By Mariela Walton, Teacher of Girls’ PE & Games

This week the first XI travelled to Southampton to participate in the Hampshire Trophy Tournament, a competition which brings together a number of Hampshire schools to compete and win their place at the regional event.

Our first game was against King Edward’s School Witley, and after a slow start, the team warmed up and Marthila Douglas secured us our first goal. Not long after that, Nell Freeborough gave us our second and third goals, and our final goal came again from Mathilda.

A quick drink break and then we were back on against Ryde. Eliza Goodfellow was extremely threatening on the right, continuously driving the ball up the pitch with pace and providing us with countless attacking opportunities. Despite dominating most of the possession, we just couldn’t quite get the goal. However, the team managed to hold Ryde to a 0-0 draw until the final nail biting seconds, when Ryde was awarded a short corner. An unbelievable reverse stick lifted ball save from Shanklin Mackillop-Hall cleared the ball from the circle and let us walk away with the draw.

Next up, we faced Peter Symonds who are always strong. Bedales went out hard from the start and some outstanding distribution from Alisia Leach allowed us to launch a relentless attack on the Symonds defence. Resident goal scorer Mathilda Douglas got her name on the score sheet again, meaning we just needed to hold off Symonds for the remainder of the game, which we were able to do thanks to some strong defending from Bella Doyle and Hannah Mazas.

Our final game was against Churcher’s. Both teams hadn’t lost a game and the match would determine who won the tournament. Bedales dominated from the outset, but both teams were determined and worked with high intensity. Emma Nelson stepped in to defend, and was solid in her tackles and consistent in her distribution, which moved the ball up the pitch, and eventually saw Mathilda score her fourth goal of the tournament. Thomasina Rowntree dominated the left side of the pitch, preventing Churcher’s attacking down the right hand channel, and after a very tense 25 minute match the Bedales team walked away with a 1-0 win.

This put Bedales in the top spot for the tournament and saw us walk away with gold medals, as well as an invitation to the Regional Tournament, which will take place in November at Woking Hockey Club.

A fantastic day out for all and some exceptional hockey on display from all of the Bedales team. However, particular mentions must go to Eliza Goodfellow and Shanklin Mackillop-Hall who were both superb.