Saturday, 9th October, saw the fourth running of the annual Despontin Trophy, a 7-a-side hockey tournament for U11 and U13 players. In total, 16 teams competed from schools all over the region.
The U13 team had a wonderful start to the tournament, scoring very early on in their first match against St Johns-on-the-Hill. Although they battled tirelessly in attack, they could not score another goal and despite some outstanding goal keeping from Caitlin, St Johns-on-the-Hill scored in the final minutes to level the score at 1-1.
In their second match, HMSG faced The Cathedral School, Llandaff. The team used the width of the pitch extremely well and some excellent man-to-man marking by Christina and Pippa ensured an easy victory. Against a very strong team from The Elms, the defence worked consistently well and some superb tackling from Jodie and Laura saved many goals. However, The Elms ran out clear winners and consequently were runners up in the whole tournament.
The Downs, Malvern College Prep School provided an excellent challenge and some clever work by Becky on the wing helped maintain possession for HMSG. The whole team pulled together and there was a huge sense of spirit, which helped HMSG win this match 1-0.
The team waited nervously whilst the points were added up and unfortunately missed the semi-finals by just one point. Overall, it was an excellent performance by HMSG and one they should be very proud of. Well done to Christina, Laura, Pippa, Jodie, Caitlin, Laura, Becky, Noa and Annabel.