A squad of seven made the trip to Nottingham to represent Hertford in the Boys Under-18 section of the annual Indoor Hockey UK tournament. With very little preparation, no coach, only 1 sub, and team made up entirely of first year under 18’s, the omens weren’t great for the challenges that lay ahead against the cream of UK indoor hockey. The boys, however, didn’t seem to have received the memo and got off to a flyer in the first round pool matches. Cambridge City were brushed aside 2-0 with a solid performance and against West Herts, they raced in to a 3-0 half time lead and held on to win 3-2 after a spirited opposition fight back.

Finishing top of their first round pool, they were then matched with the winners of the other 3 pools to contest the top 4 tournament places. The team battled valiantly and were not outclassed at all in close games versus Surbiton and Teddington but Trojans, the eventual winners, turned on the style at the end of a long day in the final match.

There were many positives to take from the 4th place finish with exceptional performances and effort from every one of the players, some of whom hadn’t picked up an indoor stick in a year. They had held their own against well-drilled big clubs, with much larger squads, and perhaps most impressively had done it all under their own leadership.