Lindsay delighted with the progress being made

JUNIOR hockey is going from strength to strength.

The weekly Sunday morning training sessions at the Hockey Club in Foote's Lane have exploded in popularity. According to the junior hockey co-ordinator Andrew Lindsay, who started in the new role at the start of the season, they regularly have more than 120 children turn up and they have been known to have 200.

'Sundays are going extremely well,' said Lindsay.

'Numbers are up from last year. We're very pleased with it.'

The sessions start at 9.30am for four- to 11-year-olds.

The younger children are coached on the Foote's Lane pitch in front of the Hockey Club where their parents can watch them from the balcony.

'We're trying to create a family club atmosphere,' said Lindsay.

'A lot more parents are coming down and helping and it creates a really good atmosphere.'

For the youngest budding hockey stars, the emphasis is getting them on the pitch and playing.

'A lot of it is keeping them interested and teaching them hand-to-eye co-ordination,' said Lindsay.

'It's about getting them interested in sport generally.'

Then, from 10.30am, the Praxis Super Leagues take centre stage.

There are two leagues, one for U-13s and the other for U-15s.

A total of 10 teams are involved, including the island's girls' U-15 and U-17 sides, and Lindsay has noticed that since the leagues were introduced at the start of the season, the number of children dropping out of the Sunday morning sessions has greatly reduced.

'From that point of view it's been highly successful,' he said.

'It was brought in to get as many kids as possible playing match hockey. I don't know about you, but it's all very well having coaching and coaching but you get bored if you don't play.'

Currently around 20 people help out with the sessions.

A good deal of those are young players who have been through the training schemes and are keen to put something back.

But Lindsay says more people are needed.

So in May and June he is planning to organise a level one coaching course.

'You always need more coaches,' he said.

The sessions are part of an ever-expanding junior coaching infrastructure.

Lindsay believes that more than 500 children receive some sort of hockey coaching over the course of the season.

With the CooperBrouard Outreach Programme, Lindsay and his coaches have been going into the island's primary and secondary schools and running hockey sessions.

There is also the PwC School of Excellence, which is designed for those juniors who show enormous potential and are likely to be or become members of junior island representative teams.

The best evidence of how well the school is doing are the results that the various Guernsey boys' and girls' teams have picked up this season.

The only junior inter-insular not to go Guernsey's way so far this season has been the boys' U-17s.

However, the U-15 Sarnians won their match with Jersey and have also been performing out of their skins in the national Hockey Association Cup.

In the opening round they overcame Gloucestershire side Wotton-under-Edge 2-0.

They then booked themselves into the third round in which they overcame Woking.

They now face Team Bath Buccaneers early next month.

The Guernsey U-17 girls also won their inter-insular.

They comfortably took care of their Jersey counterparts 5-1 to make it three years on the bounce that they have won the rubber.

Tomorrow at Foote's Lane, the girls' U-15s are involved in their inter-insular.

At Sunday's morning session, the Helen Watts- coached team had a practice game with the PwC boys' U-13 side. Chloe Dawes scored in a 2-1 defeat against 12 players.

* FOR more information on the level one coaching course, contact Andrew Lindsay on 07781 130613.