The Ladies' Section
Well, what a season it has turned into so far! With challenges and delight in equal measure there is one thing that has stayed consistent and that is the quality of hockey being played every Saturday! With a delay to league hockey starting and restrictions on training and friendlies being played, the ladies took every opportunity to work on their fitness and skills and left nothing on the training field. When the season finally started at the end of September everyone was ready and raring to go!
It is fair to say that every player on every team has stepped up and played some outstanding hockey. Whether it has playing their first ever game of ladies’ hockey, scoring their first or 50th goal, keeping a clean sheet or improving their tackling, passing, off-the-ball movement or trapping, it is so evident that progress has been seen in everyone. A big well done to all of those players who have won Ladies’ Player of the Week – an award that is given to a player who goes above and beyond, either on or off the pitch – it may be dedication to training or supporting across the club, or it could be an outstanding display on the pitch. This season winners have included: Lynne Morgan, Claire Brant, Charlotte McClelland, Nadia Parsons, Lucy Downs, Gill Clegg, Marianne McClelland and Anabelle Martins-Tue.
We have adapted our training to meet the demands of whatever Tier we have been in at any given time. A big thank you to Lynne for sponsoring the lovely green and orange bibs to allow us to play intra-club games in a hygienic and safe manner! Thank you to all of our awesome coaches, led by Jackie Parsons, who have been so versatile and given us such amazing training in difficult times.
When we went into Lockdown 2 the fitness (and fun) challenges kept cohesion and unity across our hockey family. With very short notice of hockey starting again after the second lockdown there was some trepidation as we embarked into the unknown of playing without training for a month – but we got on that training pitch to make sure we made the most of every minute before we played out games that Saturday and boy did it pay off, with performances that showed it was like we had never been away!
We have missed the opportunity for social events at this time of year, but have taken every opportunity to enjoy socially distanced catch ups! One thing is for sure – we will get through the Tier 4 stint and we will be back and ready to hit the ground running for the second half of the season, whatever that may look like!
Big Love to the whole hockey family! Stay safe and see you on the other side!
Emma & Gill
The Men's Section
Since the beginning of the year, how the country has changed… Words like lockdown, furlough, unprecedented and social distancing now form large parts of our daily conversations. Facemasks, hand sanitizer and Zoom are now the tools we have become accustomed to, in order to carry on with our daily lives… We now live in bubbles and tiers and we have to book, reserve a table, and use a combination of all the words I’ve mentioned above just to be able to go for a pint at the pub! It’s a funny old world out there at the moment.
Thankfully, thankfully, thankfully, we have been able to get some hockey in; not a lot, but enough to blow off the cobwebs, get rid of some energy, meet up with some mates and keep some sanity!
Pre-season was all about what if’s and how will it work. Will it start? For how long?
After a long search, some discussion and background work, an established and respected pair of coaches were assembled to take the men’s section forward this year in Club legend Russell McQuillan and popular player, coach and umpire Ryan Croxon.
As the restrictions lessened, the training sessions began in earnest. I must mention that this would not have been possible but for the enthusiasm of Ryan Croxon, Peter Cottrell and Lynne Morgan in getting the risk assessments and Covid protocols done so we could run hockey sessions – a huge thanks to them.
Not only were our numbers swelled by some returning players from years gone by but also our outstanding colts section saw a number of Colts becoming old enough for men’s hockey. We entered our 4s into a league (a tough league too) and we set ourselves the goal of running a fifth team every week this year also.
So far, up until Christmas the training turnouts have been maintained and we now run five teams comfortably each week. All we need now is a clear run to get some more games in.
All of our men’s teams started the season strongly and built up some real momentum, only to be stopped for a month-long lockdown in the middle. The games were intermittent after that but the improvement we have seen across all of the teams, particularly in our 4s and 5s players over only a couple of months has been sensational.
We now need a renewed effort in January to restart and continue that momentum into the second half of the season. Make yourselves available at the weekends, get to training sessions and look to improve. There are still promotions to be played for in the second half of the season!
Enjoy your relative festive breaks, stay safe and see you next year where hopefully 2021 is a little less trying than 2020.
Digger
