:: Welcome to Eagle House School

Our normal opener for the season took us away to Woking to play against St. Andrew's. The match was a hard fought affair and at half time neither side had scored. Early in to the second half Eagle House went ahead, but St. Andrew's then came back with two goals of their own. Sadly after a series of short corners the game had to be 'abandoned' with 15 minutes still to play.

The match against Parkside was another hard fought affair, but the team were much more focused and produced some excellent hockey. Parkside, as usual, played the game in excellent spirit and anyone watching can not have been anything other than impressed by the skill and commitment of the two sides. Parkside took the lead, but Eagle house fought back and desrevedly gained an equaliser. Both sides pressed for the winner, with parkside winning a number of short corners towards the end of the game, but being unable to convert them due to some excellent goalkeeping by Jake Aungier.

This was the sides best performance of the season by quite some margin. They produced some quite exillerating hockey during the course of the afternoon. It says much for sides defensive ability and real desire to win that Jake in goal did not touch the ball all afternoon! The winner came from a well struck short corner by Alex Manton-Jones in the second half. Up front Zac Bigley and Tom Fowlie ran all afternoon and but for some good defending by the Dragon keeper and his defence the score would have been higher.

The last match before half term brought the team up against Hoe Bridge. The side once again performed well as a unit, supporting and encouraging one another throughout the course of the match. The 3-0 scoreline fairly reflects the control Eagle House had over the game.

The first match after half term was played on the astro turf at Wellington College. The side made an excellent start and after only a few minutes were 1-0 up. At this point all the team play that had existed over the previous weeks disappeared as the team played more as a group of individuals than as a team and the Aldro players raised their game and broke down each attack with some ease. However, just before half-time Eagle House scored again, rather fortuitously, from a short corner. The second half was a completely different performance as the side showed exactly what they are capable of achieving as they completely dominated the remainder of the game making attack after attack and producing some exilerating, free flowing hockey, which resulted in a further five goals being added by the end of the game.

Playing away on Edgeborough's smaller astro-turf pitch was always going to offer a challenge, especially as we were short of some key players to the side, but they rose to it magnificently and in the first fifteen minutes moved into a 3-0 lead playing some exilerating hockey. James Sharples, on the right wing, had a particularly good game, as did Jack Cowmeadow. At this stage several positional changes were made and this resulted in some of the less skillful players being made to play out of position and as a result having to improve this aspect of their game. The second half was a much closer game, with the Edgeborough players rising to the challenge and defending skillfully and bravely before Eagle House scored a fourth goal. Edgeborough continued to play with great spirit and deservedly scored towards the end of the game. A second half scoreline of 1-1 was a fair reflection of how much closer the game became as the match went on. The 1st X1 have their final match on the astro at Wellington College at 3.15 on Wednesday . I hope as many parents as possible will be able to make it.

The team played their last home match of the season against Reading and it was not long before they were into their stride and producing some good exciting hockey and this eventually led to Eagle House opening the scoring. Throughout the first half the side moved the ball out wide and with pace which resulted in the defence of Reading being stretched on a regular basis. Further goals ensued and Eagle House ended the half in control of the match. A number of positional changes were made at half time and this gave the players the chance to play in positions to which they would not normally be accustomed. Despite this they continued to play some excellent hockey and built on their lead of the first half. Reading came more into the game during this period, and although they did not trouble Jake Aungier in goal they did stretch the defence on a number of occasions. JJ Dewes not only worked tirelessly in defence during the first half, but he then took on the role of centre forward in the second half where his perseverence in front of goal resulted in him scoring in the final few minutes. All in all this was an excellent team performance and a pleasing note on which to end their home matches.