Reading success in National Cup Finals

Photos courtesy of Reading Evening Post

Reading men won their first piece of silverware in a thrilling encounter against Beeston on Saturday.  After coming second in the indoor and outdoor leagues, and leaving the European Hockey League at the KO8 stage this was the final opportunity for the Blues to add to their trophy cabinet.  At Beeston’s home groun Reading took an earliy lead, but were hauled back in a fiery second half following a stroke from the home side.  With only 3 minutes left on the clock it looked like the game was heading to extra time before two goals in those final minutes gave Reading a 3-1 victory.

Reading made their debut in the Ladies final.  Reading had not progressed to the quarter finals before this season but the Ladies showed they will not look out of place in the Premier division this season after a narrow 1-2 loss that saw them run Bowdon Hightown, the National outdoor and indoor champions close.  Reading enjoyed some early pressure but it was the favourites from Chesire who scored the only goal of the half – even if it was vociferously disputed by Reading who only saw the ball touch keeper Lucy Stevenson in the D and not an attackers stick, but to no avail.  This didn’t derail the side though and Reading equalised early into the second period with a deflected short corner from Becky Odlin that saw Chris Lane clean up in the first scorer auction.  The game remained close and it took a fantastic diving effort from current international Jo Ellis to edge Bowdon Hightown in front and their big game experience saw them through despite a sprited final salvo from the Reading girls.  A fantastic effort from the girls in their first final but a well deserved historic treble for Bowdon Hightown who have had a superb domestic season, and just missed out on a medal in Europe.

You can  find a fantastic double page spread with reports and photos from Dave Wright in TODAY’s (not Thursdays) Evening Post so rush out and get yourselves a copy right now as a souvenir of this fantastic season for the club.  Big thanks must go to Dave for all his work reporting on the club throughout the season and making us look forward to hockey Thursdays each week.

You can read a full write up and much better match report (I believe it helps if you a) watch all of the first game b) aren’t concentrating really really hard in the second game when describing what goes on) on the England Hockey website.

TalkHockeyRadio was also at the event so you can expect photos and interviews to be available shortly.

Finally we were asked to do some video diaries to go with the match footage which will hopefully appear on England Hockey TV at some point so keep your eyes peeled!

Thanks once again to everyone who made the journey up to Nottingham and endured the howling wind and sudden downpours to support the teams and the club on this special day.  Apologies to all those who had to put up with our noisy Lambrini fuelled celebrations on the bus on the way home!