Scotland’s under-18 Men and Women teams took to the pitches of Peffermill last month at the EuroHockey Youth Nations Championship.  And, stepping into a cauldron of elite hockey talent, the Scot’s faced the challenge of holding their own against the best nations in Europe, if not the world, with several of the globe’s top ranked teams amongst them, including Germany and the Netherlands.

As is the nature of these tournaments, matches can go any way, and results rarely ended up how the pundits predicted. Five matches in six days provided a thrilling spectacle to the thousands of spectators who turned out to see the Scottish stars of the future in action.

Scotland men’s team faced strong England, Belgium and Russia squads in the first pool stages of the tournament. Victory against England and defeat to Belgium meant they needed only a draw against Russia to progress to the top group and battle for silverware.

And a nine-goal thriller produced some spectacular scoring and flowing hockey from the Scots, but a Russian goal two minutes led to a 5-4 leaving Scotland battling to avoid relegation.

However, victories against Ireland and France in the final stages of the tournament underlined the fact that relegation was simply not an option. “A tournament like this is all about bottle, and we clearly showed that we had some bottle in our matches against Ireland and France” commented Scotland manager Ben Gibson.

“It keeps the boys in the top division of European hockey, something which will benefit both the under-21s and the full senior squad in years to come” he continued.

The Men finished up in 5th position, one up on their tournament seeding of 6th,  and contended with some of the best young hockey talent in the world.

Scotland did however gain some silverware over the week. It came in the form of two trophies for striker Kenny Bain (read interview here). The talented young star scored ten goals in five games over the week, four more than any other player, which gave him the top goal scorer award.

Furthermore, Bain received the Player of the Tournament prize for his efforts.  Under-18 Coach Calum Wood commented on his top class striker:  “Kenny is a very gifted young man.  The scoreboard would suggest that he is an individual but he is very much a part of the team and a great team player”

The Women’s squad faced Germany, Spain and England in the opening pool stages, and they suffered three defeats at the hands of some top class European teams, leaving them with an uphill struggle in the final games. This led to their relegation to the trophy tournament at the next Championship in two years’ time.

As Women’s manager Sheila Gray comments, the tournament was not all about victory for Scotland. “As a squad, the girls remained positive throughout the tournament. Contrary to what the results would suggest, the girls performed really well.”

Although the girl’s scorecard painted a bleak picture (they only scored one goal in the whole tournament), the experience of a high profile European championship tournament for some players as young as 16 will be priceless. “The girls most definitely learned from the experience of the tournament, and some of these players will take this on to full senior competition and maybe even the Olympics”

With this in mind, there is no doubt that Scotland’s young hockey internationalists will take these lessons and experiences on board to guide them towards silverware in the future.

IC

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