The U8s Festival saw the Dumfries 5 of Alex Gunning; Luke Hodgson; Freddie Law; Sky Thomson; Flint Thomson play 2 games against a team of 5 from Uddingston Hockey Club. This Home festival was the first ever for Alex; the first this season for Freddie, playing alongside Luke; Flint and Sky who have travelled to play with other clubs throughout the season. It was great to see the progress that the U8s have made this year – great tackling; push passes and runs with the ball, resulting in 3 goals to Dumfries (2 goals for Luke and 1 goal for Freddie) and 1 goal for Uddingston.

Their day was finished off with some dribbling hockey skills – all of which deserved a “sweet” treat to go home, with a smile on their faces.

Under 10/12s

The U10s/U12s Festival saw 2 Dumfries teams playing games against 2 Uddingston teams and one Ayr team. Dumfries were presented by:

Team X: Jack Callander; Ollie Carberry; Max Dunlop; Wallace Russell; Scarlett Scott; Ava Stenton; Flint Thomson.

Team Y: Harley Bell; Luke Campbell; Tom Dunlop; Oscar Fyles; Phoebe Hodgson; Gordon Holmes; Thomas Law.

Each team had 4 very competitive games, with the following results:

Team X:
1-2 V Ayr (goal to Jack)
0-1 V Uddingston
0-0 V Dumfries
0-0 V Uddingston

Team Y:
1-3 V Uddingston (goal to Gordon)
0-0 V Ayr
0-0 V Dumfries
1-1 V Uddingston (goal to Tom Dunlop)

With Dumfries fielding a combination of U10s/U12s who have been playing weekly, competitive games for W2s; M2s or M3s, alongside U10s/U12s who are progressing through the Youth Section, it was great to see them compete so well as youth teams of 6/7 on a ¼ pitch – good practice for an upcoming U12s

Festival for Boys. Also, it has to be said that it was not easy for them to score goals into the small youth goals, especially when there was a fully padded GK blocking the whole goal!

A big thank you to the players; families and coaches from Uddingston and Ayr HC for taking part in these festivals; to the Dumfries players; families; helpers (timekeeper Susan Hodgson; team managers Lily; Calvin and Joshua) and coaches (Iain and Gladys) for their time and commitment.