Reading U18 Boys Farewell in Holland

After some 4-5 years playing together as a group with major successes including an U15 and an U18 National Cup plus a variety of Mercian South League titles (usually at the expense of Canterbury), Paul Westacott felt that they deserved a “holiday” trip as a “swansong”. The Hague was chosen, with a secondary view to proving to the England Hockey performance Director, David Faulkner, that not all that plays in Orange is necessarily always best.

Having survived a very early morning start, creating the beginnings of sleep deprivation, and thereafter early reconnaissance of different bits of the Hague the Boys joined Canterbury as England’s representatives at the Hague International Hockey Tournament – for Peace & Justice.(THIHT for those that can say it – particularly later in the evening).

The first evening saw a gentle run out against the French followed by what can described as a “good night out” – curfews and corridor patrols not deemed necessary for Readings “responsibles” – whereas the Hague Polizei would have been needed in addition to 8 Adult Coaches to keep the Canterbury boys and girls apart and/or in the Hotel!

Next morning, breakfast was pretty grim for many, and our match against the host club, Klein Zwitzerland was a low point in hockey terms. Performances across the board were poor – and we were, in the end, fortunate to grab a 4-4 draw 5 mins from the end – although with a little less help from one official, we might actually have stolen it! Hangovers set in and, in hot conditions, the second game was viewed with trepidation.

Luckily, the Austrians felt they owed us so much respect that they decided not to leave their own half in the first 10 minutes – so that rhythm was established along with an early 2 goal lead – leading to a pleasant ramble to 7-0

Buckets of water, a couple of visits to far corners of fields, and skilful use of limited quantities of Nurofin saw the emergence of some smiles, in time to play Kampong – deemed the strongest of the Dutch. An excellent game that should have been secured – Beckett’s radar was still a bit “off” – and Dan actually never touched the ball in the field of play in a 2-2 draw – but what a drag flicker they had.

The final game of the day was against more Dutch – this time from HGC. No issues, and the band wagon kept moving (4-0), leaving us joint top with Kampong overnight.

Then it was dinner and party-time. One person wanted to go home after half an hour, but we managed to last it out for 4 hours drinking (slowly?) beer, to the extent that there was little serious interest in further night excursions into the Hague – sleep being opted for by most (albeit only after a 12.30 Hotel return).

On the return journey, the Hague International “Bus Singing” competition final was also secured, against the Austrians, with various cutting and incisive renditions led by senior chorister Rob Farrow. “Shut up – if you lost 7-0” eventually did the trick – although the Vienna boy who produced an Austrian “Moon” does not know how lucky he was that Beckett did not have a stick to hand – the target was tempting and definitely too big too miss!

The Canterbury corridor patrols were in full swing again when we got back, but Readings “Sensibles” used the previous nights experiences (well mostly) to retire to bed dreaming of victory.

Faces were a little brighter on Sunday morning, although prizing the Harding, Francis, Prosser combo out of their room proved harder than getting Reading’s bar open on a Tuesday night. The Austrian drag flicker produced his own version of an unstoppable flick which caused certain problems with it being in reception – an event which did not help our departure.

Sundays hockey consisted of a routine win over more Dutch – 4-2 over HDM this time and then the luxury of playing Canterbury with them having to beat us 3-0 to eject us from the Final. Canterbury crossed into our half only 3 times in the first half – but led 1-0 until parity and a comfortable draw was secured by a screamer from Ben Cook.

Landey had unfortunately lost both hair brush and comb, but with the resulting new hairstyle became some kind of cult figure for the entire Canterbury girls team

So – the final – against Kampong, the best Dutch side there, apparently containing 4 U18 Dutch Internationals. Watched by an expansive but very educated crowd, the Blue Machine (having to play in white), following the now perfected 4 minute “nearly” warm up, only stuttered into action and after 5 minutes or so found itself behind to a deserved goal following a fair bit of pressure.

Digging very deep, strength was found in adversity and, spurred on by Ro Kapoor, an outstanding piece of skill and perseverance on the left by line saw Lewis P level matters with a routine Frank Lampard type goal – in off a defender. A few minutes later Chris N belted in a cracker on the reverse and the machine was rolling.

Straight after half time Beckett crashed in the first of two – but at 4-1 back came Kampong with an incredible spin/drag flick combo to put them back in the game. Their drag flicker was exceptional – one went over the bar hit the fence stanchion behind and rocketed back onto the pitch before Dan screamed “that’s gone”, but all further efforts were resisted and the “Ding” ran our 4-2 winners.

Overall, a great weekend and an excellent Squad performance. We scored 31 goals in 8 x 40 minute games, albeit conceding 11 – remarkably (but not surprisingly given season long evidence) only 2 of those scored were from Penalty Corners. Dutch Observers congratulated us on our behaviour, our flowing style of hockey and the “creation” of our goals. Rohit was awarded “male player of the tournament”.

Our discipline was exemplary once more (even though Lloyd felt he was not going to hold himself back once he found there was no “Fair Play” award) and we can report no yellow cards – and the only greens I remember was Chris C – for having his shin-pad fall out and being done for littering the pitch and Chris N for falling over on an over watered area of pitch, although there may have been a couple more. Pats on the back all round.

The Squad: Tim Atkins, Dave Beckett, Tom Bowlby Pearson, Chris Cattermole, Ben Cook, Rob Farrow, Dan Field, Lloyd Francis, Dave Harding, Sam Howells, Rohit Kapoor, Ed Kelleher, Alex Land, Chris Newman, Lewis Prosser, Pete Roseff., all ably led by Paul Westacott.

The Results

Vs Lille Metropole H.C. (France) 5-0

Vs HC Klein Zwitserland (Holland) 4-4

Vs AHTC ASKO Vienna (Austria) 7-0

Vs Kampong (Holland) 2-2

Vs HGC (Holland) 4-0

Vs HDM (Holland) 4-2

Vs Canterbury (England) 1-1

Vs Kampong (Holland) – Final 4-2

Peace reigned – and Justice was done!