Essex Finals 2020

Magpies everywhere!

Getting my early morning coffee I glanced out of the window and there they were. 1…2….3… of them, what was the rhyme? One for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl…. 3 for a girl…. well that was great for the girls, but what about my boys?

Into the car and we passed more of them on a verge; 1,2,3,4,5............ 5 for silver? No not silver where was the sixth! Not to be seen we needed 6, 6 for gold. But no more!

The car carried us away from our homes in Braintree, Dunmow and Felsted. As we neared our venue for the day the skies became dark, and cold rain drove into our faces. The Essex finals were upon us, for the winner glory, but for most of the teams this would be where the season ended. Only the top two teams would live to play another game, only those two teams would be able to represents Essex against the best sides in East Anglia and, as fate would have it our hosts for those finals ; The Magpies of Harlston! The birds that had mocked us on the journey were now goading us to come and get them!

The Blue Hornets boys have really developed this year It has been a pleasure for me to coach them, they have the ability to play some superb hockey and have the firepower to score a lot of goals. The Essex Finals were their chance to really show the county what they were capable of.

Game One - Crosstyx (a team we hadn’t played all year.)

The instruction was to be aggressive from the start, the forward line of Alex Mulley, James Malthouse and Zach Frater-White were asked to take the game to Crosstyx and backed up by Zach Johnson they quickly took the lead and after no time at all it became 3-0. Two goals from Zach Johnson and one from James Malthouse put the game out of reach. The only blemish on the game was an injury to Zach Johnson who only managed half of the game.

Game Two - Old Loughts

Blue Hornets had played a number of games against Old Loughts over the course of the season and had come out on top in all of them. Two quick goals by Zach Johnson and James Malthouse put the hornets in a good position before Old Loughts grabbed a goal back. The Old Loughts goalscorer celebrated in incredible fashion and it was great to see the opposition enjoying the moment in what must have been a really tough season for them. Alex Mulley wrapped up the game for Blue Hornets making it 3-1. Again Zach Johnson was unable to complete the game and he was joined by Harry Cross who had to be taken off after taking a knock.
So far so good 2 wins from 2 games and next up were Waltham Forest.

Game Three – Waltham Forest

We knew nothing of Waltham Forest other than a year ago at the same tournament Blue hornets won a hard-fought game 1-0. Hornet had to reshuffle quickly with James Malthouse dropping into defence and Charlie Knight playing centre forward. Waltham Forest started on the front foot and were excellent going forward they scored a very well worked goal showing what a tough game this would be. Hornets then managed to get the ball forward to Charlie Knight who drove forward into the D and unleashed a powerful shot to equalise, it was a fantastic finish and on any other day would have been “goal of the tournament”. What then followed was real end to end hockey, George Nichol in goal pulled off some superb saves, Austin Hill and Aaron Hughes made match winning tackles and James Malthouse cleared the ball off the goal line when it looked certain that Waltham Forest would score. At the other end Zach Frater-White and Harry Cross had some excellent chances before Waltham Forest scored their second goal. But the Hornets boys didn’t give up, they piled pressure on the opposition and got their reward when Alex Mulley equalised and the game ended 2-2.

After the game the boys knew they had been in a battle, they had heard that Waltham Forest had won their first game 4-0 (against Chelmsford) and they had already done the maths. Waltham Forest were likely to win all of their other games and then it would come down to goal different. The boys had a 15 minute break and they watched some of Waltham forests next game against Old Loughs, they saw three goals from Forest in five minutes. It looked like the competition might belong to them. Unless we could win big against Chelmsford in the final game.

Game Four – Chelmsford

Last game and the boys gave everything James Malthouse opened the scoring before Alex Mulley scored a quite remarkable goal, he drove a fierce shot on the edge of the D from what looked like an impossible angle. The boys kept creating chances, James Malthouse had a terrific shot blocked painfully by a Chelmsford knee. Harry Cross went close and there were a successions of short corners before Alex Mulley scored his second goal of the game and Chelmsford helped finish the game with an own goal.
4-0

That was it! The games had finished, the scores were being totalled up and the final tables produced. The boys figured that Waltham Forest had won, they had seen the goals they had scored in their early games and guessed that they had won their final game against Crosstyx comfortably.

The presentations began.

In fifth place………….. Old Lought

In fourth place………. Chelmsford

I knew what was coming…

In third place….

But what was that, on the empty pitch fluttering onto the crossbar of one of the goals?

Not one but two magpies. One for sorrow…….TWO FOR JOY!!!!

In third place .. Waltham Forest!!!!!!

The boys looked at me. I looked at them!

What had happened?

Crosstyx must have beaten them, and if Crosstyx had beaten them it must mean BLUE HORNETS ARE CHAMPIONS!

The Under 10 boys have been crowned Champions of Essex and will now compete on behalf of the county and the regional finals in April.