SECRHA U13 League – The Bay Arena 23 November 2014

 The SECRHA U13 league started the season with Herne Bay United’s home tournament.

 There are 5 teams in the league this season with HBU, 2 teams from Herne Bay club, RHC Invicta and Maidstone.

 HBU’s all conquering Under 13 team of last season are now playing Under 15 so HBU is making a start on getting the new team together and they got off to a promising start beating RHC Invicta 10 – 1.

 The matches of the day proved to be a set up for the final clash between HBU and Herne Bay 1.  This proved to be an old-style Derby match and a single goal from Sian Emsley playing for Herne Bay this season proved to be the clincher.

 HBU Team(goals): Harrison Raven (capt), Jamil Faye, Charlie Turner, Tristan Quinney, Archie Isaacs(3), Lewis Cakebread(5), Fionnbarr Parkinson-Terry(6), Max Bassom(3).

 Team Manager, Clive Bassom commented “I am very pleased with the way the team performed. It’s a new team with some players with experience but some only started playing the sport at the end of last season. I am very pleased with the work rate and Fionnbarr did exceptionally well against the older and larger opposition. I look forward to the next tournament”.

 SECRHA Secretary, Ron Barker commented “SECRHA is proving very competitive this season and Under 13 is a critical point in a player’s development. You can see what a good job the clubs are doing and I am sure that they are taking what they have learned in this tournament back to their training sessions and it will just get better as we go through the season”.

REPORT- SECRHA U/16 Tournament 16th Nov 2014

Herne Bay United started the 2014/15 South Eastern Counties U16 campaign, gaining three wins during an exciting day’s hockey.

HBU have a strong squad this season and the players selected for this tournament demonstrated why there is competition for places.

First up for HBU were local rivals Herne Bay, who had spoilt HBU’s undefeated record with a narrow victory at the end of last season. This time HBU started positively and found themselves 4-0 up at half time. The 2nd half continued in the same manner and HBU extended the lead before conceding a late goal to start the day off with a good performance and an 11-1 victory.

In the 2nd game against a less experienced Maidstone team, HBU went 4-0 at half time to run out victors 8-0.

The final game of the day proved to be the most exciting with HBU against RHC Invicta. The Invicta side set themselves up to keep a tight defensive formation and catch HBU on the break. This worked well with HBU unable to convert opportunities through a combination of great keeping, strong defence and poor finishing. Invicta worked hard to catch HBU on the break and against the run of play Invicta were 2-0 up at half time.

The 2nd half saw the same pattern of play with Invicta extending their lead to 3-0 with HBU making individual errors leading to chances for Invicta. The 3rd goal drew an immediate positive response from HBU who worked the ball quickly to create a shooting opportunity and a top corner finish reduced the deficit- 3-1. Continuing to press, HBU scored a 2nd and relying on great keeping to keep them in the game HBU managed to equalise & in the last couple of minutes took the lead for the 1st time 4-3.

3 wins achieved in different circumstances, a great start to the season and a reminder of the standard required to compete. All players contributed to these results with all the outplayers getting on the score sheet.

HBU Team: Jack Thomas(GK), Harrison Raven(GK), Jamie McVey(C), Oli Hudson, Josh Butcher, Will Parkinson- Wellard, Matt Lawrie, Cameron Lawrie, Noah Latham

RHC Invicta Herne Bay United Nov 15^th 2014

Herne Bay United moved to the Top of the Premier League this week with a comfortable win against RHC Invicta.

United were quick to get on the score sheet with Brendan Barker getting the first inside four minutes. United were not chasing the game and with a solid man to man defense were being disciplined in this allowing Invicta very little opportunity to break through to United’s goal and anything that was coming through, Kristoff White was comfortably dealing with. United’s next goal came from Tom White at around the 8 minute mark and again Invicta had little answer. Invicta were by no means making this one easy for United and even with the opportunities that United were getting they were being kept back. Barker got his second of the match after 16 minutes and United saw out the half 3 – 0 in front.

The second half was much of the same for United and Barker with his third of the game set the scoring off in the half and then followed about four minutes apart were goals from Karl Smith, Fabio Vicente, Neil Austin and Tom White with his second of the match. United now 8 – 0 in front and looking comfortable, they lost the clean sheet with just over a minute to go with Invicta’s first goal from Pete Halverson and then on the buzzer a 10^th team foul gave Invicta a chance with zero on the clock but Marc Vidal finished nicely and the score finished as 8 – 2 win for United.

Brendan Barker commented after the game; “we are pleased with the win and we worked hard on our discipline today knowing we have some tough games coming up, unfortunately we lost concentration at the end but many positives to take forward”.

Herne Bay United have a double header next weekend on the 29^th November against Letchworth and then on the 30^th they play the England Project squad both at the Bay Sports Arena Herne Bay.

HBU: Team List: Kristoff White (gk), Karl Smith(1), David Martindale, Fabio Vicente©(1), Josh Branchett, Neil Austin(1), Tom White(2), Brendan Barker(3)

Roller Hockey National Premier League 8/11/2014

Herne Bay United were ‘away’ to Halifax last weekend in their 4^th Fixture of the season. Halifax returned the Top division this season and have had a string of close results one of them being a win against Letchworth.

United should win this fixture but could not take that for granted and would need to give everything from the start. United did exactly that and fortune was really rolling their way with Brendan Barker getting a string of quick goals from the off that really gave them the half they needed. Halifax got the last goal of the 1^st half but United had a 6 – 1 lead.

The second half was a much closer game with goal’s going both ways, and the goals from United were spread across the team, Halifax found more opportunity as they changed the pace of the game and combined with United relaxing with a comfortable lead, gave Gerlac Berga Sarra from Spain the chance to take advantage and got 4 in the second half, however it was to late and United ran the match out comfortable winners 12-6. United will take a number of positives from this performance as well as some areas they need to work on, however Josh Branchett continues to impress and Jordi Saldana from Reus Spain made his debut for United.

After the match Brendan Barker said: “it is always hard to play these matches after travelling a long distance in the car, but we did what was needed and the ball really fell for me, it was just one of those days, I hope we have a lot more of.”

HBU’s next fixture is against RHC Invicta at the Bay Sports Arena this Saturday at 7:45pm on the 15^th November 2014.

Team List:

HBU: Eddie Mount(gk) Karl Smith, Josh Branchett(1), Jordi Saldana, Tom White(1), Neil Austin(1), Fabio Vicente©(2), Brendan Barker(7)

Halifax: Chris jones, Chris Maltby(1), Gerlac Berga Sarra(4), Tom Wallis©, Ryan Davies, Conor Colbert, Scott Brant, Albert Lopez(1) Manager: Pete Atherton