With weary inevitability, the weather turned cold again for the Kobras trip to Peffermill for the Inverleith Tournament and parents endured several more hours of freezing cold touchlines. That said the hockey more than compensated. Inverleith is a huge event, with games running on two pitches simultaneously and brining the chance to play old foes as well as trying our luck against some less familiar opponents, including some from the strongest clubs in the east of Scotland.
We pitched up with one team at each age group: U10, U12 and U15 and it's fair to say that we had typical Kobras performances: winning more than we lost but occasionally slipping up against teams that we could have beaten. The old curse of sleeping our way through the first matches was also in evidence, at least at U12.
What was heartening about the whole day was the level of commitment from everyone. Kinross teams are showing themselves to be tough cookies at every age group and, particularly at U10, bodies were being put on the line to keep the opposition out. Very few teams we came up against were able to dominate us, and we always gave a good account of ourselves.
There's still lots for everyone to learn in terms of technique and particularly teamplay, but we're heading in the right direction.
