Grove Menzieshill - Newsletter
--------------------------------------------
With adult competition not starting until early September most of our news relates to the youth section of the club who have been involved in a number of competitions for club, district, academy and national sides.

Before we get into this congratulations to Sarah Wilson our club umpire who has been selected for umpiring at the Olympics in Tokyo next month. We wish Sarah a great and successful trip!
Unfortunately, selection for Scots, Welsh and NI players to the GB team remains an issue with only 1 Scot selected for either the ladies or men’s teams.

Celebrating the Success of our younger members!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

With Hockey now starting to pick up once again and with pre-season just around the corner, our youth teams have managed to go from strength to strength since the start of last year, as a Hockey club our youth program plays a vital part with our forward-thinking ideas and giving us great encouragement for the future of this club.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Before we get into this summer- lets have a quick look back!
Last year our 5th team, featuring 11/12 U14s players celebrated winning the indoor Midland league in style, going undefeated in the process to securing the league title, the team were the only club side to have tasted league success last year making this victory that much sweeter! The following players that were part of this league winning side were -
Jake Swan, Andrew Lowdon, Jamie Donald, John Donald, Alfie Bonnar, Murray Griffiths, Brian McGarrity, Angus Duncan, Finlay Duncan, Murdo Kiddie, Aaron Watt
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The U14 boys were involved in the Scottish Hockey Club Competition, after qualifying in June without conceding a goal throughout the whole session. The boys were unlucky to have lost their keeper to injury prior to the finals were unable to field a goalie for the finals day and were narrowly defeated in the competition final by Kelburn U14 at Dalnacraig- the match going to running penalties- us without a keeper!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The boys have also played a big part in the Dundee Devils team this year, and on Tuesday night they managed to reach the final by beating Glasgow Thunder 2-1 to set up a tie with Edinburgh Lightning, and on Wednesday night they managed to go one better and defeat Edinburgh lightning on penalties to win the final, Alfie scoring in the last few minutes to level the match and with Murray and Jake being 2 of the 5 penalty takers! Coming back from trailing 2-0 down against a team filled with U16 Scotland internationals showed great grit and determination to never give up. Congratulations to the following players -
Jake Swan, Murray Griffiths, Alfie Bonnar, Findlay Ross, John Donald, Finlay Duncan, Murdo Kiddie
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The U14 Girls too were involved in the Scottish Hockey Club Competition. Having competed hard in qualification went through to the finals weekend having only conceding a single goal. Unfortunately, the finals weekend didn’t go according to plan with many of our first team girls absent for the fixtures held in the first week of the Dundee School holidays! The girls team didn’t progress beyond the group stage at finals day. There were a lot of new talent coming through for the girls at the moment and the future is looking very positive for this impressive group. Keep it up!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Girls side there was a core of our girls who were selected to play in the midland’s (U15s) development game against east Scotland, the following players that were selected were –
Martha Baldwin, Gabi Farquharson, Emily Macdonald, Georgia Cowell, Niamh Cumming

The girls gave a great account of themselves taking the game to East Scotland at times, but just fell short to a 2-1 defeat in the end.
Erin McGregor was also selected to play in the midland development U17s game against East Scotland, again another great achievement despite defeat.
Despite the results not what we were wanting, it is still fantastic to see so many of our girls playing vital roles for these sides, which will no doubt help them all with their development further down the line!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The girls Dundee Devils have managed to match the boy’s side by reaching the final against Edinburgh, their journey to the final saw them top their group by beating Glasgow and Edinburgh to reach the final. Unfortunately The final was lost to a very organised and revitalised Edinburgh team. Edinburgh emerging 5-0 winners having benefitted from some well taken corners. Congratulations to:
Alex Bayne, Sophia Donald, Izzy Skinner.
Commiserations to Rachel Fagerson who was selected to play but was unable to play due injury recovery.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As we have Celebrated the Success achieved by some of the youth teams and players featured in midland performance groups, we look at the players who have had the honour and privilege to play for their country at such early stages of their careers.

Just this weekend, Sam Knight and Corrie Hay represented their country by playing 2 games for the U19s Scotland against England.

Both Corrie and Sam gave a great account of themselves, with Sam scoring in both games! A fantastic achievement from both players representing their country.

Just last month, we had the following players playing for the Scotland U17s boys and girls against Ulster -
Fraser Allan, Angus Milne, Connor Chapman
Flo Mitchell, Mel Mitchell, Maya Donald
Goals were scored by Fraser and Connor that weekend, overall, another great achievement from all players that took part!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Without doubt this has been a difficult 18 months for everybody involved with the club, however that has not stopped our youth players achieving great honours for club, district and country. We now look ahead to a new exciting season and hopefully celebrate even more success from the youth sides and players once again! A big congratulations to those mentioned for their achievements and I look forward to celebrating even more success soon!

ATH!