Sevenoaks School U16 Girls did themselves proud at the National Schools Championships Finals last Thursday and Friday when they finished with a win against Millfield to secure themselves in the top six sides in the country.

In an exceptionally talented age group the standard of hockey played throughout the two days was outstanding.

Match 1 v Ipswich School
Sevenoaks played against Ipswich School for the third time in the competition, the previous matches being a win to Ipswich and a draw. Sevenoaks took a while to wake up, conceding an early goal as the ball was tapped in at the far post after a speedy break down the right hand side. Polly Lambert in goal then displayed an unbelievable amount of brilliance as she made save after save to keep the score at 1-0.

After ten minutes, Sevenoaks finally came to life and responded by building some exciting attacks. Captain Lily Elliott was ever lively and dominating, while Lizzie Seeley, Tash Farrant and Harriet Barker all put in fine performances. These passages of good play were eventually rewarded with a well-taken goal from Ellie Desmond who decisively put the ball in on the left-hand post.

Knowing this would ultimately be a crunch match in deciding who would proceed from the group straight to the Final, both teams played exciting, attacking hockey as a number of chances were created at each end. Sevenoaks perhaps had the lion’s share of play and were denied on a number of occasions from the Ipswich defence and keeper.

In the second half, Sevenoaks went down to ten players after Lawson saw yellow for plucking a high ball out of the air with her stick, but despite this the team still had a number of good chances. Later, Ipswich managed to win a penalty corner, of which Lambert expertly denied the initial shot but could not stop the ball rebounding with spin to go over the line. Sevenoaks fought hard to come back and press for an equaliser but were disappointed to run out of time as the hooter sounded.

Match 2 v Oundle
Refuelled and re-energised for their second match, Sevenoaks came up against the well-organised side Oundle. Lucy Lawson got the team of to the perfect start when she finished off an excellent Sevenoaks attack down the right hand side as Sophie Lesseps set the ball perfectly back towards the penalty spot from where Lawson swept home into the bottom left corner.

Oundle fought back with gritty determination and were rewarded with a goal to level the scores. Sevenoaks pressed on once more and once again took the lead with a well executed penalty corner as Elliott powerfully fired from the top of the circle. Showing good resilience, Oundle continued to work hard and despite a number of rash stick tackles which the umpires failed to penalise, they once again levelled, much to Sevenoaks frustration.

With a draw looking probable, just one minute showed how quickly a game can change. With Sevenoaks piling more pressure on Oundle, Claire Somerset was bundled over in front of goal as she received the ball and a penalty stroke was awarded with just three minutes remaining of the game. Unfortunately the Oundle keeper was equal to Elliott’s shot and a quick 16-yard hit was taken. Oundle sent the ball rapidly into Sevenoaks defensive circle where Lambert, despite another incredible performance, could do nothing to stop the player at the far post finishing the counter attack.

Sevenoaks tried desperately to find a reply but with so little time left the minute had proved costly to Sevenoaks bid to reach the final.

Match 3 v Millfield
With simply pride to play for on the Friday in their last match of the pool, Sevenoaks did just that and put in a gutsy display against Millfield School. Dominating from the start and looking increasingly threatening, Sevenoaks put a huge amount of pressure on the Millfield defence and won a number of penalty corners. Frustratingly, Sevenoaks failed to convert any of these but continued to try and find a way past the keeper with some brilliant attacks. Millfield were limited to just a couple of chances with Lizzie Seeley, Nicola Wilkinson and Emma-Jane Gordon running a tight ship in defence, and Christiana Bickley having an excellent game at left midfield.

In the second half, Sevenoaks hard work and effort was finally rewarded after a superb break down the middle of the pitch. A lifted ball into Megan Annetts was un-penalised as the umpire looked to give Sevenoaks the attacking advantage and some quick thinking from Harriet Barker saw a gap open for Sevenoaks. Barker drove with real purpose forward to the top of the circle where she threaded a superb pass to Desmond on the left base line, who in turn set the ball precisely into the stride of Lawson who made no mistake with scoring her second goal of the tournament.

Sevenoaks then worked tirelessly for the remaining seven minutes to deny Millfield the opportunity to equalise. The result meant Sevenoaks finished 3rd in their pool and ultimately are placed in the top six teams in the country. Ipswich School battled it out with Wakefield School in the final and eventually lost on strokes after deadlock in the game, showing again just how tight the competition was.

Despite losing two incredibly tight games, the squad certainly displayed their talent and have every potential to be back fighting for the title next year.

Squad: P Lambert, E Seeley, N Wilkinson, E-J Gordon, F Keevil, S Venables, P Young, L Elliott (C), H Barker, N Farrant, S Lesseps, E Desmond, C Somerset, L Lawson, M Annetts, C Bickley