Oct 2008 - Morrison's Academy

Page 66 The Morrisonian | 07/08 Sport
Hockey
2nd XI Hockey (cont.)
had the opposite effect on Hilary. She
was playing with confidence and
determination and led the team by
example both on and off the pitch.
Overall the key to their success was
that they were playing as a team.
After the October break normal
service was resumed with two
convincing wins over St. Aloysius’
College and George Heriot’s School.
The latter match was particularly
interesting as Harriet had to be
drafted up to the 1st XI on the
Saturday which left the 2nd XI without
a recognised goalkeeper. Thankfully
Kim Donaldson volunteered to step
into the breach. The girls did a great
job that day of keeping Heriot’s out of
our circle and worked on the theory
that the best form of defence is
attack.
The low point of the season came at
the end of November against
Strathallan School. The girls started off
well but lost a couple of key players in
the first half through injury and in the
second half lost their way and
conceded a number of goals. This first
loss of the season hit the girls quite
hard; however it also had a liberating
effect. No longer were they under
pressure to maintain their unbeaten
run. They got back to almost normal
service with a 0-0 against Queen
Victoria School. Unfortunately we lost
our fixture with Dollar Academy
because of bad weather. The team
finished the year off with an excellent
3-0 win against Trinity Academy.
Into the New Year and the bad
weather struck. The team did not play
again till 1st March and this was a
heavy loss to Glasgow Academy.
However, remember that the girls had
not played for approximately 10
weeks and were away against a very
good astro-based team who were
clinical in front of goal. The final
match of the season came at home
against Madras College and what a
good match it was. Both teams
attacked with great vigour and the
match swung in both directions,
eventually finishing 2-2.
Finally I would like to thank the sixth
years for their years of commitment to
hockey and also thank the parents
who have come along to support the
girls from the sideline.
D Nesbit
Under 16 Midlands Cup
The under 16 team enjoyed an
excellent run in the Midlands Cup
and are to be commended for their
efforts. The team was selected from
girls in S2 to S4, and was ably
captained by Ailsa Laird.
Unfortunately, due to the requirements
of the competition that all matches
are to be played on synthetic turf, we
were not in the position to take
advantage of a home draw in the first
round. Strathallan School offered the
use of their pitch for our game
against Perthshire HC which was a
well fought match with our girls
finishing 2-1 winners. Rachel Adamson
scored a superb goal to seal our win
and Hayley McDermott also helped
us on our way with some fantastic
saves at the other end.
Next up was Madras College on the
pitch at The Community School of
Auchterarder. Our defenders ensured
that the ball was cleared in an
effective and useful way for the
attack and this resulted in an early
goal from Rachel Adamson which
settled the nerves, steadied play and
enabled the girls to play some great
hockey despite the awful weather.
With a 3-0 win we found ourselves in
the final against Glenalmond
College.
Unfortunately Glenalmond proved to
be too strong for us and despite
creating some excellent opportunities
in the first half we turned around 2-0
down. The girls kept playing with
determination and were rewarded for
their efforts with a last minute goal
from Rachel Adamson. Despite the
score eventually being 5-1 I feel this is
not a fair reflection on the girls and
their play and they are to be
congratulated on reaching the final. It
was a great effort from everyone and
an exciting time.
Well done to all and thank you also to
Miss Nesbit for both her umpiring and
coaching.
J Lee
S3 Hockey
The S3 team has had a successful
season despite the bad weather in
the second term. An enthusiastic
group of girls showed up to practices
and training and this evidently paid
off in our matches.
The season began with a 6-0 defeat
by St. George’s School, but we didn’t
lose our team spirit and although we
lost our next match against Robert
Gordon’s College 4-3 it was a thrilling
and exciting game. The score
reflected the determination and skills
shown by the whole team.
The following matches were against
Madras College and Dundee High
School and we recorded victories in
each having taken on board the
lessons learnt from the previous
matches. The team set off in a