Ulster Hockey 2nd XI McDowell Plate’ final

Grosvenor’s 2nd XI girls’ hockey team, pictured following their narrow defeat by Wallace High School.

Congratulations to Grosvenor’s 2nd XI girls hockey team which performed superbly to reach the final of the ‘Ulster Hockey 2nd XI McDowell Plate’, losing narrowly to a strong Wallace High School side in the final, held at The Pavilion, Stormont on Monday 9th March.

The team’s place in the final came after an impressive series of displays in the earlier rounds, with the girls defeating Dromore High School in the second round of the competition, Coleraine Grammar School 2-1 at the quarter-final stage and Omagh Academy 2-1 in the semi finals.

In the final itself Grosvenor began promisingly, taking the lead early on before Wallace fought back to equalise from a penalty corner. Following an evenly contested first half of the contest, the third quarter saw Wallace threaten in the form of five or six penalty corners, although Grosvenor continued to pose a goal threat of their own, with three or four excellent opportunities presenting themselves from open play, which the GGS girls were unfortunately unable to convert. In particular, Neve Armstrong was unlucky when, having dispossessed an opposition player in the GGS 25, she ran the ball all the way to the Wallace circle but was unable to get her shot away. Likewise, Tia Cashma-Hooke also fared well to get herself in a one-on-one position with the Wallace goalkeeper, only for the ‘keeper to deny her with an impressive save.

Despite going toe-to-toe with their esteemed opponents for much of the match, the wind was taken out of Grosvenor’s sails when, with just three minutes remaining at the end of the final quarter, Wallace found the back of the net for the decisive goal: a disappointing way to end what had been an extremely evenly-contested encounter.

Well done to all members of Grosvenor’s 22-person squad who represented the school so well throughout the competition: it was a group of mixed ages and the experience of the older girls helped keep the younger girls’ feet on the ground, while the optimism of the younger girls gave the older girls the belief that they could go all the way.  

Each and every member of the squad, along with their coaches, should be incredibly proud of their achievements this season and hopefully it will give many of them a foundation to go on to even grater things in Grosvenor colours next year!