Buckingham Finish Fifth At Maiden European Indoor Tournament

Buckingham’s women have finished fifth in EuroHockey Indoor Club Trophy in Turkey.

The 2020 Super 6s champions – contesting their first ever European indoor tournament – recorded one win and four defeats across three days of action in a closely contested group.

They began in perfect fashion by beating Railway Union HC (lreland) 5-0 in their opening game on Friday 18 February, with Rebecca van Arrowsmith scoring twice alongside strikes from Lottie Porter, Alex Naughalty and Olivia Strickland.

A 4-2 loss to Scotland’s Clydesdale Western followed later in the day, with van Arrowsmith on target again alongside Maddie Newlyn.

Their first match the next day was a thrilling affair against eventual runners up SK Slavia Prague (Czech Republic) as Buckingham agonisingly came out on the wrong side of a 6-5 scoreline. Two more goals from van Arroswmith took her tally for the tournament up to five at that point while Porter, Newlyn and Natasha James also found the back of the net.

There was more disappointment later that day as they put in a determined display against Austria’s SV Arminen but were undone by a late penalty corner goal and lost 1-0.

Facing an unbeaten Gaziantep Polisgücü SK (Turkey) in their final match on Sunday, Buckingham ran the eventual champions close as Newlyn and Kirsty Freshwater scored but it wasn’t quite enough as the host team prevailed as 4-2 winners.

England Hockey could not be prouder of how Buckingham played over the last few days and would like to congratulate them on a first European campaign.