Slazengers under-tens maintained their unbeaten record for the season by winning the West Yorkshire Mini Hockey Championships at Weetwood in Leeds.
The Slazengers youngsters had triumphed in their two previous league competitions this season to be ranked top club side in the county for their age group.
And they followed up by winning two and drawing one of their matches in the Mini Hockey knockout tournament to seal one of the top two positions that earned a place in the Yorkshire finals.
Boys U10’s – Alex Stacey
Slazengers laid a firm foundation for that success by winning their opening round-robin game 6-1 against Leeds – despite starting a man short due to congestion in Leeds caused by the Abbey Dash athletics event.
Alex Stacey scored the first two goals before Charlie Bland added the third with his first touch after finally beating the traffic and taking his place on the pitch. Stacey went on to complete his hat-trick and Bland made it a personal double, with Will Gascoigne wrapping up the tally.
Keeper Aidan Coughtrey was unlucky to be beaten by a deflection in that match but was rarely troubled again as he was well protected by his defence of Fraser Cass, James Sanderson, Matthew Royston and Tommy Randle.
Gascoigne and Stacey scored to earn a 2-0 win against Wakefield in the second match and Slazengers’ goal difference was such that they only needed a draw against Ben Rhydding in their last game to finish top of the table.
They duly played out a 0-0 stalemate to achieve that feat, with opponents Ben Rhydding joining them in the Yorkshire finals in March as the second-placed team.
