The Repton Men’s 1st XI may well have played their last game of the season. They travelled to Bowdon on Sunday for the quarter-final of the England Hockey Tier 2 Championship with the home game transferred to Bowdon due to lack of pitch availability in Repton. We are very grateful to Bowdon HC and their Chairman, a former Repton School pupil, Bill Ball for hosting this game. Another advantage of travelling to South Manchester was a reunion with the Bellin family - Matthew played for the Men’s and U18s teams last year and is now playing for Bowdon and father David, a photographer, provided some excellent action photos of the game: www.hockeytoday.co.uk We are always pleased and grateful to see David on the side-lines with his camera!
The opposition travelled from the Isle of Man where they are the leading hockey team on the island and have a thriving sports club. Cronkbourne were never short of energy and worked hard to put pressure on Repton however five minutes into the game Repton won a PC which Simon Claris converted. Two minutes later Cronkbourne responded with a goal of their own which lifted their spirits and drive. Billy Collins finished a close range effort after 15 minutes before Xavier Teyletche gave Repton a 3-1 lead in the 17th minute. This period was the most competitive of the game and both sides created chances although Cronkbourne’s penalty corner was not converted as their flick went wide. Martin Jones provided the fourth Repton goal in the 28th minute. Cronkbourne came close to pulling one back but Jeremy Nelson stood firm making some critical saves, especially in the last few minutes of the first half.
In the second half Repton’ s superiority started to take a toll on Cronkbourne as the pace of the game and skill of Repton came to the fore. Six unanswered goals were the Repton reward with Jones adding his second two minutes into the second half, which was a bullet of a half volley and Claris adding two more from penalty corners. Ben Clague and Dom Bennett scored in quick succession with virtually identical reverse-stick finishes. James Johnson made his mandatory appearance on the score sheet with a goal in the final minute. Aaron Hibell was a constant thorn in the Cronkbourne side whether in attack or in his defensive play and was well supported by Captain Joe Fell. The solid back line of Claris, Lloyd Madsen, David Exley and Thomas Nash functioned well as a unit and James Smith solidified his position as the ultimate team player providing a number of assists and managing to hit the post once. The one disappointment was the couple of cards picked up by the Repton players in a game they dominated as this is something they have worked on removing from their game. A convincing win but the team acknowledged there is room for improvement in certain aspects should they get to play again this season.
The reward is a semi final vs Plymouth HC away. Obviously we wait to see what England Hockey determine regarding the continuation of this competition.