Abergavenny mens hockey (2nd XI) report 15th Oct 2005
	Abergavenny 1
	Swansea University 4
		Abergavenny's 2nd XI hosted a strong Swansea University side at the Leisure centre on Saturday. The game began briskly with the university side determined to show their superiority from the opening whistle, leading to some early confrontations which lead to one of the students receiving a green card. Swansea opened the scoring despite some fine keeping from Martin Brown, who was actually bundled over by an attacker and unable to recover in time to get into position for the shot. The Swansea second goal was a much better move as they passed the ball quickly around in attack, probing for a weakness in the Abergavenny defence, eventually leading to a one on one with the goalkeeper, who they slid the ball under to score. It was mainly due to the excellent defending of Joe Phillips, Duncan Melville, Jamie Faulkener and of course man of the match goalkeeper Martin Brown that Swansea could not score again before half time.
		The second half usually a difficult time for Abergavenny sides began with Abergavenny attacking, they exploited gaps behind the Swansea midfield, as they pushed for a third goal. Chris Bu and Geraint Tuxworth-Jones growing in confidence began to give the student's defenders a hard time, and with the inclusion of Dilywn Thomas as an attacking midfielder it wasn't long before Abergavenny scored as Chris Bu turned the Swansea defence allowing Dilwyn Thomas to pounce on the ball and force it over the line to score. Swansea duly got a third goal midway through the second period. Strong tackling from full backs Jamie Faulkener, Joe Phillips and Tim Rees allowed the game to near its end with no further goals. Unfortunately an error in the Abergavenny area just as the full time whistle blew gave Swansea the chance with a final penalty corner which was struck well, just evading the advancing goalkeeper.
		Full time and a 4-1 loss but this was far from the one sided contest it had looked like as the match began, and the Abergavenny youngsters and 'old guard' came out of the match with credit and a great deal of pride in their performance, particularly amongst a small crowd of parents watching from the sidelines.
		Abergavenny Leisure centre hosted this months Under 11 hockey tournament, in addition to the home side, there were teams from Newport and Llanishen/Caerphilly present. Abergavenny began by playing Llanishen/Caerphilly the game was played at a fast pace which suited Abergavenny and well taken goals from Fergus Allen and Alex McGlynn with no reply from the visitors gave Abergavenny a 2 - 0 win this game also marked debuts for goalkeeper William Allen, full back Hope Pritchard and midfielder Piers Digby . Keen to continue playing in the same way Abergavenny played Newport, in a close fought encounter it was a piece of individual skill from Tom McGlynn scoring halfway through the game which gave them a 1 - 0 win. Each team then played a further round of matches, Abergavenny drew 1-1 with Llanshen/Caerphilly with a second goal from Alex McGlynn, and also drew 0 - 0 with Newport. Having won two of their games and held the others to draws Abergavenny's under 11's were the overall winners of the tournament, having played their best hockey of the season. Abergavenny Under 11 : William Allen, Hope Pritchard, Ricky McGlynn, Tom McGlynn, Piers Digby, Fergus Allen, Alex McGlynn, Mitch Heffernan.
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