Herne Bay Roller Hockey Club U15s made the long journey to King’s Lynn to take part in the penultimate Eastern Counties tournament of the season.

Bay knew that a strong set of results would establish them as firm favourites for the title and were very focused on the job in hand.

The first match of the day was to prove the toughest challenge with Herne Bay vs Peterborough matches always producing exciting, end-to-end hockey.

Bay began well, taking an early two goal lead before a deflected long-range shot brought Peterborough back into the contest mid-way through the first half.  From this point on, Bay began to take control and eventually ran out comfortable 5-1 winners, four of the goals coming from Callum Read-Jones, the other scored by Sian Emslie.

Bay could now play with more freedom in the two remaining matches in testing, hot conditions on a tight rink.  This squad has strength in depth and produced many chances that resulted in a comfortable 9-1 win over Letchworth followed by a 10-2 victory over home club King’s Lynn. Goals were shared across the group of players with Herbie Hudson netting several contenders for goal of the day.

Three wins out of three means that Bay’s U15s have now won all 12 of their matches in this tournament and have built up a very healthy goal difference of +77. With their home tournament still to play in June, Bay require two wins from their final four games to overtake current league leaders Sudbury and claim this EC Intermediates title for the first time in the club’s history.

Squad

Nattie Hopper (captain), Callum Read-Jones, Sian Emslie, Jamie Tritton, Charley Langford, Bailey Smith, Herbie Hudson