THE MAIN OFFICERS OF THE CLUB SINCE ITS FORMATION
Whilst we were all very sorry to have to defer the 100 year Gala Dinner arranged for April 25th, it does give us time to work on the history of the Club a bit more. However, at present a lot of the documents are stored in the locked filing cabinet in the board room at the closed Short Lane site, but Wendy Coppin has started drafting a new Club history; from which I have extracted some information. Also Sue Westlake and I have been trying to compile a list of key Club officials which is shown below.
We are still cautious about how accurate it is in lots of ways and there is confusion over whether the early officials were President or Chairman of the Club or both.
In addition, we understand that the Club secretary was probably also the fixture secretary initially, as the early England handbooks for the separate Men’s and ladies Hockey Associations listed different names to those shown for the first five years of the Club or so. We can’t of course refer back to the people involved and we have very few documents and no fixture cards for the first 29 years and are still looking for a fixture card for the 1971/72 season if anyone has one please. The recent death of long time Vice President (and Club secretary in the mid sixties), Vernon Leader, not only being a great loss to all, but also a possible source of some valuable Club history. Hockey was played in Ashford prior to 1919 on the rented grounds of Mr Curtis’s Farm on Kingston Road. Initially all the lady members were also members of the Ashford Tennis Club. There is some debate around the actual date the Club was formed, one source cites September 24th 1919 when a meeting of 17 ladies and 4 men was held in the pavilion of the Ashford Athletic Association in Woodthorpe Road, when ‘Ashford Ladies Hockey Club” was formed. Mr W. A. King became the first President, Miss Ed Benson secretary and Mrs J. Paddy the team captain. The first General Meeting was held on October 30th 1919 when the Club rules were adopted. On December 17th 1919 men began playing in mixed games and the Club was renamed “Ashford Hockey Club”.
According to the official records, Ashford Ladies Hockey club was formed on March 27th 1920 and their first match was against Hounslow Hockey Club and was a 1-1 draw with Miss Cooke scoring Ashford’s first ever goal. The first recorded mixed match was against Feltham Wesley, but sadly Ashford lost 0-10.At the AGM of September 14th 1921 a 2nd Ladies XI Captain and Men’s 1st XI Captain were elected for the first time. The Men’s team were duly affiliated to the All England Men’s Hockey Association and played their first official game in November 1921, losing to Teddington hockey Club 0-6. In 1922 Major W.J. White was made President/Chairman of the Club, an office he held until 1948, a total of 26 years - incredible service by any standards, and I thought doing sixteen years was an achievement! Ian Jenkins our current Chairman has also held the office for over ten years.
Likewise, Wilfred and Stanley Neave, two early pillars of the Club, held the position of Treasurer between them from 1922 until 1949, another incredible feat; although Doreen Brown’s fifteen years as Club Treasurer (1996-2013), having also done fourteen as secretary and three as Ladies 1’s captain deserves a mention. A Miss or Mrs N.K. Gain was Ladies 1st XI skipper from 1922-27, a feat later matched by Shirley Winson from 1964-69 and Joy Ménage five times in the late seventies/eighties, and on the Men’s side recently Luke Cottrell did an eight year stint, whilst Jeff Meers was captain five times in the eighties. Whilst being President or Treasurer of the club, Wilfred Neave was also Men’s captain from 1923-7 and they were obviously very dedicated in those days. In 1939 a certain Ken Miller (the Colonel), whom the main gates at our current Short Lane are named after, joined the Club and the Second World War started - I am assured that these two events were unconnected. Ken of course was President of the Club for fourteen years in the seventies and later Jerry Haxton, Martin Smith and yours truly also served as President for ten or more years.
The club has always been a family one with many married couples holding official posts as well as family siblings, but perhaps the outstanding one is the Greatorex dynasty as Father Bob was Club treasurer, wife Jeanette (our oldest living Club member and Vice President), was third team captain and son Peter is current fixture secretary, whilst daughter Sheila (Kinnear) has been a Club Treasurer. The Brant, Cottrell, Gale, Hewes, Murray and Smith families, along with Val Baldwin and Emma Bashford – Hynes, have been (and some still are) stalwart Club members and officers over the years, and sincere apologies to those I may have missed. Whilst not decrying any of the length of sterling service of the officers in the first fifty years of the Club, there were fewer teams and no junior sides back then. Not like in the early 2000’s when six men’s, four ladies, ladies veterans and numerous junior sides were regularly being fielded. We have in the past also run two mixed sides, two indoor teams and on a couple of occasions a Ladies fifth team. Many others need their achievements acknowledged, such as Peter Cottrell’s outstanding service as Colts Manager and men’s Club captain, Gordon Smith’s fourteen years as Astro draw organiser. Ron Cooksey and Eric Rose for the grounds man work, Valerie Hardman, Joy Ménage, Steve Smith and myself did sterling work as long time fixture secretary’s as many others (senior and junior voluntary coaches) have in other posts not included in the list below. The whole Club owes a large debt of gratitude to all those listed and any member who has held any Club position in the past hundred years, the Club wouldn’t still be going without you. If anyone has any additional information or corrections to the article above and draft list of officers, please contact me.
Lynne Morgan, President AHC
