LAST weekend Abergavenny Hockey Club's U13 boys made the trip to Swansea to participate in the South Wales finals in which they were up against Gwent, Swansea and Whitchurch.

Their first match was against local rivals Gwent. Gwent started strongly and attacked from the off. Resolute defending from Alex Francis and Taliesin Martin along with Tom Lane in goal ensured no early score from Gwent. Abergavenny soon found their touch and the game was end to end and neither side was able to score in the first half.

Abergavenny stepped up the pace in the second half with George Rice forging forward from midfield and being awarded a short corner. With Elis Mostyn, George Rice and Archie Oubridge Brock lined up to attack the goal, Fred Oubridge Brock injected the ball through to George Rice who with a thunderous, clean strike gave Abergavenny the lead.

Abergavenny continued to create numerous chances and a second goal came from Elis Mostyn to bring home victory with a final score of 2-0 to Aber.

Next up was Whitchurch, again another strong side with whom Aber have had various battles throughout the season. Whitchurch started very strongly and got an early goal. This woke up Abergavenny and with runs up the wing from Archie and Fred they attacked in abundance.

Daniel Mills and Alex Francis kept firm in defence and thwarted any Whitchurch attacks. Abergavenny were able to equalise the score with a goal from George to go in at half time 1-1.

Abergavenny started the second half as they left off by attacking and, if not for some great saves from the Whitchurch keeper, would have scored many more goals. Instead of which, a shot in the dying seconds of the final half, created by great interplay from Elis enabled George to hit his shot high into the goal to score the winner just before the final whistle to win 2-1.

Aber's last match was against Swansea. Abergavenny knew they had qualified for the Welsh Finals but were after the crown of South Wales champions and to do this they needed to win. The game started slowly but Abergavenny soon found their feet and started to create chances. Unfortunately the boys were unable to convert these into goals and Tom, along with Daniel and Alex, kept Abergavenny's defence solid. At half time the score was goalless. The boys came out raring to go and looking for the win they stepped up the pressure on the Swansea defence. With time ebbing away and a draw looking likely, Fred, Archie, George and Elis combined to push forward and gave Elis a goal scoring opportunity which he duly took. Swansea kept up the pressure and were awarded a couple of short corners late in the match but Abergavenny held firm and took the win 1-0.

At the presentation at the end of the matches there was delight on the Aber's lad faces when they were crowned South Wales Champions.

Captains Elis Mostyn accepted the trophy on behalf of the Abergavenny team of Tom Lane, Taliesin Martin, Alex Francis, Daniel Mills, Chris Taylor, Archie and Fred Oubridge Brock, George Rice and Elis Mostyn.

Congratulations were also given to their coaches, Steve Mostyn and Nick Fackrell.