Qormi Hockey Nursery

On Saturday 5th May, Qormi Under 14s played their last match of the season. Although it was of no importance the result of this match, Qormi played one of their best matches of the season, getting laso the biggest win , a 9-0 against Sliema. This win also meant that apart of winning this category for teh 6th year running, it also meant that this was the 3rd consecutive year that Qormi won all matches in the competition. The last time that Qormi lost a match in the Under 14 competitions we must go back to 18th April 2009!!!!! As from that date Qormi Under 14s played 22 mathces and won them all!!!!   

For the last match of the Season Piscopo chose Owen Borg between poles. Clayton Gatt supported from Andre Deguara and Kurt Grixti at the back. Keith Bajada and Roland Said in midfield supported sole striker Ismael Azzopardi. In this match the Qormi team gave a display of great teamwork and the ball moved impressively with accurate passing and very good running off the ball. Deguara on the right flank was a headache to the Sliema defense, while Bajada and Saidmastered the middle of the pitch and found each other very easily.

In the 1st minute Qormi opened the score from Said and this also made it easier for the Qormi players to set the pace. After 9 year old Luke Bajada and Omar Hammad came in, Qormi managed to double the score.

In the 2nd part of the match Piscopo introduced on the pitch Kurt Darmanin and Francesca Cutajar at the back, while Marylin Borg and Isamel Azzopardi played a midfield reole. Team skipper and usually keeper, Shamison Mifsud together with Thomas Taliana played upfront.

The 2nd half was a one way match. Said scored a brace (personal hattrick), Luke Bajada added another, skipper Mifsud a brac. Keith Bajada scored one, while Thomas Taliana closed the curtain with the 9th and his personal 1st ever official goal!

Starting line up: O.Borg, C.Gatt, A.Deguara, K.Grixti, K.Bajada, R.Said, I.Azzopardi

Used subs: O.Hammad, K.Darmanin, F.Cutajar, M.Borg, L.Bajada, S.Mifsud, T.Taliana

Well done to all the players and especially to Owen and Joseph! 

On Monday Qormi 9-a-side team, was confimred as 9-a-side champions for the 4th year running. But this also meant that for the 3rd consecutive year Qormi has won All National Leagues in All categories!

This clearly shows that Qormi are totally dominating the domestic Hockey competiutions for the last 3 years!

However Steve Tanti, assisted by Owen PIscopo, had a hard nut to crack this season. With Qormi opting to loan 4 players to White Hart so they get senior 1st team experience, Tanti lost 4 important players from his team. However Tanti showed trust in the new kids coming from the Nursery setup and introduced several players to get their 1st experiencxe in the 9-a-side.

In fact Tanti introduced 15 year old defender Bernice Calleja, 14 year old midfielders Isaac Mansueto and Glen Bonello and striker Kyle MIcallef. During the last few matches Roland Said was also utilized in the 9-a-side.Together with these players, however in their 2nd season in the 9-a-side where keeper Jonathan Fenech and Kym Bianco which are still from the current under 16 side.

The season was hardly fought against White Hart, that had 4 of our own players that are on loan, and Rabat. However the Qormi team never lost a match, with the last match being in a forthnight against bottom classified Sliema, the team is still unbeaten.

Qormi 9-a-side utilized Squad: Tyrone Vella, Jonathan Fenech, Ryan Brincat, Juan Sarcia, Rudolph Camilleri, Bernice Calleja, Kym Bianco, Rebecca Mifsud, Christian Sammut, Isaac Mansueto, Justin Bonello, Keith Calleja (Capt.), Glen Bonello, Julian Zahra, Kyle MIcallef, Roland Said, Ramon Chircop 

Well done to all, especially to Steve and Owen for their great job with our future senior players!

On Saturday at the Floriana hockey pitch, Qormi Under 12s managed to win the festival and confirm themselves as National champions for the 6th year in a row!

For the 2nd festival, Qormi took part with 2 teams as already done in the 1st festival. The 1st encounter was between our 2 teams. Williams taking care of the 1st team selected an attacking formation, while Calleja opted for a more defensive aproach. However, the 1st team was superioir and managed to win 3-0 the Qormi derby with a brace from Bajada and another one from skipper Dimech.

In the 2nd match Qormi B face Floriana. For this match Calleja's team played much beter and manage dto beat the home team 2-0 with a brace from Azzopardi.

In the last match Qormi 1st team faced Floriana in a balanced game and a goal from EDaniel ELlul made all the difference.

After this festival Qormi 1st team has a total of 12 points while Qormi B has 8. Floriana stands 3rd with 3 points. With only 1 festival remaining Qormi are mathematically champions while Qormi B will need to finish over Floriana to keep the 2nd place. 

On Saturday Qormi Under 14 has beaten Stelmar and confirmed the 6th title in 6 years! This is a new national record as no other club managed to do so.

Stelmar being the closest opponent to the Qormi team, tried to stop the Qormi team from registering the 8th win in so many games. However Qormi although not playing at their best, manage dto win 4-1 teh match, with the result showing clearly the difference in level betwen the two teams.

Piscopo started with skipper, Mifsud between poles while Gatt, Deguara and Hammad on the back line. After the very good displays in the friendlies, Piscopo opted for Grixti in midfield together with Bajada. Said being the only striker.

After few minutes Qormi opened the score with Deguara, while in the last few minutes of the 1st half Under 10 Luke Bajada managed to double the score after going around teh keeper.

In the 2nd half Qormi kept on atacking and 2 other goals, on efrom Said and teh other from Luke Bajada again, brought the score to 4-0. However in the last few minutes Stelmar managed to get a concolation goal to a 4-1 final result.

With this win Qormi are mathematically Under 14 national league champions although still one game has to be played in a forthnight.

Starting line up: S.Mifsud (Capt.), C.Gatt, A.Deguara, O.Hammad, K.Grixti, K.Bajada, R.Said

Used Subs: O.Borg, K.Darmanin, M.Borg, F.Cutajar, I.Azzopardi, L.Bajada  

On Wednesday Qormi Under 15s team faced the English side of St.Marist during their training camp in Malta. Ghio took the occasion to give some experience to the upcoming kids rather then the Under 15s usual players.

Owen Borg began between poles while at the back Clayton Gatt together with Shawn Dimech where supported from Francesca Cutajar and Omar Hammad on the flanks. In Midfield Qormi played with Kurt Grixti in the pivot position together with DeGiovanni and Roland Said. Upfront Ismael Azzopardi together with Andre Deguara and Glen Bonello on his sides.

Qormi began on the attack and just after 3 minutes Said opened the score. good passing was very evident and good passing and moving without the ball showed immedietly the difference between the teams. Azzopardi scored 3 in a row while Bonello and Said added another 2. 

After 20 minutes Kurt Darmanin came on the flanks while Shamison MIfsud came in the unusual role of a striker. With Mansueto and Micallef geting in midfiled Qormi kept on dominating with Mifsud scoring another 3 goals together with one from Mansueto to a half time result of 10-0   

In the 2nd half Qormi kept on where they left in the 1st half. Darmanin attacked from the right back position and was a consisiting head ache for the St.Marist team. Grixti in midfiled was controlling easily and supported Said and DeGiovanni very well. in the 2nd half Azzopardi scored another hattrick, Shamison added another one while Dimech and Micallef closed the scorers list.

Starting line up: O.Borg, C.Gatt, S.Dimech, O.Hammad, F.Cutajar, K.Grixti, R.Said, T.DeGiovanni, A.Deguara, G.Bonello, I.Azzopardi

Subs used: K.Darmanin, I.Mansueto, K.MIcallef, S.Mifsud, A.C.Falzon

Next Saturday the Under 14s will be meeting Stelmar in a match that, if Qormi do not loose the Qormi Under 14 will be crowned National champions for a Record of 6 years in a row.

                                             Qormi Under 14s that  Saturday will be facing Stelmar

After last weekend the Under 12s took the 1st points in this year competition, today the 14s took part in the annual international tournament , the Malta Rally.

Qormi began the festival with a poor performance against Floriana. However still Qormi had several chances to open the score. As the game was closing down Qormi got a last minute short corner from which Said managed to score the all important goal. In the 2nd match Qormi faced Sliema. During this match Qormi played much better and scored after few minutes again from Roland Said. Although having several chances failed to increase the result to a final score of 1-0

In the 3rd game Qormi faced White Hart 16s. In this game Qormi showed superiority through the match and in the 15 minutes game managed to score 3 times (R.Said, K.Micallef, K.Bajada). With the Qormi team already in the final the match against Redmaids gave an opportunity to Piscopo to use more the 2nd string players of the team. However these kids showed their potential and beat Redmaids 2-0, with a brace from Said.

In the final Qormi faced the Redmaids. In this match the Qormi kids showed total superiority and toaly dominated the match winning 3-0, goals from Said with a brace and Micallef.

Players used: S.Mifsud, O.Borg, C.Gatt, K.Bajada, K.Darmanin, O.Hammad, F.Cutajar, I.Azzopardi, S.Dimech, I.Mansueto, K.Grixti, A.Deguara, R.Said, T.Taliana, L.Bajada, K.Micallef 

Next weekend Qormi Under 14 will be facing Stelmar in a match that a point will give the 6th consecutive National championship to the Qormi team. If this happens this will be another record breaking since no other Under 14 managed to win the competition for 6 years in a row.

On Saturday, 31st March, Kyle was part of the team that managed to win the 4th consecutive under 16 title in a row. As everyone anticipated Qormi 16s needed a single point from this game, but instead managed to get the full points with a trashing 11-1 result.

However during the same game Kyle was breaking a personal landmark by reaching the 250 personal goal in his 6 playing seasons for the club. In fact Kyle scored a hatrick on the day and reached a total of 252 goals. During this season, Till date Kyle scored 34 times for the Under 16 and another 6 times for the 9-a-side team. However his overall best season was surely 2010-11 scoring an impressive 65 times for the club (46 goals Under 14 and 19 goals Under 16).

Well done Kyle and keep on scoring!!!!

In the overall scorers list for the club, in 2nd place there is under 16 skipper Thmoas DeGiovanni with 238 goals. In 3rd place Thomas senior brother, Zachary DeGiovanni(109 goals), that is currently on loan with White Hart. In 4th place and on the brink of getting over the 100 goals landmark is Luke Brincat with 95 goals.  

Left photo Kyle in action vs Triglav in Slovenia. Right photo during a kids training session on Saturdays

On Saturday Beginners coach Keith Calleja decided to dedicate some time to the future of HOckey giving half an hour to 3 young kids in their 1st steps in hockey!

For whoever knows Keith, this is nothing new .... until you notice the age of these 3 young kids!!!!!!

Keep it up Keith!!!!!

Qormi 16s on Sturday 31st March manage to win the National League for the 4th time in a row and the 6th time in 7 years. This was the 1st time that a Club managed to win this title for 4 years in a row. This was also the 8th title in history for Qormi HC in the Under 16 category.

Qormi 16s needed a point from this game, however the Qormi players went down concentrated for both points to keep the title for another year. Ghio chose Fenech between poles, while opted for 2 central defenders instead of the normal 3 at the back. In fact Calleja and Sammut formed the back line. In midfield Qormi had 3 players with skipper DeGiovanni as pivot, Brincat and Manueto on the sides. Upfront with 2 players, Bonello and Micallef.

It just took 1minute 30 seconds and froma well passed through ball Bonello opened the score. On the 3rd minute Micallef doubled the result and this helped to calm the Qormi players and enjoy playing hockey. In fact the Qormi players gave an excellent display of hockey and made understand to everyone why they have been reconfirmed Maltese champions.

In the 2nd half Farrugia between poles together with Bianco, Cutajar, Said, Falzon and Bajada played a good part and continued where the team left in the 1st half to a final result of 11-1 (scorers Micallef 3, Bonello 2, DeGiovanni 2, Falzon 2, Sammut, Mansueto)

After the match the HAM Presidernt Mr Busuttil Leaver presented the well deserved trophy to the Under 16s Maltese Champions skipper Thomas DeGiovanni.

However this game also mared the last junior match for keeper Jonathan  Fenech, defender Kym Bianco and midifielder Charlo Sammut. We wish them luck in the seniors career and thank them for their commitment in the Juniors setup through the years.

Starting line up: J.Fenech, B.Calleja, C.Sammut, L.Brincat, T.DeGiovanni, I.Mansueto, G.Bonello, K.Micallef

Used subs: J.Farrugia, K.Bianco, K.Bajada, J.Cutajar, R.Said, A.C.Falzon

On  Saturday, Qormi Under 14s faced Sliema in one of the last 3 matches that will make the way for the 6th consecutive Under 14 National league. If this will occur Qormi will be breaking a new record of consecutive Under 14 league titles as no other club ever managed to win the Under 14 National League for 6 times in a row.

On the day Qormi faced Sliema. Piscopo had A.Deguara and F.Cutajar missing due to sickness. Skipper Mifsud beagn between poles, while Grixti took the central defensive position. Hammad and Gatt played on the flanks. In midfield Bajada together with Said in midfield, while Azzopardi played for the 1st time as striker.

This gave immidiete effect as just after 4 minutes O.Hammad intercepted a ball on the right side, he passed immedietly to K.Bajada that passed through the Sliema defense . The ball was intercepted at the base line by R.Said that passed to I.Azzopardi which deflected into the open goal. This goal gave a big boost to Qormi and after another 5 minutes Said scored after being set by K.Bajada in front of goal. After a few minutes L.Bajada deflected the 3rd goal.

In the 2nd half Qormi kept on going. With O.Borg between goal, K.Darmanin and J.Borg at the back line together with Taliana upfront, Qormi kept on going. In fact Said scored another 3 goals while K.Bajada scored a brace to a final result of 8-0.

Qormi under 14s now need a point in the last 2 matches to keep the title for a record of 6 consecutive years.

Staring line up: S.Mifsud (Capt.), K.Grixti, O.Hammad, C.Gatt, K.Bajada, R.Said, I.Azzopardi

Used subs: O.Borg, K.Darmanin, J.Borg, L.Bajada, T.Taliana