Swindon’s Junior Flames are officially the sixth best young skater hockey team in the land after an impressive showing at the 2009 BiSHA National Junior Championships.

Held at the Lord Roberts Sport Centre in Bisley, Flames qualified for a slot in the sports annual flagship competition by finishing third in the SASH League.

After losing their opening game against the Borehamwood Kings 1-0, Flames went into their face-off with the Brighton Street Stormers needing a victory to book their place in the knockout places.

Flames started brightly and were rewarded for their efforts in the fifth minute when Luke Swaby broke from the back and rifled the ball past the Stomers netminder.

Stomers equalised almost immediately before Flames recaptured the lead through a strike from Craig Davies.

The second period saw the Flames turn the screw and a two-minute blitz on the Stomers netminder saw the Flames extend the lead to 5-1 with strikes from Tom Ireland, James Townsend and Tom Poole.

With the game effectively over the Flames cruised to the final whistle with another goal from Ireland taking them to a convincing 6-1 victory and a slot in the quarter-finals.

In the quarters, Flames took on much-fancied Wigan Warlords from the Bisha Northern League and they swept Flames aside with an emphatic 6-0 win.

Day two of the tournament saw Junior Flames battling for their national ranking as they faced off, in the first of their play-off games, against the London Street Warriors.

Flames found their stride immediately and unanswered goals from Townsend, Davies and Ireland saw the Flames to 3-0 lead at the break.

A further strike from Poole sealed a 4-1 win and a slot in the fifth/sixth place play-off. against previous foes Borehamwood.

Davies and Matt Baxter were on target for Swindon but it was Borehamwood who took the spoils winning 4-2.