Any extra pounds gained by the excesses of Christmas pudding and mince pies were soon worked off when, on 27 December, Director of Hockey Mr Sam Mee teamed up with OBs from last year’s 1st XI, Charlie Axford (13-19), Isaac Pearson (11-19), William Barnes (11-19), Felix Mallalieu (08-19) and Tom Blythman (08-19) , along with our current 1st XI captain and 1st XI goalkeeper to compete in the Indoor Hockey UK Adult Championships held at the Copper Box Arena at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
This was the first time that the team, who went under the name of Eagle HC, had played together and for two of the boys it was the first time that they had picked up their hockey sticks since their heart-breaking defeat in the England National Cup Final at the Olympic Park in May of last year.
After losing by two goals in their first game to previous national champions Marlow HC, they ended up finishing second in their group, which saw them go into the bronze medal crossover game. A tough game ensued, but they took the victory, which saw them take third place overall.
The game was a great way for recent leavers to team up with current boys, and the experience was also quite unique for Mr Mee, who is more used to coaching these boys than playing with them. Jokingly, he said that he thought he might have been able to take a back seat and let the boys do all the running for him, but on a serious note he told us, “It was great to see them applying the things we spoke about during their time at school, and to be able to play with them after coaching them for three years was good fun – especially when they were telling me the things I normally moaned at them about getting wrong!”
Team photo credit: dephoto.biz
