CITY of York Hockey Club's Under-18 girls put up a brave fight at the junior national indoor championships in Birmingham.

The youngsters took on the junior hockey might of Britain in the prestigious competition, which was held in front of a busy crowd at the National Indoor Arena in two days of competition last weekend.

The girls qualified after powering their way to the North of England indoor title last month, but found the cream of the country's hockey talent a step too far.

In their opening match, they narrowly lost 3-2 to Nottingham Highfields before going down 7-0 to the competition's eventual winners The Kings School, of Canterbury.

The girls also lost 8-1 to Trojans and 6-1 to Clifton. They will next line up in the early next month in the National Plate competiton against Leicester.

Elsewhere, City of York Under-10 girls performed well in their latest round of A' League matches.

After drawing 0-0 with Harrogate and Carnegie, despite dominating the games, they were unlucky to lose 1-0 to Wakefield before goals from Sally Hicks and Olivia Garnett gave them a 2-1 win over Halifax. Garnett, Hicks and Emily Watson struck in a 3-0 victory over Slazengers.

In the B' League, a breakaway goal by Fiona Hunter gave York U10 girls B' a win over Kirkless.

Izzy Hall scored in a draw with Ben Rhydding, while Rebecca Hall netted in a 1-1 draw with Leeds.

Katherine Birch scored twice and Hall got a third in a 3-2 win over Driffield.

York U10 C' were a new inexperienced side, many of whom were playing at that level for the first time.

They lost 5-0 to Doncaster, 2-0 to Wakefield, 3-1 to Slazengers B and 2-0 against Rotherham but performed valiantly for their first efforts.

Meanwhile, City of York Hockey Club's Under 10 Hawks Boys team made a flying start to their latest division one fixtures in the Yorkshire Youth League.

Their midfield was far too strong for Driffield with Tom Andrew and Andrew Abel controlling play, leaving Arran Limbert little to do in defence. This dominance led to plenty of chances and strikes from Callum Matthewson, Stefan Solanki and Henry Wilson (2) gave York a 4-0 victory.

Harrogate caught York cold in the next game, cashing in on slack defence to grab an early two-goal lead. York pulled a goal back when Andrew fired home from the top of the D' and pressed hard for an equaliser but York could not find an equaliser.

Ben Rhydding A' and York were then involved in an great match in which both sides produced some excellent hockey.

York almost scored after three minutes when they beat the Ilkley side's defence only to see Solanki's shot shave the outside of the post. However, a few minutes later, he put York 1-0 up.

Ben Rhydding grabbed an equaliser and with two minutes remaining scored the winner.

York's final game against newly-promoted LA Carnegie produced a 6-0 victory.

Good movement and passing led to goals from Matthewson, Solanki, Wilson (3) with the identity of the fifth goal uncertain after the ball was hit in a packed D'.

City of York U16 boys travelled to Doncaster for their January league matches.

They lost 3-1 to Normanby Park in their first match - Ian Lynn getting a consolation goal, before regrouping and defeating Slazengers 3-1 with Tom Feasby, David McDermottroe and Tom Brown netting. That was followed up with a 4-0 win against Ben Rhydding, Brown and Lynn again in the goals.

York Falcons, playing in division two, had five players making their league debuts. Although they didn't win a match they played some good hockey at times.