COLTS

Beeston HC hosted these championships on Sunday January 29th a fortnight after the girls event and once again it was a marvelous effort by the whole club.
Thanks to the older colts Emily Hancock, Hannah Price, Lucy Stephenson, Claire Meddins, Russell Bingley, Matt Allcock, Sam Cathie, Dan Bingley and Jack Kerr who were involved in umpiring, timekeeping and stewarding; parents David Charlish who  umpired and Adam Stephenson who manned the gate again this time getting a special mention from Grosvenor headmaster Charles Oldershaw in the presentation speeches; club members Anne Linsdell, Les Morrice, Alan Postlethwaite, Andy Smith, Mike Price, Vic Gram Hansen, David Lyneham Brown, Kev Jackson, Ian Sutton  and  Martin Keeling who all helped with umpiring and or coaching; former colts coordinators Pete Fenton who umpired and Eileen Hartley who acted as tournament director; to the players who all represented the club in a sporting manner;to their parents who supported all the Beeston teams in the tournament and to our club patron Peter Hanah who presented the U13s with their medals.
Illness and unavailability took its toll on the Beeston teams with every team losing players most notably Ollie Atkin (U11MK) ended up in hospital! We hope that he is now well on the way to recovery.
U13 Boys: This event was switched to the morning to accommodate the midland selectors. Beeston(DLB) played well, beating Players 1-0 in their opening match but the private prep schools proved too strong for this predominantly U12 team and they lost 0-5 and 0-4 to Grosvenor and Ranby House who then progressed to the semi finals. Beeston(MK) had easy wins over Newark 11-0, Dukeries 6-0 and South Notts 3-0. Ashfield proved harder as they defended well and were coached by Ben’s Dad, Clive, who knew the Beeston team very well as he is also the county coach; Beeston won 1-0. In the semi finals Beeston(MK) destroyed Grosvenor 8-0 and Ashfield drew with Ranby 0-0 winning 2-1 on penalty strokes. The final was a repeat of the Beeston/Ashfield group match with Beeston having the majority of the play and numerous short corners. Ashfield defended well with everyone getting behind the ball. The Beeston boys did not help themselves by not varying their short corner routine to the despair of all those watching. The final score was 0-0 and the penalty shoot out was nailbiting, some parents could not bear to watch. Thankfully Beeston emerged as 1-0 winners and so go on to defend their Midlands title in April.
Team(DLB) Rhys Stevenson, Will Jackson, Josh Robinson, Sarbpreet Singh Hundal, Michael Lavelle, Zac Menzies, Jake Trembling, Joe Pierce and Jack Marriott.
Team(MK) Jon Allcock, Ben Morris(11g), Bradley Prince(5g), Ali Postlethwaite(3), Charlie Willars(2g), Marcus Hooper(5g)Capt, Jack Howard(3g) and  Jack Simpkins.
As County Champions Beeston go forward to represent Nottinghamshire in the Midlands Championships in April.
U11Boys: Both teams contained several young or inexperienced players and this was compounded by illness on the day. They played well against older stronger teams and this will be valuable experience for them for next year. Beeston(VGH) beat Players 1-0 and drew with Dukeries 0-0 before losing to West Bridgford 0-3 and Grosvenor 0-5. Beeston(MK) lost to strong school teams Lowes Wong 0-2 and St Peters 1-3 an then narrowly to Newark 0-1.
Team(MK) Callum Swift, Josh Dixon(1g), Ben Trembling, Ben Neville, Katie Hopkisson, Sam Gauntley, Jordan Homer, Rowan Elston and Richard Carlisle.
Team(VGH) Jessica Whitworh, David Marks, Anthony Ross, Tom Kerr, Arran Abbiss, Cellan Griffiths(1g), Mark Lowes, Tom Gorman, Charles Howarth and Anthony Ross.
Additionally Gareth Griffiths(6y) and Tom Neville(7y) came to the rescue of the Players/Nottm Highfields team on the day and played in their team.
Grosvenor School beat Lowes Wong School 2-0 in the final to become County Champions.

Our U13 boys travelled to Cannock full of hope after beating Belper in their pre tournament warm up games the previous week. Beeston were without Alex Clarke Dowson who had gone on cricket tour but Marcus Hooper had returned from skiing. However disaster struck in the first game against Campion when despite constant pressure Beeston did not score and conceded a breakaway goal. The boys were not helped by the inexperienced umpire but still should have turned their superiority into goals. They were very lacklustre in their second match letting Lichfield go 3 goals up before pegging them back to 3-2, a case of too little too late. Beeston won their next match against Bilston Grange 1-0 but failed to make the semis. In the 5th place play off the boys at last played to their form beating Loughborough Grammar 3-0. Hopefully they will all remember how disappointed they felt at their under performance and learn that nothing is guaranteed until you have put the ball in the back of the net….. Belper won the tournament!! Beeston Squad: Jonathan Allcock, Jack Simkins, Charlie Willars, George Osborne, Ali Postlethwaite, Bradley Prince, Jack Howard, Marcus Hooper and Ben Morris. Manager: Martin Keeling.