Friendly hockey tournament

LOCHABER Hockey club travelled to Oban to face both Oban Ladies and Oban men’s teams in a friendly tournament on Saturday December 2.

The tournament opened with the mixed Lochaber team facing Oban ladies who had drafted in several men’s players to make up the numbers.

Lochaber retained the ball for long periods putting the defensively minded Oban ladies team under severe pressure. Long periods of the match were played in the Oban half but excellent defending from Leanne Munro, Karen MacKinnon and Tricia Le Carré kept the ball out of the Oban net. Despite the sustained pressure Oban looked dangerous on the counter attack and scored two goals to win.

Oban ladies immediately faced a youthful Oban men’s team in a hard fought match. The ladies opened the scoring within 30 seconds. After the restart the ladies weathered severe pressure from the men’s team who dominated in terms of both territory and possession for the rest of the game. However, The men’s team struggled to find the net. Experience and possibly some luck allowed the ladies to eventually come out on top by two goals to one

Finally the youthful Oban men faced Lochaber to close the tournament. Lochaber were well organised and started strongly retaining possession for long periods. Excellent play from Hannah Beardmore and Lewis Gibson resulted in an early goal from Lochaber. The youthful Oban side came out fighting after the restart and began to exert good pressure on Lochaber but eventually succumbed going down two goals to nil.