East Lothian Hockey Makes Tournament History
For the first time in the history of the Scottish Hockey annual Interdistrict Hockey Tournament, East Lothian hockey joined forces with Borders hockey to form their own district.
Until this year there have only been five districts represented at the tournament, East, West, North, Highland and Midland. For years hockey players from East Lothian have had to battle their way through the East district trials to try and make the cut. It is a hard task. Many of the boys come from schools in Edinburgh and far outnumber those that represent East Lothian. Few make it. So when they do it is cause to celebrate. For the second year running PAIS athlete and Knox Academy pupil Alex Riddell, made the East district squad, which is a massive achievement for Alex who also trains with the East of Scotland hockey performance squad.
This year however East Lothian Hockey Development Officer, Fiona Harfield joined forces with Borders Development Officer Janet Jack to form a new district to compete on the centre stage. Borders East Lothian (BEL). The 16 strong-squad descended upon the National Hockey Centre at Glasgow Green on Sunday 10 May to rapturous applause from friends, family and the other districts, all eager to see the new kids on the block.
Seven East Lothian boys made up BEL. Three from PAiS (Performance Athletes in School), the East Lothian Sports Performance Programme – Hamish Walker (NBHS), Cameron Pike and Calum Nicolson (DGS) and four from the East Lothian Development squads – Charlie Gates (Kings Meadow PS), Max Walker (NBHS), Rowan Armatage (DGS) and Jake Inglis (Dunbar Hockey Club).
The very young squad was up against East first, which was a hard match. The team started really strong but were eventually overpowered by the experience East team were far more experience at playing competition hockey at this level than BEL who lost 0 – 8. Their next opposition was Midland. This was a much better game with BEL scoring two goals. The game finished 2 – 7. The last game was against Highland. BEL was the stronger team and attacked the Midland defence for the entire game but could not convert any of their shots against the keeper into goals. The game ended 0 – 0.
The support for the young squad was fantastic throughout the day even although the weather was wet and wild. The boys did their community and schools proud and look forward to taking on the districts next year.
