Skip To Main Content

Barcelona Hockey Tour 2025

Barcelona Hockey Tour 2025

The end of the Christmas break provided the opportunity for the Boys’ Hockey 1st XI to start their pre-season training and improve their fitness and skills on a tour to Barcelona. Sixteen boys and three members of staff headed to Spain for five days from 2nd - 5th January. 

Director of Sport and Wellbeing, Tony Diprose said:

Sports tours are a great opportunity to complement school sport with match play and training in a new setting, against opponents from beyond our usual fixture lists. They also provide valuable experiences for team bonding and development, and create sporting memories which last a lifetime. This training tour to Barcelona was a fantastic opportunity for the boys and should stand them in good stead for the season ahead.

1st XI Captain Leo shares his account of the experience:

Day 1

It was an early start for the boys at Heathrow. After a quick journey we settled into the hotel. After a bit of downtime and unpacking we made our way to our first training session. Some tired legs from the flight were quickly worn off with JB’s and Seb’s warm up, including a small, sided football match where the old boys took the win. The session started to make links between the team with the new additions to the team. After the training session we headed back. Some of us decided to use the hotel to our advantage and head to the pool, which was around 3 degrees, we all quickly jumped out, but the recovery was worth it. We then had our first team dinner which was a lovely 3 course meal enjoyed by everyone.

Day 2

Early wake up for a training session in the morning. We enjoyed the view of Barcelona from the training session working on our short corners and some attack vs defence, putting the final few pieces together. After that a quick stop off at the hotel for a 3 course meal for lunch getting the boys fuelled and ready for our first match. Also Mrs Clinton made sure nobody had sore legs by making sure we spent 2 minutes in the Baltic swimming pool which had mixed opinions from the team due to the temperature. Shout out to JB for staying in the pool the longest, and the team for completing the session. The first match was against the Catalan U16 national team which we unfortunately lost 3-0. As it was our first match together as a team we were not discouraged by the result but more motivated about the potential the team had to play together. This day finished off pretty quickly after dinner as everyone was tired and needed some recovery sleep.

Day 3

Day 3 was a busy day for us. It started with an early wake up to play the hosts RC Polo. The match was very promising where we held on for a long time but unfortunately conceding in the 3rd quarter as well as JB getting injured from a stick connecting with his finger. We unfortunately lost the match 2-0 but it was very promising as it was the best scoreline in the tournament against them as they later went on to win their tournament. After the match the vibes were still high as we were off to have some crepes before going to watch FC Barca futsal. This was a great experience with the atmosphere being very high, but similarly to us unfortunately Barca lost their match. From this it was a quick turnaround for the gala dinner which was at the RC Polo club where we socialised with other teams and Mass prepared a speech in Spanish, but unfortunately did not get to perform it.

Day 4

Another early start for the boys, this is when you could tell the fatigue was kicking in. After a filling breakfast the boys were off to play Braxgata HC from Belgium who were also playing for there first win of the tournament. From the worry of the boys not having high hopes for this match, we proved everyone wrong starting off strong and putting on the pressure, but unfortunately conceding early on to a well worked goal from them. The second half was a different story where we controlled most of the possession and this lead to Sam W using his ‘magic hands’ creating a chance for Massimo B to serve the ball into the oppositions net. With 16 minutes to go it was all to play for. In the last minute after getting a bit physical Adam D won a free hit which he took quickly to areal the ball over to Leo V who controlled it and played it into the box missing the 3 Canfordians in the box, but our saviour George G coming behind them picking the ball up and pushing it into the bottom corner lead to us winning the game in the last minute. After this the vibes were very high as we got our first win of the season and it was looking promising for a later start in the morning the next day. We then walked around Barcelona looking at the famous sights and visiting some stores, this was a great experience to see around such a beautiful city. We then had some lunch by the beach following that was a cable car to the top of the mountain, which was scenic and enjoyed by the boys. From this we made our way back to the hotel where we enjoyed a little walk down the beach for an ice-cream seeing the beautiful sunset, and Gabe D finishing off his stylish outfit with a Brazilian football shirt bought from the street vendors. Our day came to an end at Casanova with pizza/pasta meal as a team. Again the vibes were impeccable with the boys spirits extremely high ready for the next match.

Day 5

Thankfully from us winning yesterday it was a later start than the previous days. After breakfast the boys packed up and were ready to head to the polo club one last time. We played Athletic Terrassa HC, which ended in a 2-1 win. It was a convincing win and a good way to finish off the tour. After this the boys got changed, had some food and watched the final where good hockey was on display and RC Polo winning the tournament with a convincing win over the Dutch team. After this some of the boys stood on the sideline trying to trade some kit, like always, Gabe D with his words managed to secure himself some stash. From this we all headed to the airport and flew home.

Thank you to the boys for making this tour so enjoyable, the parents who came out to support, and Mr Collison, Mr Davis and Mrs Clinton for making the tour so enjoyable and run so smoothly.