Last Sunday (2nd November) saw the Kelso U16 Boys return to East District League fixtures where we welcomed Inverleith to a sunny afternoon in Kelso following our historic first at the Club Cup the weekend before last.

Inverleith travelled down to the Borders with limited numbers in their squad so we agreed to support them with a couple of different subs each quarter. And so it came as no surprise that it was one of our own, Ruben Poe, who opened the scoring in this fixture whilst helping out Inverleith with an excellent finish!

So we were a goal down by the end of the first quarter but a strong team talk where we agreed to stick to our team principles and tactics proved to invigorate the Kelso squad. We started to play to our strengths and move the ball well in the channels and progress up the pitch. Two superbly taken front stick shots by Tenny Grant ensured we reversed our fortunes and went into half time 2-1 to the good.

We continued to rotate our contributions to the Inverleith team and perhaps the constant changes played into a more even quarter of hockey with neither team seizing the initiative as we ended the third quarter without a goal being scored and so it remained 2-1.

The game was evenly poised with the final quarter to come and either team could go on to victory. Thankfully for Kelso we continued where we left off at the end of the second quarter and played some wonderful passages of hockey down the right hand side of the pitch leading to both the final two goals being scored, one for Murray Banks and the other for Chris Alton.

It was great for the U16 Boys to get back to winning ways, seeing the game out with a 4-1 victory. We would like to thank Inverleith for making the trip down the road when given their limited numbers they could have postponed or conceded the game. It’s great that the Edinburgh teams can commit to travelling down to us and ensuring we grow the game of boys hockey in the region.

Fixtures now come thick and fast as we travel up to Grange this coming Sunday, with Watsonians travelling back down to us the weekend after.

KHC U16 Boys Team vs Inverleith: C. Alton; M. Banks (GK); M. Banks; R. Fleming; T. Grant; F. Hardie; A. Little; O. McIntyre; J. Moir; R. Patterson; R. Poe; F. Pennington; C. Quinn; A. Scott; J. Wilson (Capt.).