Herne Bay United travelled to Farnham for their 3rd National Division 1 Tournament of the season with the aim to remain on top.  HBU have over this season been in a good position as a club with a large amount of selectable players in Premier League and National Division 1, also with a good amount of Under 17’s also available for selection in National Division 1. 

HBU first faced the England Ladies selection which is a very young team with many new players on a steep learning curve. The game though was a very comfortable United win of 10-0, the Ladies showed much promise with a well structured defence they have the building blocks to improve.
United’s goals came from: Phil McVey 6, Paul McVey 2, Brendan Barker 2.

HBU’s 2nd match of the day was against Halifax and expected a harder resistance from Halifax being a potential League Title contender with the squad who had two season previously been in the top flight. This was to be the case and with a tighter affair and a much more physical match United by half time were 3 – 1 leaders. The second half started in Halifax’s favour and they brought the game back in reach at 3-2, the score remained for a period but with around 8 minutes to go United suddenly clicked into gear and team were finding there feet and gelling. United in the last 8 Minutes scored 6 goals and the final score finished 9-2 a comfortable win.
Goal’s came from: Phil McVey 3, Paul McVey 1, Brendan Barker 6.

Final game of the day for United was East Grinstead and again United should be winners but East Grinstead have shown that they can be a team that can cause an upset. However United started where they left off and really finding their feet and with some Hockey that was very slick. Paul McVey started the scoring with a couple of goal’s that you would have seen in the Premier League some 20 years ago. The younger players of the day Lewis Greenwood and George Kohler had shown good parts throughout the day but they were much improved in this match and as much as anyone being a contributing part of the team. Lewis Greenwood finished a lovely flick in the top corner showing the potential he has. The first half finished 9-1 to United. The second half was comfortable and United had stepped off the gas but again continued to do enough and the game finished 12 – 3 to United with the goals coming from: Phil McVey 3, Paul McVey 2, Brendan Barker 6, Lewis Greenwood 1.

United set out the season to use National Division 1 as a mixture of experienced players and young players with the aim to win the League or at least challenge to help each age group with a number of their goals. HBU goals: Premier League players for selection need to remain match fit and support the younger and older players in ND1 to be a form of support in their development. Under 17’s our aim is to bring these players as with all our young players in the Academy to feed and prepare these to be at the level needed to play Senior Premier League.
By playing in ND 1 they are learning to play a more physical hockey against experienced men, they are playing with experienced players and refining their skills to be able to do what they need to under pressure and put into practice what we are training to do. The HBU Veterans in 2013  are holding a prestigious European Tournament called the EVRICUP which has players and teams taking part that were previously taking part in the top division teams in Spain, Portugal and Italy so there will be some real stars from the history of Roller Hockey.
Now with our aim to do as well as we can in this tournament it is planned over the next few tournaments to be preparing this team for the EVRICUP taking place in Herne Bay from the 29th May for 4 days, the players eligible for this are any who are 35 plus.

 

 

 

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