Taranaki U11s clean up competition | Taranaki Sport | Surfing, Rugby, Soccer, Football, Cricket in Taranaki

DESPITE intense competition, the Taranaki A team emerged as champions in the Under 11 Boys Central Region Tournament held in Stratford over the first week of the school holidays.

While many of their peers were sitting back and relaxing over the holidays, representative teams from Horowhenua, Hawkes Bay, Wellington, Wanganui, Wairarapa, Manawatu and Taranaki were slugging it out on the TET MultiSports Centre turf.

Although for the first three days of the competition, Taranaki A posted convincing wins, the final face-off with Horowhenua was a nail-biter with heroic defence rallies from both sides.

Taranaki overcame the challenge to win 2 to 1 and the team is in a strong position for the start of the next round of play.

"Regional age group tournaments give all the opportunity to play with pride and passion for both the region and sport that they represent," said Taranaki Hockey Chairman, Allister Thomas, "Under 11 Hockey is the first tournament environment the boys will be involved with and we hope the exposure to it makes future tournaments a little less scary."

With this win, no doubt Taranaki A is feeling entirely fearless.