15 March 2009

Shropshire U17 Girls Hockey Team were celebrating their success in the Midlands Regional Hockey Tournament this weekend.

The girls had trained hard and played well in their preparation matches, under the direction of coach Lyn Murphy.  Historically Shropshire have never been able to turn that winning streak into results in the final tournament.   That all changed on Sunday when, in brilliant sunshine in Birmingham, the talented girls produced some stunning performances to get to the final.   The road to success was hard fought with qualifying wins against Staffordshire, Worcestershire and a draw against  Warwickshire leaving the Shropshire team  needing a draw against Nottinghamshire  to go through to the semi-finals as group winners.  Notts scored a quick goal but in a nail biting game with some excellent goal keeping, the strength of the Shropshire midfield showed and after consistent pressure the girls clinched the equaliser from a beautifully executed penalty corner to go through.  The semi final  was against Leicestershire and the standard of hockey was once again very high.   In an end to end game with the players drawing deep from  energy reserves the team showed tremendous spirit to hold their nerve and with 2 minutes to the final whistle they scored  from another  penalty corner to win 1-0.   The final was to be against Derbyshire, reigning national champions for the last 4 years.   Unfortunately the role of giant slayers was not to be for the Shropshire girls who were proud to be presented with well deserved silver medals.