West Bridgford Monarchs Hockey Club 2nd Eleven finished off a superb season for the Nottingham based Club, by winning the England Hockey National 2nd Team Trophy on Sunday 15 April 2012. The final was held at Cannock Hockey Club in the West Midlands where they played Lewes from Sussex, who were also last year’s runners up.
A tight game with limited clear goal scoring opportunities ended without a goal being scored, and went to golden goal extra time, before Will Good scored the winner for West Bridgford towards the end of the first period. This was the first National trophy won by the Club, and topped off a great season for the 2nd eleven, captained by Nick Robinson, as they were also crowned Midland 2nd Eleven champions in the Midlands Regional Hockey Association league.
It has been the best ever season for the Club, who currently have thirteen adult league (9 men’s and 4 ladies) sides playing in the Midlands and Nottinghamshire leagues. Out of these thirteen, nine of the sides were either Champions or Runners up in the 2011/2012 season which has just finished
West Bridgford Monarchs Men’s first team play in the Midlands Premier league, which is just one promotion away from National league. They came second to run away leaders Khalsa, inflicting on Khalsa their one and only defeat of the season, and ended with a first team Club record points total, and equalled their best ever finish.
The Ladies first team play in the Midlands Region Hockey Women’s League, and they wait to see whether their seventh place finish is enough to maintain their current league status.
The successes of our adult sides are mainly due to the large Junior Section run by the Club each Sunday morning. We enter sides at a variety of age groups in either local friendlies or in England Hockey competitions, and have also have a number of boys and girls selected for the Nottinghamshire County Squads
The biggest successes this season came from our Boys U18 side who were National Runners up in the England Hockey U18 Plate. They beat the U18s of England Hockey National First Team Champions Reading on flicks in the semi-final and set up an all-East Midlands final against Belper which was played down in Oxford. West Bridgford School pupil, Richard Lloyd-Mills opened the scoring on 3 minutes for Bridgford but by half time Belper had turned the game around and eventually won 3-1. The Club also entered a Girls U12 side for the first time this season, and they did remarkably well making it to the Midlands finals and just missing out on a semi-final place
The Club is now gearing up to be ready for extra interest being shown in Hockey following a hopefully successful campaign at the Olympics by the Great Britain Men’s and Ladies Hockey sides. We are organising a number of events over the summer encouraging young and old to take up the sport again. Details will shortly be posted to our website www.wbhockey.co.uk. Interest levels have already been raised by HRH the Duchess of Cambridge visiting the Olympic Hockey Pitch and picking up a stick, and the Club also receives regular Tweets from one of its former players, West Bridgford girl Helen Richardson, who is one of Great Britain’s most capped players and hoping for selection this summer.
