After weeks of intensive training (and some last minute panicking!) the time came for the U11 Competition which was held at the Commonwealth Hockey Pitch at Belle Vue Leisure Centre in Manchester on 16th April, 2005. The aims of the U11 Competition were to provide a development event for young umpires and to provide a development event for players incorporating the STIX skills. Our star U11 players were:-
| Girls Squad | Boys Squad |
| Hannah Coulson Patricia Pace Claire Higgs Emma Higgs Clare Wallace Jane Wallace Emma Woodhead
|
Sebastian Brierley Colin Elcock Kyle Gavin David Hall Cameron Meadwell Richard Pheiffer Nathan Sutton Calum Stewart Jack Wright Josh Wright |
Both our teams contained players of mixed abilities due to their age and length of time they had played hockey so we went into the competition to do our best to represent Stockport and to enjoy the event. The Saturday morning commenced with the STIX skills and all of our players took part in timed activities to attain an award. The games then commenced. The girls had a mixed bag of results and given they had a ‘volunteer’ goalkeeper did well to keep a few clean sheets. But it wasn’t enough and they just missed out on medals by 1 point! The girls came 3rd overall. The boys however took the tournament by storm and it went down to the last match against Bury. It was end to end hockey and then Stockport were awarded a short corner. Kyle Gavin moved up from defence to the edge of the circle and when the ball was delivered did not hesitate to plant it right in the back of Bury’s goal. Not only did the boys win Gold medals they were also presented with the fair play award.
Well done to Hannah Williams, Laura Woodhead, Natalie Sutherland and Susan Elcock who all successfully completed their young umpires qualification during the tournament.