9 boys from clubs and schools across Bromley turned out on Saturday to represent Bromley Borough in the London Youth Games Hockey Tournament (49th edition!).

With a long and illustrious record in the event, expectations were high, not least from the Bromley Mayor to secure points for the overall competition!

18 boroughs brought teams to the Lee Valley Olympic hockey pitch, for the 7-a-side BU14 tournament on Saturday.

A dominant performance in the morning and afternoon group stages, saw the Bromley side through to the semi finals with 8 wins from 8 games. As total game time ticked over to over 100 mins in sweltering conditions, and each of the last four teams smelling a chance of victory the games became a little tighter.

After a close semi final versus Lambeth ended 1-1, the victor was decided by flicks.
It went down to the last one with Lambeth needing to score to stay in the tie. Fortunately the Bromley GK was up to the task, saving to put the team into the final versus Tower Hamlets.

Whilst Bromley had beaten Tower Hamlets 4-1 in the group stage, their desire, coupled with flagging Bromley legs after a third game on the bounce led to a tight match. Bromley deservedly went 1-0 up, but then came under some pressure as TH sought an equaliser. Eventually they found a way through to snatch a 1-1 result and once again take the game to flicks.

Bromley went first, but saw their flick saved, only for Bromley Gk to save and keep the scores level. Both scored the next, before Bromley scored their 3rd to go 2-1 up. Once again oppo needed to score to stay in the match. The Bromley boys had full faith in their GK, who dived to his right, getting a stick to the Tower Hamlets flick and pushing it onto the post to claim victory for Bromley Boys.

Congrats to GK Frank (Eltham), Alex (BromBecks/Langley) top scorer with 11 goals, and Will, Teddy, Albert, Charlie, Harry, Ryan and Isaac for showing fantastic spirit throughout the day.

One to live long in the memory.

Thanks to London Youth Games for organising, all the volunteers and Bromley for asking the club to once again manage the side. It is a fantastic day and history shows us it has been a important timeline for our junior hockey players since inception.