peterborough.
There were plenty of competitive matches and close scoring games across the 6 pitches as the Year 5 & 6 children gave it their best effort to do well for their school team. At the end of all of the matches which were umpired superbly by the sports leaders from Comberton Village College the winning schools qualifying for the county finals were Swavesey, Harston & Newton, Elsworth & Meldreth.
In the plate competitions meanwhile it was the B teams from Linton Heights, Harston & Newton and Steeple Morden that came out on top and were delighted to receive their winner’s medals.
Claire McDonnell, South Cambs SSP Partnership Development Manager said:
“It was great to see so many children playing and enjoying the game of hockey and it was nice to see a number of new schools taking part for the first time.
Quicksticks is a great introductory version of the sport with children playing in 4-a-side mixed teams. There are no goalkeepers and the game uses a slightly bigger and lighter ball. All of which makes the game more accessible to primary schools and much more fun and enjoyable for the children with lots of end to end action and generally plenty of goals.”
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 the teams from Bar Hill, Coton, Fen Drayton & Steeple Morden. Steeple Morden’s award was nominated by a sports leader and given for ‘working well as a team, always encouraging one another, thanking the umpires at the end of matches and always trying their hardest no matter what the score’.