The Sidmouth and Ottery Hockey Club (SOHC) girl’s Under-16s played their first games in the England Hockey Junior Championships.

SOHC hosted a triangular tournament that also involved Bournemouth and Plymouth Marjon.

First up against a well-drilled Bournemouth team, SOHC found the going hard and would have been more goals down at the interval but for an excellent display from goalkeeper Millie Guy. A tactical change at half-time, that saw extra bodies in midfield, gave SOHC a foothold in the game for the second half. There were some notable individual performances, particularly from Amalie Tavener, Jasmine Scott, Millie Jarret whilst up front Frankie ‘Brucie’ Forsyth and Fran Piper, but the Hampshire side took the match honours. Despite the defeat, the SOHC girls can be very proud of their resilience and attitude, never giving up and remaining positive throughout, despite the quality of the opposition.

In their second game, against Plymouth Marjons, SOHVC once again trailed 1-0 at half-time.

In the second half, boosted by some terrific defending from Ella Davies, excellent man marking from Eleanor Bradshaw-Smith and some driving forward runs from the midfield and forwards, SOHC gave as good as they got for long periods. However, Marjons were swift to punish any errors and scored two more goals to win the game.

Thanks to Heather Scott for doing the refreshments and getting the team together and to Mike Dutton and George Powell for umpiring.