On Sunday 21st October Stratford’s U14 girls took part in their first ever England Hockey Championship, playing against Banbury and Old Sils. The tier 3 competition is set up so that the clubs play each other in a mini tournament format with each team hosting one tournament. The girls had never played together in a team before and for many it was their first opportunity to play hockey with their peers at this level. For this reason the players were tried out in a variety of positions with Abbi Briggs showing great promise in defence and Alannah Swift showing great skills in Midfield. Abbi Brennon also shone in defence, when previously used to playing as centre forward. Livvy Finch battled hard up front to get away a number of shots and creating a number of short corner opportunities. Captain for the day was Izzy Lambourne who had helped the ladies 3 secure their first league win on the previous day and Izzy Briggs showed great positional awareness. Imogen Hill read the game well and intercepted some great passes to enable Stratford to press forward and support Hannah Curtis who got a much deserved goal in the second match. Izzy Montandon had a fantastic morning in goal making some amazing saves including diving at the feet of an attacker and flicking the ball away to prevent a goal.