Garvey boys are crowned NI champions

It was a superb morning for the Lisnagarvey Under 11 boys last Sunday as they were crowned Northern Ireland champions when they took part in the Ulster Hockey finals days at Ballymena.
Lisnagarveys A Team celebrate their win.Lisnagarveys A Team celebrate their win.
Lisnagarveys A Team celebrate their win.

Three teams represented the club and all three progressed to at least the quarter-final stages.

The A team reached the final and defeated Cookstown 2-1 in a tightly contested game.

Successfully progressing from their group, the boys needed penalties to defeat Inst in the semis.

Advancing through to the final Garvey came up against Cookstown, who they had drawn with in their first group match.

A seesaw game saw Garvey take the lead only for Cookstown to level shortly after.

Further great team play saw Garvey deservedly retake the lead and despite Cookstown pressure Lisnagarvey A’s held on to take a very fine and well earned win.

Garvey B’s were up against Annadale, Armagh, Inst Bs and NICS. Results of 2 wins, a draw and a loss saw them deservedly progressing to the Quarter finals.

The B’s had drawn avery strong Instonians A team and unfortunately went down to a 2-0 defeat.

The C team, made up of mostly P6 pupils, and one from P5, won 2-0 v Cliftonville; won 3-1 v Raphoe; lost 4-2 v Ballynahinch. The lads lost 2-0 v runners-up Cookstown in the Quarter final.

Totally undaunted by the task that lay ahead, this young team did themselves and LHC proud by reaching the Quarter Final knock out stages of the “cup” only to be defeated by a strong Cookstown side and eventual Runners Up.

The final group match against a “mature” Ballynahinch side to decide who topped the group, was undoubtedly the performance of the day managing to score 2 excellently worked goals from Robbie Mayne and Tom Archbold.

The boys played a talented Cookstown side in the Quarter finals who earlier had a 2-2 draw with Lisnagarvey’s A-team and eventual winners.

The young side found themselves 1 down early on despite the valiant efforts from Ellis Shanks.

Garvey took the game to Cookstown and were unfortunate not to equalize.

A further goal from Cookstown sealed their fate but they had proved to themselves that the extent of young talent in Lisnagarvey continues.

It is very likely that the next generation of “Murray”, Daniel, will follow in older brother Sean’s footsteps.

The club would like to thank the coaches, organisers and umpires for a very well run tournament.