Last Sunday, Brighton & Hove Hockey Club were hosts to the biggest junior hockey festival to date. 41 teams from 9 Sussex hockey clubs descended on the Neville Playing Fields to be part of the Brighton Christmas Junior Hockey Festival.

Over 300 children played 30 matches throughout the day in their best Christmas Hats, and the weather almost held off!

Brighton U10 Boys did very well coming runners up out of 9 teams having not lost a single match with Brighton U10 Girls beating Lewes by one goal difference to the first place!
Brighton U12 Boys and Girls had a tougher tournament in their A an B groups, but also only lost one or two matches altogether.

Graham was brilliant in feeding 300 kids and their parents in the club house and Alan Gray and Atul Patel organised umpires for the 6 hours of the matches.
Wendy Russell and Sorcha Lee expertly managed the control desk recording the scores and keeping everyone to the schedule.

This is the feedback from one of the clubs that took part:
"Your young umpires were excellent and really encouraging to the children.
Our youngsters got the chance to play so much hockey at a level accessible to them. The A and the B groupings were a really good idea.

Although they placed lowest of our teams, our very little under 10 boys (many 7 and 8) made the biggest progress. It was an amazing experience for them. We have had lovely feedback from their parents about your tournament and organization. They felt it was really inclusive and encouraging to give a player award per team. The hot dogs for the kids and hot drinks were described as an unexpected treat"

Claire reported on behalf of the U10 girls:

"What a set up - Well done Masha, fitting in so many matches for all the age groups!! The tournament was fabulous and the players and managers got into the Christmas Spirit! Elves on the goalposts and festive hats all round!"

"A big thank you to Tournament helpers - Masha, Sorcha Matthew, Susie, and help from the Umpire team. They put together an ambitious schedule of 81 games and kept up the Christmas spirit despite the wind, rain and cold! The U10s managed to win their own tournament on goal difference by one goal!"

"The U10s had a mean defence that kept 5 clean sheets in nine games, conceding only 4 goals and scoring 10 goals!"

Brighton v East Grinstead 2s 0-0 :"A clean sheet from the players. Good defensive play from Josie who kept the ball out of the goal a lot!"

Brighton v East Grinstead 1s: "Lost 0-1.Ivy in goal made some great saves to keep it to 1-0 loss with great defence from the rest of the team!"

Eastbourne v Brighton: "Won 1-0. Sorrel scored a great goal and both Honey and Josie made some accurate passes and strong tackles. Two quick stops in succession from a GK Ivy with fantastic support from Josie gave us our 2nd clean sheet of the Tournament."

Burgess Hill 1s V Brighton: "Won 3-0. In what proved to be our best game of the tournament, Sorrell scored another brilliant goal that began when she received the ball from Tessa with her back to goal. Honey and Eliza then combined for Eliza to score. Beatrix played well in Midfield, assisting two goals. Eliza braved a ball to the face to come back and score her 2nd goal of the game!"

Brighton v Burgess Hill 2s: "Won 3-0. Izzy got close to breaking the deadlock before a nice link up from Tessa and Livvy saw Livvy score the first goal. Livvy then scored another with an assist from Beatrix before Izzy rounded off the game with a third goal for the U10s."

Brighton v Horsham: "Won 2-1.A lovely save from Ivy kept it 0-0 before a powerful shot from Eliza made it 1-0 followed by a goal for the team. Tessa worked hard in midfield, supplying the forwards with some good balls and supporting the defence. This was a great team effort to beat a well organised Horsham team."

Brighton v Lewes: Lost 1-0. "Another exciting game with good ball control from Honey. She kept the ball away from the opponents and was quick to move up the pitch."

Brighton v Crowborough: "Drew 1-1. A good save from Ivy and a great stop from Livvy kept it 0-0 until Izzy scored a fantastic goal only for Crowborough’s forward to equalise with the final ball of the game. The girls were rightly disappointed; one point didn’t reflect the effort that the team put in to win this."

Brighton v Lewes 2s: "Drew 0-0. Another close game with good team spirit and Beatrix moving well into space."

"A great way to finish with medal presentations with teas in the clubhouse - well done Graham for feeding all the hungry players!!"

An excellent tournament all round!