Petersfield under 10s travelled to Southampton to take on the county's best sides and a format new to most of the team. The In2Hockey tournament is played on a bigger pitch than most minis' matches with a goalkeeper in full kit and some of the rules of adult hockey.

In very warm temperatures Will Nicholls bravely stepped into the breach and donned the keeper's kit for the first time. The opening game saw Petersfield take on the hosts and, despite a fairly close game, suffer a 3-0 defeat. Lessons learned from the first match, the team upped their game against Basingstoke and were unlucky to narrowly lose 1-0, despite the running of Rory Morris and Seb Gray.

Petersfield saved their best performance against Havant. A 0-0 score line didn't do justice to the great hockey from both teams. Nicholls made three outstanding saves to keep Havant at bay, aided by some strong tackling from Florence Wassenberg and Robert McKenzie. With huge effort from Harry Standbridge, who ran his socks off in every match, Elliot White had a number of runs into the opposition D, just to see the final pass go astray. The Havant defence also blocked three goalbound shots from Max White.

The final group game had Petersfield face up to a very strong Fareham team who had won their first three games, scoring three in each. With the heat building, Standbridge hobbled off. Archie Maughan-Taylor and Henry Plewes continued their hard work in the middle of the pitch but a smaller Petersfield side struggled against bigger opponents. Despite a couple more excellent saves from Nicholls, Fareham maintained their record, registering another 3-0 victory and topping the group.

So no goals and no wins, but a valuable experience and a keeper who marked himself out as one of the best in the tournament.

Squad

Seb Gray, Archie Maughan-Taylor, Rory Morris, Robet McKenzie, Will Nicholls, Henry Plewes, Harry Standbridge, Florence Wassenberg, Elliot White, Max White