Hockey: East and West beat the rest in inter-district event

The country's top schoolboy hockey players took part in the Youth Inter-District event this month, with the West under-16s and the East under-18s taking the spoils.

In the under-16 event one of the most impressive results on the first day came when the East defeated the North 5-0 with Fettes College pupil Hamish Imrie and George Watson's College's Danny Cain both scoring two goals. The West powered to a 7-2 win over the Midlands with Murdo Elwiss scoring two.

On the second day both the East and West progressed to the final, Lee Morton and John Reid scoring the goals in a 2-0 win for the West. The Midlands finished in third by defeating the North 4-0.

In the under-18 age-grade the West and East were again the strongest regions, the West beating Highland 7-1 on day one and the East - with Boroughmuir High School's David Patterson scoring two - notching up the same scoreline against the same opposition.

Patterson was again at the double on day two as the East won the final over the West 3-1, Corey Hastings with the other East goal.

The North beat Highland 3-2 on penalties to clinch third spot, Aberdeen Grammar duo Euan Christie and Jack Hughes holding their nerve in the shoot-out along with Jamie Wong from Robert Gordon's College.

Earlier in the day the East had always looked the team to beat, Patterson once again the main man in a 4-1 win over the North and Andrew Malcolm from Braes High School in Falkirk among the scorers in a 3-2 win over the West.

Meanwhile, Robert Gordon's College's best male hockey players are reaping the rewards of their recent tour to the Czech Republic.

The 16-strong senior party played three matches in Prague, winning two of them. In the first match they took on Slavia Prague's under-18 team and clocked up a 4-2 win, before being even more impressive against the same opposition to win the second match 6-0.

In the third match the boys faced a much tougher test and lost convincingly to the Slavia Prague men's team, but benefited from the experience. Over the tour a major improvement was evident in the team and this was recognised at the tour awards ceremony when Grant Veitch was named the player of the tour, David Gamblen the most improved player and Corrie Bruce given the young player of the tour award.