Community Relations hockey blitz

Funding for the project was provided by Community relations funding.

It was a beautiful day for playing hockey with no rain! One hundred and eighty children turned up eager to get their matches started.

The children involved were from Good Shepherd, Sacred Heart, Ballougry, Fountain, Eglinton and St Columba’s Primary Schools. The kids were divided up based on age.

Hockey Players from local senior school, Foyle College helped to umpire matches and support from Derry City Council Sports Development Staff helped to keep things running smoothly.

Primary six and seven were on the Astroturf pitch before lunch. A new surface for most of the kids, as training in the schools was carried out on tarmac playgrounds.

The pitches were divided up so that eight games were able to be played at any one time. The kids were in teams of 6/7 and this led to some fantastic small-sided tustles; skills and training paid off as the children showed off how to dribble, tackle and pass accurately.

Primary’s two, three, four and five were also on a new to them surface and played their first four matches on the all weather facility. The kids were very enthusiastic and by the time the hooter went for lunch, the kids really needed a good rest.

It wasn’t long before all were rehydrated and re-energised and ready for the final three fixtures. At this point the Primary 2/3/4/5 swapped to play on the astroturf facility and the Primary 6/7 moved to the all-weather pitch.

Team Happy and Team Diversity were the outright winners on the day and the event as a whole was extremely successful and well supported by everyone involved.

The Project would like to thank St John’s Ambulance for being on hand to deal with any problems that occurred.