State selection for Warwick hockey player

SOUTHERN Downs hockey players recognised after state championships in Townsville.

TOP EFFORT: Samuel Bourke after making his first Queensland team in hockey. Picture: Gerard Walsh

HOCKEY: Warwick player Samuel Bourke has made a state team for the first time after playing strongly at the Queensland 10-12 years championships in Townsville.

He goes to school at Scots PGC and plays hockey in Warwick for Poole's Produce Blue under-13 team on a Saturday morning at Queens Park. He is only in his third year of hockey.

Downs players Ella Hagenbach, Isla Rickert, Samuel Bourke, Kai Hill, Alex Maddison and (front) Briana Groves in Townsville. Picture: Contributed

Samuel played in defence as part of the Darling Downs boy's team which won the state championships. They had to win on the last day against Northern to win the title.

He won the most improved player award for Darling Downs in Townsville.

Samuel will play for Queensland in the nationals in August at Bendigo in Victoria.

Alex Maddison from Clifton State School and Kai Hill from Allora State School were also in the winning team .

Ella Hagenbach from St Patrick's School, Allora, was selected as a shadow player for the Darling Downs girls team.

She played strongly at centre half for the Darling Downs team which finished fifth in the state championships.

It is the first state selection for Ella who has played hockey since the age of five. She is one of four shadows named for Queensland.

If she is called up to play for Queensland, she will follow in the footsteps of her father Matt who played for Queensland and Australia in junior grades and her great-grandmother Thora Morgan who played senior hockey for Queensland while living in Allora.

Warwick player Briana Groves was goalie for Darling Downs and was presented with the players' player award on the final day of the carnival.

Isla Rickert from St Francis de Sales at Clifton was in the girls' team which recovered from three first-day losses to finish fifth with four wins from nine games.

They lost 1-0 to eventual winners Metropolitan North after having a goal disallowed.

The carnival was played on four fields, two grass and two turf fields that were totally reconstructed after this year's floods in Townsville.

The boys and girls carnivals were held concurrently in Townsville over four days.