A three-week hockey festival has shown youngsters in the Vale of Glamorgan the fun they can have by getting hooked on sport from a young age thanks to the Dragon Sport initiative.
Boys and girls from five Vale primary schools – Romilly, Palmerston, Llancarfan, St Helen’s and Westbourne – all made a great start to their sporting education by taking to the astroturf at the Colcot Sports Centre in Barry for some fun hockey fixtures.
The festival was organised by the Vale of Glamorgan Council’s Dragon Sport assistant Pete Hardwick, who said:
“Dragon Sport is all about encouraging greater numbers of seven to 11-year-olds to take part in extra-curricular sport. Hockey is one of eight key sports that the scheme focuses on and it was great to see so many children playing with such enthusiasm. Some of them hadn’t played much hockey before, so it was an excellent introduction to the sport, with a half-size pitch and smaller sticks.”
Pete added: “I’d like to thank Jan Allen from Westbourne and James Davies from the Vale junior hockey club for their help with umpiring the matches.”
The emphasis of the Dragon Sport festival was on participation and enjoyment, while following the festival’s completion the hockey took on a more competitive edge in the form of a local qualifier for the national ‘Activate’ hockey tournament. Llancarfan had made it through to the regional finals for the past two years, and made it a hat-trick by winning this year’s event as well. They will now go forward to compete against primary schools from across the region at the Welsh Institute of Sport in Cardiff on 10 June.
Any boys and girls aged seven to 11 and upwards who would like to play regular hockey can do so throughout the summer at the Vale junior hockey club. They train every Wednesday evening, 6:15pm – 7:15pm, at the Colcot Sports Centre. For further information please contact James Davies on 07834 242908.
To find out more about Dragon Sport in the Vale of Glamorgan you can call Pete Hardwick on 01446 704820 or log onto Dragon Sport.
