9 December 2024
On Tuesday, 26 November, Kirkham Grammar Junior School travelled to the Armitage Centre Manchester to take part in The Association of Junior Independent Schools (AJIS) U11 Girls' Hockey Tournament.
Fifteen teams took part: Kirkham Grammar School, Stockport Grammar, The Queens, Alderley Edge School for Girls, AKS, The Grange, St Bede's College, Manchester High, Withington Girls, The Kings School Chester, Westholme, Cheadle Hulme, Rossall, Newcastle under Lyme and Kings School Macclesfield.
The tournament was divided into 4 group sections. After the group stages, Kirkham Grammar School topped their group, who faced St Bede's College, in an extremely exciting, high-energy game, with plenty of goals scored, with two impressive goals from Philippa and Clara.
This saw Kirkham Grammar reach the semi-finals against Cheadle Hulme in a very competitive game. The team worked hard as a unit to press Cheadle, creating many attacking opportunities. Techari turned the ball over and found Philippa in the shooting circle who finished and found the back of the goal resulting in a 1-0 victory!
Kirkham Grammar celebrated as they had successful made it into the final against AKS. Our KGS players were ready for the final and demonstrated discipline in defence, marking their players tight. KGS had multiple attacking opportunities in the shooting circle but the goalkeeper pulled out some great saves. Unfortunately, KGS could not find the back of the goal this time and at full time the scores were level. 3 x penalty strokes would decide the winner; with the two local teams in the final, it was a nail-biting stroke competition.
Ruth was to face AKS first in the goal, making an incredible save. Philippa, was first to take a stroke, demonstrating her calmness and composure to slot the ball home. Ruth stepped up again, but AKS managed to find the corner of the goal. Techari confidentially approached to take her stroke, placing it straight down the middle through the goal keeper's legs! Ruth stepped up again making another great save; with one stroke-taker left, Clara placed the ball firmly in the end of the goal.
This was a magnificent achievement for our talented Kirkham Grammar School U11 team to be crowned AJIS Hockey Champions for 2024/2025. We are all so proud of this very impressive achievement against some fierce competition.
Squad: Ruth (GK), Philippa, Techari, Clara, Millie, Paloma, Maya, Lucy, Amy-Leigh and Sofia