By Kevin Boniface, Head of Hockey

Wednesday evening’s hockey fixture saw the girls’ U15 side host Alton School. With a number of enforced changes, this was a new look side and presented a good opportunity for some U14 players to play up an age group. It was therefore encouraging to see the Bedales side make the early attacking advances and play forward with confidence. After a sustained period of attacking play, Bedales forced a penalty corner which was neatly converted from the top of the circle by Iris Biles. 1-0 Bedales at half time.
 
As the game progressed it was clear to see that the new look Bedales side were becoming increasingly settled, working as a more cohesive unit – much of this being driven by the inside forward pairing of Tilly Wall and Clara Stannah. Having said this, Alton were not without threat going forward and on a number of occasions Bedales were thankful for the presence of Tilly Baty, who calmly dealt with any danger and regularly converted defence into attack, and from one of these she released the impressive Rosy Riley down the right hand side who accelerated around two or three Alton defenders before calmly passing to Clara to slot home.
 
The game was put beyond down inside the final seven or eight minutes as Annabel Peskett neatly finished at the back post to put Bedales 3-0 up. An excellent performance and a special mention must go to Ella Von Bodecker who performed incredibly well in an unfamiliar position, giving the Bedales a stable structure to work from.