Dean Close boys are Gloucestershire County Hockey Champions in all three age groups – under-14 (u14), u16 and u18 – and will now all go through to the next round on their journeys towards the National Finals.
The u14s beat Cheltenham College 2-0 in a hard-fought game, the u16s won on penalty flicks having drawn the game 1-1 with Cheltenham College and the u18s beat King’s Gloucester 6-0, Pate’s Grammar 5-0 and Cheltenham College 1-0.
At the end of January, the Dean Close hockey teams, in their annual block fixture, met with Cheltenham College for a special game – the 90th anniversary of the first match between the schools. Back in 1921, the match was played at the College with a final score 7-1 to Dean Close. Ninety years later, Dean Close were still victors with scores of 6-0 (u18s), 3-3 (U16s) and 2-0 (u14s).
To commemorate the occasion, the 1st teams and umpire wore special shirts made for the day, pennants were handed over between the teams and photographs taken. During that match, the first team captain, Liam Brignull, scored a hat-trick.
Following their county success, the u18s met with Worksop College in the quarter finals of the Boarding Schools Cup. The two sides last met at the 2009 U18 National Final which Dean Close won. The competition was highly prized, but Dean Close once again clenched the win 4-2 in front of a hugely supportive crowd of old masters and a large percentage of the School who came out to watch, helping to create a fantastic atmosphere for the evening match which was played under the newly installed floodlights.
Director of Sport, Rhys Gwilliam, said: 'This season the hockey has been fantastic, with the three county titles being an incredible achievement for the boys. We have no knowledge of any school achieving this in recent times.'