On Tuesday the King’s Bruton Under 16 girls’ hockey team travelled to Clifton College to contest the West Regional Hockey Finals.

Having won the Somerset County Championship and their Regional Preliminary Round, the team was in high spirits and confident of doing well. Placed in a difficult pool alongside Marlborough College, Cheltenham College and Blundell’s, King’s lined up against Marlborough in their opening match. They started well, creating a number of good goal scoring opportunities and their pressure told when they took the lead and subsequently scored their second and third goals to take a three goal lead. Despite Marlborough rallying late on, King’s held on to secure a 3-2 victory and start the competition in the perfect way.

In their second match, King’s faced Cheltenham College and had too much quality for their opponents, coming out on top with a 4-0 win. Knowing that a place in the semi-final was guaranteed, King’s played Blundell’s in the group decider and a close fought match was won 2-1 by Blundell’s. This meant that King’s would play against Millfield in the semi-final. Having previously faced each other in the final of the County tournament and with so much at stake, this was an exciting and high paced match which King’s Bruton won 2-1.

In the final, King’s were given the opportunity to make amends for their earlier defeat against Blundell’s by facing them again. This time, however, King’s came out on top winning 1-0 to become West Regional Champions and secure qualification to the National Finals for the first time. This is a tremendous achievement and caps off a superb week for the team having won the County Indoor Championship the Sunday before.