After a cancellation in January, this was the first tournament of the season for the U8s, and for a number of our younger players their first ever taste of gameplay against other teams. After a long wait until our games started, we then had 4 games back to back and everyone got stuck in straight away. It wasn’t long before we had our first goal too, as John battled hard to push one in through a lot of bodies. That first game ended in a draw but in the second game Berkhamsted dominated the opposition and scored a couple of great goals by Teddy to get our first win.

The team were started to gel really well now with Teddy and John creating and scoring lots of chances up front, Emilia linking play very well in midfield, William making some superb stops in defence, and Charlotte getting stuck into tackles as well. Teddy scored another couple in our third game and we were unlucky to draw that game when the opposition scored in the last few seconds. Our final game was against Harpenden who we believe had won all their other games and started off confidently against us. However, again Berkhamsted pressed really well and turned the ball over a lot with a very even game ending in another draw (1-1). We ended unbeaten with 1 win and 3 draws, but the most important thing was that everyone really enjoyed the day and the team developed really well over the course of the games. Well done to everyone - a bright hockey future in store for many!!