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Wales stick it to rest of Europe  x11
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| Wales |
August 1, 2004
ic Wales, UK
> Page Views 2404
WALES beat Italy 1-0 to lift the European Junior Ladies Nations Hockey Trophy in Swansea - the first-ever cup won in Europe by a Welsh national side.
Wales and Italy were the only unbeaten teams before Saturday's final at Ashleigh Road.
Much of the first half was a midfield battle with occasional forays by Welsh front runners, Carys Hopkins, Dawn Mitchell, and Emma Winch.
But the defence had to remain alert and good goalkeeping by Claire Sims denied Italy at a penalty corner.
Then an Italian infringement in a goalmouth scramble gave Wales a penalty stroke, but Mitchell's penalty was well saved by Anna Russo.
Wales continued to press forward and in the 32nd minute, captain Carys Hopkins was presented with a chance in front of goal and calmly took it.
After the break, a strong run by Lucy Kidd was stopped by an illegal tackle by Russo.
With the chance to go 2-0 up, Wales changed their stroke taker, giving Leah Wilkinson the task, but her flick was again saved by the Italian keeper.
Wales pressed forward though and a superb 50-metre solo run by Gwen Thomas led to a penalty corner, again well saved by Russo.
In the final minutes Wales ran the clock down to the final whistle, greeted with a roar by the large home crowd.
In the bronze medal play-off Ukraine beat Lithuania 2-1 with Maryna Vynohradove scoring her ninth goal.
Poland beat Switzerland 2-1 for 5th place and Russia beat the Czech Republic 3-2 for 7th.
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Comments on this article
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Welsh Fan
08-04-2004 8:27 am
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What a result!!!!!
Well done Pam & the girls, what a superb result! Wales certainly did stick it to the rest of Europe! Fingers crossed now, that will seal us a place in the World Cup in Chile!!! The future is finally looking bright for Welsh Hockey, with some excellent performances throughout the week! Well Done.
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CM
08-04-2004 8:47 am
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Sorry, but how would winning the european B division give you a place in the world cup?
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Robin Hood
08-06-2004 5:43 am
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CM
Winning the B division had meant that we have been promoted to the A division- this means at the current time we are 7th in Europe... The FIH has not yet decided how many teams are going to be included from europe for the WC- it could be 6, 7 or even 8. Nobody knows. the best we could do was win gold and hope that 7 teams were going to be included!! I think we did a good job actually!
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Maid Marion
08-06-2004 7:18 am
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Robin, you are right - no one knows what is going to happen with the JWC and nothing will happen until all the other continents have played their qualifying tournaments. Wales can only wait and see. I watched a couple of the games in Swansea and if they keep the same squad together, they will not be out of place at the world cup.
CM - Sharpen up on your hockey knowledge and perhaps try supporting an up and coming nation rather than criticising from afar.
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KD
08-06-2004 12:39 pm
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robin hood
no surely you cant be 7th in Europe! you have only just come up and so as it stands you are 9th. next year you will be 7th in europe at the next tournament but this year i think belarus or spain are 7th as this is where they have just finished in the european championships in dublin.You have definitely done a good job in being promoted and its good that another GB country will be taking part in the A division but you are still far off qualifying for the world cup!
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Welsh Fan
08-06-2004 1:32 pm
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Welsh Hockey
Going to Argentina last time around does not appear to have helped the welsh senior squad to raise their game at all so i am not sure what going to Chile will do this time.
Oh by the way......if they do go they might want to check what the weather will be like before they arrive this time.
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roxy
08-10-2004 7:03 am
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argentina
The majority of athletes that competed in Argentina have only now been given the chance at senior level so it will be the next few years that will decide whether their game has risen or not.
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Bemused
08-10-2004 8:59 am
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Caution
All credit to the Welsh girls on their achievement.
I do however think this report goes over the top. 'Welsh Girls stick it to the rest of Europe'. Did they not lose to England U21s 0-12 and 0-8 in the build up?!
I hope they get the opportunity to go to the World Cup but they must be cautious not to get carried away with results against the likes of Italy. As I see it looking at the results in Dublin - the top few teams are fast moving away from the other nations.
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LH
08-11-2004 5:15 am
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before you go making comments on things maybe you should no the facts!! when the games between wales and england were played wales were still at the begining of their preparations and had never played a proper game together as a squad!! there were new players coming into the team and there were a number of players missing out of the starting line up where as england had a pretty complete squad and were at training camps putting the finishing touches on their performance!!
im not saying that wales are at the same level as england yet but there is a definate improvement on the level welsh hockey is being played at!!
Maybe you should look at the results from the celtic cup!! wales were unbeaten against team from the A division!! with a 1-1 draw against scotland who came 4th in the A division? does this not show the improvement made over a few months!! there is still more the come from the squad im sure of that!!
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Proud Welsh Parent
10-13-2004 8:42 am
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Shoestring Budget Success
Having been an onlooker for a number of years because of my daughters involvement I must congratulate the Welsh Management and squad for a wonderful week in July. The success was a long overdue shot in the arm for Welsh hockey. Compared to it's neighbours over the bridge, this was achieved with little money but big effort on the part of the whole group.
Despite semantics from previous comments Wales are now in the A division and should the descision be made that 8 teams from Europe go NEXT year (Not this) then Wales will go. On a similar note the A division champions this year are not the A division champions next year. Touchee !
Whilst expectations are quite rightly very high we are realists and fully understand the step up will be significant but please don't just kick us cos we are Taffs.
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Wales girl
02-10-2005 2:13 pm
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I saw all of the games in Swansea ant thaught the standarn was very high - i watched England, Scotland and Ireland play also beforehand, and the Welsh were by FAR the most professional, promising, nice and down to earth girls you will EVER meet! Thet deserve all they get! They worked so hard for that tournament win and it was done on the stupidest of budgets! They were funded the least by FAR!!!
I wouldnt even go on about the World's yet! Even if Wales get the go-ahed, the financial side of things in welsh hockey will almost definetly stop them from going!
It was truly a historic moment for Welsh Hockey!
Well done to all involved!
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