Despite winning the English Hockey League, Leicester suffered another Premiership Final disappointment at the weekend when Reading, who finished third in the League, beat them 3-2 at Cannock. To be honest, it was a fair result as despite plenty of pressure, Leicester carved out few clear chances and Reading took just about all the opportunities that they created.

The game began with an emotional presentation of a bouquet to defender Gemma Darrington. Darrington has been a top Leicester player for several seasons, despite only turning 24 later this week. She has been capped by both England and Great Britain and until last week had very real aspirations for London 2012.

Sadly, the Performance team at England Hockey determined last week that Gemma was no longer part of the GB training set up and she took the opportunity, with her 2012 dream over, to activate the Army officer training at Sandhurst that she had planned to take up after 2012.

It brought home to me, working on 2012 Legacy for young people, just how tough it is in the world of top level Olympic sport. Someone’s personal Olympic torch can be easily extinguished by injury or not fitting the bill with selectors and coaches. I feel gutted for her as she is a great player, 100% dedicated and a true Leicester player, through and through. Now she will focus on her planned career and as a club we lose a top player and club-mate.

I think the emotion effected Darrington as very early in the game she gifted a pass to a Reading forward who switched the ball to Jo Ellis in the circle and she flashed a shot in at Maddie Hinch’s near post and into the roof of the net.

Darrington was excellent throughout the rest of the game, doing a great marking job on the very dangerous Alex Danson but the early damage was done. Beckie Herbert did not take long to equalise, seizing on a defensive muddle to net from close range and then the game ebbed and flowed with neither side getting a grip. Leicester could not buy a penalty corner despite several shouts but when Reading got their first England skipper Kate Walsh stepped up to fire past Hinch who seemed unsighted by her defence.

Leicester pressed for much of the rest of the half but could not score or win a corner but just before half-time Reading took advantage of another corner as Emma Thomas touched home a bouncing ball for a very soft third.

Coach Chris Mayer must have been wondering how his side was 3-1 down at half-time but whatever words he chose did the trick as Leicester pulled a goal back almost instantly in the second half when the ball came up off a defender and Anne Panter guided it in at chest height for 3-2. The second half was pretty much all Leicester but, despite eventually being given a couple of corners, Leicester’s efforts were kept out by GB goalkeeper, Beth Storry, and the match ended 3-2. A touch of deja vu for Mayer and his players after Slough’s smash and grab raid last year.

There is still European hockey to look forward to over the Easter weekend when the side travels to Holland to play in the European Champions Cup. Losing to Slough last year means that Leicester’s group contains two national champions in Den Bosch, the hosts and European champions for most of the last ten seasons, and Royal Antwerp from Belgium.

The Den Bosch game on Saturday will be very tough but a top Leicester performance could see the team spring a surprise. They ought, realistically, to beat Royal Antwerp in Sunday’s match and guarantee themselves a quarter final spot on Monday against either Berlin or Terrassa from Spain; neither will be an easy game. Should Leicester win then the side would be back into Europe for semis and final a few weeks later. It would be great to see them reach that stage and be in with a chance of a European outdoor medal.

Elsewhere in the club there was more disappointment for the Under 16 side in the National U16 Finals at Canterbury. Up against much more experienced sides they lost 3-0 to the champions of the last few years in their opening match, despite keeping the game to 0-0 at half-time. A strong Teddington side won by the same score on Sunday morning but a gutsy performance against Bournemouth in the afternoon saw a 2-2 draw with goals from Abbie McArthur and Amelia Milton earning Leicester a point. The girls worked hard throughout and will have learned so much for next season’s challenges.

The U14s were also disappointed in their Midlands Finals. In the first half of their match against Buckingham it was one-way traffic and Leicester could and should have scored four goals. The game stayed goalless but Buckingham came out strongly in the second half and scored three goals. Again, Leicester made chances but failed to score. Playing straight after such a game could have been tricky but Leicester lifted themselves and won 2-1 against Witney with Holly Mould scoring both. With 10 and 11-year-olds in the side, we were the youngest there and could take a great deal of encouragement from performance if not both results.

Away from the hockey it was brilliant on Friday night to see the superb Flying Past Stars on Silver Wings at Curve. Organised by Ellesmere College under the direction of Bloom Dance this wonderful inclusive dance show featured youngsters from city and county schools including special school pupils, some of whom were wheelchair users. Witty and warm the show left us all feeling the world to be a pretty good place. I was very proud of Folville Junior School pupils, where I am a governor, they did the school proud, but so did the kids from all the schools and the Bloom dancers.

Tomorrow I am very excited to be welcoming Chris Holmes, Director of Paralympic Integration, to the county. A blind Paralympian himself, Chris will be visiting RNIB College, Loughborough College, Sacred Heart Catholic Primary, Loughborough University and SportPark and meeting a mixture of London 2012 hopefuls and youngsters inspired by London 2012. More on his visit next time.