THIRSK Hockey Club took an U14 Boys and an U14 Girls team to play in an International Hockey Tournament in Den Haag, Holland, last weekend, held to coincide with the Hockey World Cup.

The girls’ team came third overall in the tournament.

The first match, against HC Zoetemeer saw a 5-1 win thanks to goals from Emilia Proctor, Charlotte Hollinrake and Lucy Williams.

The second game against the A team from the same club saw a much harder test with Ella Durkin and Summer Marshall busy in defence and Louella Gill having an excellent game in goal. After falling behind, a Lucy Williams strike levelled the game which ended 1-1.

The third game, against King’s from Somerset saw Thirsk fall behind but they soon bounced back to romp home to a 6-1 victory following goals from Proctor, Hollinrake, Williams and Annabel Hill.

The fifth game against Belgium side Dragons saw Thirsk on the backfoot losing 3-1 in a very high-skilled game.

The final game against Heilbronn was end to end. Thirsk fell behind and Williams equalized with a penalty flick. Hollinrake again struck for Thirsk but the game finished 2-2 with Louella keeping Thirsk in the game late on.

The boys’ team also started against home side HC Zoetemeer.

Thirsk looked in good form as goals from Harry Collinson, Arthur Hunt and James Foster drove them to a 4-2 victory.

The second game, against German side Heilbronn saw Thirsk start slowly and they were 3-0 down by half-time despite excellent defending by Alex Doherty and goalkeeper Luke Brownlee. Despite playing better and pulling a goal back through Collinson, Thirsk were well beaten 4-1.

In the third game, against Belgian Team Braxgata saw Thirsk again outplayed in the first half going 2-0 down despite again some excellent goal-keeping from Luke and defending from Alex, James Houseman and Paddy Medley. Oliver Houseman pulled a goal back for Thirsk but they lost 4-1.

Thirsk bounced back against Kings of Somerset and Oliver scored to set them off. Harry C and Arthur Hunt added two more in the 3-0 solid victory. Thirsk then played Dusseldorf – German National Champions and they frustrated them from the off – holding them to just a single goal at half-time including an amazing penalty flick save from Brownlee. Collinson scored from a penalty stroke and a resilient Thirsk battled to a well-fought 4-1 defeat with Brownlee excellent in goal.

The final game against Dragons of Belgium saw Thirsk fall one behind and could have been more if not for Will Mitchell in the Thirsk goal.

Thirsk pulled one back before half-time and then in the second half Collinson scored to put Thirsk into the lead – but they could not hold on and it ended in a 3-2 defeat.