Burra win hockey sevens as Delting take Grutness Trophy

Burra beat Whalsay on penalty flicks to take hockey’s Town Hall 7s tournament while Delting triumphed in the battle for the Grutness Trophy with a last-minute winner against Whalsay giving them a one-point advantage over Spurs.

Town Hall 7s Knock Out Tournament

Only three teams entered into the Town Hall 7s so it was a quick tournament, all over in 28 minutes of game play. In the first game Burra played Scalloway and Whalsay’s first game was in the final against Burra with Burra taking the title on penalties.

Burra 1, Scalloway 0

The first half was a non-stop battle of defending and attacking from both teams. Scalloway’s Michaela Johnson worked hard, continuously making runs down the middle and creating many scoring opportunities, and Scalloway were unlucky to not be rewarded with a goal. The first half was evenly matched with no obvious leaders.

When it came to the second half, however, Burra took control. Stacey Laurenson took the lead for Burra, scoring in 22 seconds – the fastest goal of the night. Burra were determined to score another to lock in their win but Scalloway put up a hard fight. Lynne Scollay and Mhairi Moncreiff made some excellent runs and passes to each other but good defending from Louise Kok denied them a goal.

Whalsay 1, Burra 1
(Burra won 3-1 after penalty flicks)

Whalsay dominated from the beginning of the first half with impressive play between Victoria Duthie and Maree Simpson on the right hand side. A number of short corners were awarded to Whalsay but Burra’s defence kept the ball from hitting the back board of the goals. Burra’s confidence only grew and play moved into the Whalsay half where Stacey Laurenson was unfortunate not to score. The first half ended with no goals from either team.

Maggie Kay Irvine stepped the game up by scoring the first goal of the game 35 seconds into the second half. This made Burra hungry for a goal. Superb link passing by the Burra team opened up an opportunity for Josie Jamieson who made a run towards the Whalsay circle and hammered home a goal.

A 1-1 finish meant penalty flicks to decide the winners. First to step up to the plate was Laurenson who pushed the ball past the Whalsay keeper. The end result was 3-1 with Maggie Kay Irvine being the only one to score for Whalsay and Jamieson and Debbie Sneddon scoring for Burra.

Grutness Trophy

Whalsay 0, Delting 1

Whalsay were quick out of the blocks, with an early save in the opening minutes by Toni Sidgwick, which set the scene for a period of domination. Strong defensive blocks by Janetta and Jillian Copland made it difficult for Whalsay’s strikers Deborah Mowat and Victoria Duthie to break through the gaps.

Throughout the first period of play, Whalsay continued to press on Delting and were unable to convert any chances they received through short-corners into vital goals. Delting made the occasional break through midfield, but Maggie Kay Irvine and Zoe Irvine’s zoning play made it hard for Brenda Leask and Jill Hibbert to drive forward.

Delting stepped up their attacking play in the second period of play, and tight marking by Whalsay’s defence blocked prominent runs by the Delting wingers before too much danger was felt in the circle and goalie Elsbeth Clark reacted quickly to clear any inbound shots.

In the second half, Delting’s hunger for victory was evident and strong vocal support by captain Jillian Copland focused the Delts to push for every ball. Consistent support from Maggie Kay Irvine gave Whalsay several chances, but the Delts were quick to clear the ball away and formed strong counter attacks with an exciting period of end-to-end play.

The match was shaping up to be a fairly even battle, with both defending units making the most of their clearances to ensure the match remained a draw. In the last two minutes of the match, a tactical short-corner was gained by Delting who had their last chance to claim the Grutness silverware. With an early break from Whalsay’s defence, the pressure on the second corner was high, and the strike from Jill Hibbert was blocked, however Whalsay were unable to clear the shot and a well-placed Brenda Leask on the left post slotted home victory for Delting in the dying moments of the match. With a minute to go, Whalsay were unable to produce any magical comebacks, leaving the final score to 1-0 to Delting.

Player of the match was Jillian Copland from Delting for her rallying support to her team and excellent defensive work and to Maggie Kay Irvine from Whalsay – again for the tireless work-rate for the Bonnie Isle.

Scalloway 0, Burra 1

A wet night in Brae saw the final league game of the season between Scalloway and Burra. With a score to settle from their previous encounters Scalloway pressured the Burra defence from the start. There was great midfield work from Michaela Johnson, Lynne Scollay and Kate Moncrieff who were passing the ball between the whole team and using the space of the whole pitch. It was this precise passing that saw constant balls being fed through to the forward line of Mhari Moncrieff, Hannah Hunter and Karis Irvine who were extremely unlucky not to score on many occasions.

Scalloway applied constant pressure on the Burra defence but they defended well. Scalloway were awarded several short corners but again were unlucky not to be unable to convert these due to the goal keeping of Sarah Couper who made superb saves.

Josie Jamieson and Stacey Laurenson upped the tempo by making some good runs up the right wing but a strong Scalloway defence marshalled by Anne Marie Robinson made sure they had no chance to score.  Naomi Johnson created plenty of problems in the centre of the park and Scalloway were extremely unlucky not to be awarded a goal following an uncertain scramble just before the half time whistle blew.

This set the pace for the second half as Burra started to apply pressure on Lara Kay, Julie Brown and Nadia Nicolson in the Scalloway defence, but with Christine Georgeson in the Scalloway goals Burra struggled to get anything through.

Georgeson was making some great skilful saves and with some luck on her side Sarah Young struck the post with a re-bound shot. With the clock ticking on Josie made a break and found a space to hammer home a clean shot past Georgeson to score the only goal of the night.

Players of the match for Scalloway was Christine Georgeson and for Burra Sarah Couper took the honours.