Abergavenny Hockey Club’s U15 squad made the short trip to Gwent Hockey Club on a rainy Sunday morning for their second outing of the season.

The junior section is thriving at the moment and as a result the club was represented by 17 under 15 boys in lasts weekend’s seven-a-side tournament, where the club entered two separate teams.

With two weather warnings for strong wind and heavy rain in place, the boys were keen to make a bold statement to the regional selectors, and did so with some storming victories.

The first team played four games, beating Gwent seconds by three goals to nil, Gwent first team by five goals to nil and then Whitchurch by seven goals to one. Highlights included an eight minute hat trick from Taliesin Martin against Whitchurch’s first team. as well as a debut goal for Dan Cross.

There were some outstanding phases of play during the day which included watching Abergavenny change formation on occasions to overload the opposition D with a dominant strike force of Dan Mills and Hollis McGlynn.

Elis Mostyn and Alex Francis used their men’s team experience to dictate the defensive duties for the day, tackling and releasing the ball out of contact, and easily resisting the threat of the opposition.

Meanwhile, Freddie and Archie Oubridge-Brock commanded the wide space well, often running onto balls which were dumped into space by Taliesin Martin and Aran Gersten in the mid-field.

Elsewhere there was some ruthless goalkeeping by in-form player Chris Taylor who only conceded a single goal in three games (this coming from a well struck short corner).

The champagne moment would go to Aran Gersten who slotted his own hat-trick home within nine minutes; his second goal sent screaming into the back of the net from a reverse stick effort.

The Abergavenny second team also had a successful morning; these boys are the youngest of their age group and showed great potential and team development. The side held together well and captained by experienced goal keeper Tom Lane showed some great attacking efforts.

In the team’s first game; Seth Butler and Mathew Brown combined well in defence, Seth in particular showed the power and accuracy that he has with several well directed full pitch passes picking out strikers Will Cleaton and Tom McLean.

Will’s first goal of the day was a stunning deflection effort, this is his third goal in three Abergavenny games, showing clearly that his efforts are not flukes but the result of some great timing and his positioning as a high forward.

Tom McLean’s goal came from a reverse stick strike which launched into the backboard in spectacular fashion. Unfortunately the side lost their opening fixture to Whitchurch B by three goals, but the boys had established themselves as a threat to be reckoned with for the rest of the day.

In their second fixture against Whitchurch B, Dan Cross and Ben Griffiths shone through; showing a clean pair of heals to their counterparts on several occasions in setting up attacking efforts for the Abergavenny forwards. Will Cleaton again managed to find the net on this occasion.

The third fixture of the day proved the side’s most aggressive with some well structured defending and out letting from Mathew Brown. More goals from Tom McLean and Taliesin Martin, well timed passes from Seth Butler and mazy runs from Max Lewis really putting the pressure on the Whitchurch A team. Abergavenny managed to rustle up a 4-3 victory in this penultimate game of the day.

Tom Lane played really well in the final fixture of the day, not to be deterred by the weather, Tom managed to resist three successive short corners in a very close fought match. Ben Griffiths put in a brave jab tackle in the dying stages of the game, Ben is showing huge potential in the side and will be sure to be capped in many bigger Abergavenny fixtures to come.

All in all the day proved to be very exciting and despite the weather some quality hockey was on display.

Abergavenny Hockey Club has a large junior contingent and they are always looking for new members. Please check out their website if you are interested in joining www.abergavennyhockey.co.uk.