Norfolk Hockey Championships at Greshams SchoolHarleston Magpies Under 11 Boys Mini TeamThe Magpies Under-11 boys were very competitive in what is a difficult tournament for the Norfolk club teams.

Norfolk Hockey Championships at Greshams School

Harleston Magpies Under 11 Boys Mini Team

The Magpies Under-11 boys were very competitive in what is a difficult tournament for the Norfolk club teams. There were eight teams competing, four from private schools and four from Norfolk club teams.

Group Games

Magpies 0 Pelicans 0

Magpies started cautiously, and it was Pelis who had the first chance to score, but the ball hit Magpies post and went wide. Magpies then had chances of their own, with Mitchell Tomkins forcing a fine save from the Pelis keeper, and then a lovely reverse stick shot from Kalun Bedingfield unluckily hit the post and went out. Good defending from Barnaby Carless and Jack Frere-Smith helped keep the final score 0-0.

Magpies 2 Town Close School 1

Magpies best performance of the season by far, they pressurised Town Close from the start with slick accurate passing and Sonny Molloy deservedly opened the scoring. Not long afterwards a fine strike from Mitchell Tomkins made it 2-0. Kalun Bedingfield and George Collins were linking up well with the forwards which created more chances for Magpies. Then a slight lapse in defence allowed Town Close to get a goal back, but not long afterwards the final whistle followed to give Magpies a memorable victory.

Magpies 0 Beeston School 3

Magpies got caught out from the start of this match and allowed Beeston to score an easy goal. Magpies battled hard to get back into this game, with George Collins providing great covering work at the back. However Beeston were proving difficult to defend down the left and scored a second. Magpies pushed up to try to get something from the game, but were punished again in the last seconds of the match.

Magpies finished runners-up of their group with four points, which qualified them for the semi-finals.

Semi-final

Magpies 0 Greshams 1

This was always going to be a tough match against the host school, but Magpies were proving to be very resilient. A series of fine saves from goalkeeper Jonathan Coe kept the scores level.

A very painful stick to knee injury to George Collins disrupted the side, but Josh Elgood came on and worked hard to stem the flow of mounting Gresham attacks. Mitchell Tomkins had a great chance to put Magpies ahead, but it was the Greshams' pressure that finally told as they scored the winner with two minutes to go.

Third/fourth play-off

Magpies 0 Dereham 1

Dereham have been the top club team this season, but Magpies competed very well with shots from Kalun Bedingfield and Sonny Malloy both going just wide, either could have given them the lead. But it was Dereham who scored the only goal, managing to find an unmarked player on the back post who clipped the ball over the line for the winning goal.

Team: George Collins, Jonathan Coe(GK), Josh Elgood, Kalun Bedingfield, Sonny Molloy, Mitchell Tomkins, Barnaby Carless(Capt) and Jack Frere-Smith.