Match Reports for Girls' Hockey and Boys' Rugby against Cargilfield

Match reports for Girls' Hockey and Boys' Rugby against Cargilfield

Wednesday, 24th September 2025

Girls' Hockey

1st Team

Opponents: Cargilfield Time: 2pm
Date: Saturday, 24th September Venue: Hallhill

The 1st girls hosted Cargilfield today for a fantastic game of prep. school hockey.

Though Cargi started with the hit-off, it was Belhaven who were soon on the attack and, for the vast majority of the first quarter, that is where we stayed. Maggie and Bee had a number of shots at goal but foray after foray into the opposition D was repulsed. Then, against the run of play, Cargi broke out and in just moments, had surged upfield and slotted a goal home to take the lead. Somewhat miffed by this turn of events, we were soon on the attack again and a Maggie shot rebounded to Bee who was in a great position and she slotted it past the ‘keeper to level things up.

The second quarter got off to a perfect start with Maggie scoring within seconds of the hit-off. We continued to press hard and continued to dominate possession and territory. Molly and Bella were strong in defence and worked hard but our wide mids were just a little too slow to fall back and pick up their players. As a result Cargi scored twice on the break again. After another good build-up, however, Bee scored again to level things once again.

In the third quarter, Cargi started to come into their own and play started to go from end to end. We still enjoyed more visits to their D but a stubborn defence kept us from scoring while they managed to get one in for themselves to retake the lead.

A goal down into the final quarter, the girls were determined to pull things back. It turned into a spectacular ten minutes with both teams throwing everything into it and the ball surging from one end of the pitch to the other. With desperate defence being a key feature. Three minutes into the quarter, Maggie scored her second which pulled us level again. I was delighted with how well all nine of the team played – those who started on the bench really took their opportunities and this really was a full squad performance with Clemmie doing well on the left side and Iris slotting in perfectly to a defensive role. Cargi had one, last-ditch chance to steal the win with a PC in the final play but it was, thankfully, repulsed and the match ended with honours shared.

The girls had promised me a win as a birthday present – they didn’t quite manage that and I certainly feel that the win was there for the taking, but what they did give me (and the spectators), was a thrilling, brilliant, tense, impressive performance and game of hockey and that was all I could ask for.

Final Score: Belhaven Hill 4 - 4 Cargilfield

Player of the Match: Bee – worked hard, got a brace of goals and showed signs of finding her inner dragon.

U11A Team

Opponents: Cargilfield Time: 14:00

Date: 24/09/2025 Venue: Cargilfield

The U11As travelled to Cargilfield today and, despite a spirited performance, came away on the wrong side of an 8-4 scoreline. We found ourselves 2-0 down early on, but Annie pulled one back with a powerful strike into the bottom corner. Flora F and Carmen were superb in defence, making some brilliant tackles, while Cleo and Flora G kept the energy high in attack.

At half-time, we trailed 5-1, but the girls showed real resilience after the break. Annie, Eliza and Holly worked tirelessly as our engines, running from end to end and giving everything for the team. Petra was outstanding in goal, pulling off a string of incredible saves that even drew gasps of admiration from the spectators.

In the second half we found more reward in attack, with Cleo finishing smartly, Annie grabbing her second of the match, and Flora G following up on a rebound to score our fourth. Although Cargilfield’s skilful play and strong structure proved decisive, the girls battled right to the end.

Plenty of positives to take forward, and a few clear areas to work on as we continue to improve. Well done girls!

Mr Brown

U11B Team

Belhaven 1 – Cargilfield 5

Our second match of the season and we headed to Cargilfield. Warmed up and ready to go, Cargilfield won the toss and started with the ball. They were quick to attack whilst we were still finding our positions and caught Arabella off guard to score a first goal. Belhaven quickly responded to this with some great phases of play through the pitch. Coren was key at defending in the first half, keeping the ball wide and away from the goal. Dulcie and Coco worked brilliantly in attack and kept trying to move the ball forwards. Their hard work paid off as Grace D managed to slot the ball into the goal. Play was even for the rest of the first half of the game with Arabella saving some great shots on goal.

We started off the second half well, attacking the ball and playing the width of the pitch. Grace C played brilliantly on the wing to bring the ball up towards our circle. Unfortunately Coco and Mary couldn’t quite get their feet around to position themselves for a shot on goal. Play moved back and forwards and the girls began to tire. Not having any subs was hard work for the team, trying to get back to help defend the ball. Cargilfield were quick to take advantage and ended up taking the lead.

This was a good outing for the team and there were many great points in the match. Our play and spacing was super, playing out wide and making sure we didn’t tackle our own players. The team was complimented on this at the end of the match.

Three wishes .....

Let’s try to make our passes stronger
Try not to pass across goal
Don’t be scared to go for a tackle

..... and a star

Super spacing from everyone today

Player of the match as voted by Cargilfield – Mary
Mrs Gale’s player of the match - Grace C

U11C Team

The first match of the term for the c team today and for some, their first ever hockey match. Although we didn’t win the match there were some great phases of hockey in the match. Every girl tried really hard on the pitch and there were some great individual performances.

Annabel was always in a great position to receive the ball and had many shots on goal, but struggled to get her feet around to a shooting position.
Jemima tackled brilliantly in midfield and played the ball wide, moving back to help support in defence in the second half of the match.
Lexy made some great passes with the ball and her strong passes into spaces were really successful.
Delphine proved to be a great defender at the start before moving out to play more of an attacking role.
Amalia, first time out playing hockey, was determined to get a goal and played well in attack.
Isabella made some really good tackles and tried hard in defence, keeping the ball out of the circle.
Cordelia improved her skills throughout the game, gaining confidence when going for a tackle and passing the ball.
Heidi, made some great tackles and her passes became more confident during the game.

Where Belhaven excelled was their spacing on the pitch, they tried hard to create space rather than surround the ball. They found it difficult to break into some of the Cargilfield attack as the opposition were playing quite close together.

Well done. It was great to see you play as a team today.

Boys' Rugby

1st Team

A typically sunny day in Belhaven greeted the first home match for the senior rugby teams. The firsts had a chance to continue their strong start to the season with the visit of a powerful Cargilfield team.

Cargilfield started the match by exerting strong pressure on Belhaven from the start. Despite Belhaven’s resilience, the visitors opened the scoring after eleven minutes, quickly followed by another try through some powerful running. Belhaven, though, started applying some pressure of their own and from a good phase play saw Geordie go in with a powerful driving run. Cargilfield always looked dangerous and finished the half with two more tries to create a substantial half-time lead.

Half time: Belhaven 7 – 24 Cargilfield

Belhaven started the second half with renewed purpose and a high tempo with a well-worked try seeing Innes go in for his debut first team try with a strong finish. The pattern continued, however, with Cargilfield scoring two of their own through good direct running. To their credit, Belhaven refused to stop playing and worked space out wide for Santiago to score his seventh of the season and keep Belhaven in touch. Cargilfield were great at starting strongly from the kick off and their strong running opened up gaps for their seventh try of the day. After some great decision making in the midfield Wilbur and Xander exchanged passes to send Xander in from a typical jinky run. Cargilfield finished the stronger and closed the scoring to earn a fair victory.

Final score: Belhaven 24 – 48 Cargilfield

Coach’s thoughts:
This was a step-up in standard. I wrote that last week, but it remains true again and we knew it was coming. The attitude in the team, despite the loss, remained excellent and they kept playing right to the end. Sometimes it is OK to admit you were beaten by a better team, but it is important to learn from this experience to come back stronger for it. The areas in which we could have been better were technical and tactical and this can easily be improved over time in training. What can’t be easily changed is determination and effort. I’m please to say this remains one of our real strengths and I am excited to see how much this team can achieve in the rest of the season.

2nd Team

Belhaven U13 2nd XIII 24 - 62 Cargilfield U13 XIII

On a sunny afternoon at Belhaven, our U13Bs took on a very strong Cargilfield side and, although the score finished 24–62, the boys can be hugely proud of the way they played together as a team.

Gaston was on fire, crossing the line three times for a fantastic hat-trick, while Alfonso added a try of his own and calmly kicked all four conversions. Lukas led superbly from the front as captain, keeping everyone focused and motivated. In the forwards, Finley threw himself into the rucks with real determination, while Kaspar ran fearlessly with ball in hand, always making ground.

At the back, William Gladstone was a rock at full back, making several brave, last-ditch tackles that kept Belhaven in the game. Oscar also deserves a special mention for his contribution in his first full match for the school – a really promising debut.

Although Cargilfield showed their strength with some sharp attacking rugby, our boys never let their heads drop. They kept smiling, kept working for each other, and played with real spirit right until the final whistle.

Plenty of positives to take forward – well done, Belhaven!

U9

All 14 of the U9s arrived at Cargilfield for the first match of the term. Needless to say, there was a lot of excitement!

Cargilfield also had enough boys to split them into two equal ability teams so we ended up with The Eagles, led by Rory, and the Falcons, led by Harris. The teams each played two, ten-minute, matches drawing one and losing three in some very closely matched games.

Belhaven played very well for their first match with Rory, Harris, Fergus, Rufus and William R making some fast, searching runs which tested the opposition defence. Hamish ran more directly which was good to see and was excellent at securing ball on the ground.

Defensively all the players held their line and Hector, the Archies, Ralph, John, Hughie and William were all stalwarts in defence.

As with every year at this stage of the term the boys should look to try and pass the ball wide rather than run across the pitch themselves. Cargilfield were also quicker to restart and spot any gaps which, in the end, allowed them to score more tries.

A really good afternoon of rugby though, which the boys all enjoyed. Well done, U9s and thank you Cargilfield.

U11A Team

Cargilfield 19 – 10 Belhaven

A high scoring encounter – a wonderful display of attacking rugby, with some work on defensive organisation required.

The first few minutes saw an evenly contested match. Arguably Belhaven looked the more threatening in attack; however, as the minutes wore on, their defensive frailties became exposed and Cargilfield were able to build their score.

In the first half Monty scored a brace, with Finlay & Lochie O each crossing the line. However, some missed tackles by the boys in blue and some good rucking from Cargilfield ensured they had more of the ball to work with, scoring ten tries to Belhaven’s four.

Whilst Cargilfield also won the second half nine tries to six, it was a more even contest with some wonderful Belhaven team tries scored. Woody showed blistering pace out wide, Brixton was rewarded for some powerful running with his first Belhaven try, Archie deservedly crossed the line and Finlay & Monty each bagged another. The support running from Belhaven was fantastic, they kept the ball alive with passes out of the tackle when they could. The errors came in defense, which will need tightening ahead of the Loretto 7s.

Tries – Archie, Lochie O, Brixton, Finlay (2), Woody (2), Monty (3)
Man of the Match – Monty S