24 January 2017
Abingdon School welcomed Eton to Tilsley Park this weekend, although not in the ISHL League system, the matches have always been very competitive with a lovely brand of hockey played. At Tilsley Park the U15s were up first, with the sun shining, lots of parents on the side line it was shaping up to be a wonderful afternoon. The U15 Bs, played a fantastic match, leaving everything they had on the pitch, with stand out performances from Oliver Botting and Patrick Heath, they battled hard against a strong Eton team. Unfortunately Eton sneaked one in which led to a wonderful finish to the game, with Abingdon pressing hard, the boys just couldn't put away their chances. With a minute left, Abingdon created a short corner, with hearts in mouths they played a wonderful move, just to see the ball cleared off the line. Eton win, 1-0. What a game to get started!
Up next was the seniors, the 1st XI off the back of a convincing win against St Edward's, faced a good Eton side. The team started off incredibly well, pressing hard and creating three/four good chances in the first ten minutes. After a consistent period of pressure Abingdon scored through a good step and finish from Max Carter Keall. However, this was not the end of Eton, they came back strongly and equalised five minutes later after some very good individual skill. With the two teams locking horns, it took some magic from Archie Andrews at the far post to finish off a wonderful move down the left hand side. The question is could the spectators take any more of this fast paced attacking game? Well they were going to have to, two minutes before half time Eton scored a penalty stroke, followed by Abingdon running down the other end and scoring their own flick, courtesy of Max Carter Keall, 3-2 half time (everyone take a breath!).
The 2nd half continued at this pace, Eton flew out of the blocks, scoring a short-corner after some questionable tackling by Abingdon. With the score at 3-3, it was a tense final 15 minutes; step up Aran Johal, a well worked attack saw a corner for Abingdon. With a bullet of a flick, Aran wins the match 4-3 for Abingdon. What a finish.
Along with these two scintillating matches there were impressive wins for the U16As, U14As and U13As. Overall a fantastic weekend against a very good hockey school. We look forward to another big fixture against Radley this weekend, the U13 County Cup on Friday and matches v Stowe on Wednesday.
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