CITY of York Under-13 girls have been crowned Yorkshire Mini-Hockey champions after a tense penalty shoot-out.

They progressed to the North of England Finals in Manchester after winning the county title.

Despite trailing 2-0 to Hymers College, who had beaten them in the pool stages, York roared back to win 4-2.

They looked down and out when they trailed 2-0 with five minutes to go against the Hull side. But a breakaway goal saw a long pass from Amelia Smalley converted by Becky Harris to give them hope.

Smalley then equalised with another fine individual run and strike to ensure that the match would be settled by penalties. Hannah Longster sent her penalty just the wrong side of a post, but Nicky Shepherdson then saved to keep things level. Flick conversions from Anna Ramli and Heather Stafford and a further save from Shepherdson gave York victory.

They had they lost 1-0 to Hymers in their opening pool game but hit back to thrash Ben Rhydding 7-0 with goals from Smalley (5), Harris and Judith Evans.

Smalley and Evans were on target as York defeated Doncaster 2-1 to qualify for the semi-finals where they eased to a 4-1 victory over Wakefield.

North Yorkshire champions City of York U11 boys just failed to progress to the North regional stages. The luck of the draw went against them in the Yorkshire finals, throwing up consecutive games against their two strongest competitors.

A draw against Driffield in their first game failed to provide a strong enough launchpad for their campaign.

Despite beating Rotherham (4-0), Ben Rhydding 'B' (3-0) and Harrogate (2-0), defeats by Doncaster (2-0) and Ben Rhydding 'A' (1-0) put paid to their chances and they ended up in third place.

Outstanding throughout was captain Tom Feasby, who scored three times, including a penalty flick against Ben Rhydding 'B'.

Also among the scorers were Michael Sansoni, Will Sorby and Alfie Chase with two goals each.

Edward McCartney-Moore volunteered to keep goal after regular 'keeper Ryan Wilson became ill and pulled off some great saves.

York's U13s boys did fairly well in the Yorkshire Mini Hockey finals at Thornton School, Bradford. Three teams pulled out so they played a round-robin competition in which York had two wins, two score draws and two 1-0 defeats.

York's results were v Winterton Comp 3-0 (Arksey, Shearston, Turton), v Rotherham 2-2 (Burke 2), v Halifax 5-0 (Burke 4, Turton), v Ben Rhydding 0-1, v Sheffield 1-1 (Turton), v Scarborough 0-1.

City of York U12 girls were at Leeds Metropolitan University to play in the 'A' section of the Yorkshire Youth League.

They found the going tough against Driffield 'A' and lost 4-0. York improved in the 3-1 defeat against Wakefield 'A', Jessica Driffield scoring for York who came good in their final game, beating Harrogate 4-0 with goals from Wakefield (2), Faye Garland and Lauren Grant.

Updated: 09:08 Tuesday, March 04, 2003