NEWPORT Free Grammar School added the under-13 county championship to the under-16 title their girls won a couple of weeks earlier by beating Kimbolton 2-0 in a keenly contested final. Claire Wyatt gave Newport an early lead but they were unable to exte

NEWPORT Free Grammar School added the under-13 county championship to the under-16 title their girls won a couple of weeks earlier by beating Kimbolton 2-0 in a keenly contested final.

Claire Wyatt gave Newport an early lead but they were unable to extend this before half time.

With just five minutes left it appeared that Newport had scored again as Wyatt's shot rifled into the corner of the goal and out the back.

The umpire initially signalled a goal but his decision was questioned and after some consultation the decision was that it had narrowly missed the goal.

Fortunately it was not to affect the result as a couple of minutes later Wyatt struck again to put the result beyond doubt.

Earlier Newport had made hard work of getting through from the pool stages.

Wyatt and Brooke White both hit hat-tricks against Ely Hockey Club, but the next game was against Kimbolton and after going a goal down almost immediately Newport came back strongly to score twice through Wyatt.

However, slack marking then allowed Kimbolton back into the game and

then as they pressed for a winner getting caught twice on the break.

Swavesey Village College were the next opponents and Wyatt again led the way with four goals to which White added a brace and Kate Pitfield another.

With Kimbolton having lost to St John's it meant that Newport needed to beat St John's by two clear goals to go level on points and edge through on goal difference. Again it was Wyatt who scored twice to take Newport through to the semi finals.

In the semi final against Peterborough Hockey Club, Elizabeth Roberson gave Newport an early lead.

However it did not last for long for from the restart Peterborough hit the ball forward and a neat deflection took the ball wide of the Newport keeper to equalise.

Newport came close a few times in the dying minutes but could not force the winner so the tie had to be decided on a penalty stroke shoot out.

Pitfield and Wyatt both scored whilst Peterborough missed their first and Olivia Doust made an excellent save from the second to put Newport through to the final.