Newsletter October 2016

WHC Newsletter October 2016

Junior Hockey

The Club currently has over 200 junior members, junior meaning under-18 at the beginning of September.  Many play on Saturdays but 76 are under 12.  This is a far cry from the earliest coaching sessions with a handful of children on the grass of the cricket ground.  In those days it was difficult to arrange matches as few other clubs had any provision for juniors but now there are 50 divisions in the Home Counties Girl’s League and more than 250 teams in the boys Mercian League.  This activity is supported by thousands of volunteers, coaches, managers, umpires and drivers, to whom every club owes an enormous thank you.

Wycombe girls play in the Home Counties Girl’s League which stretches from Canterbury and Southampton to Sussex with divisions from U-12 to U-18.  To give some idea of the standard the U-18 team is in the premier Division which includes Surbiton, Southgate and Reading.  So far they have played just one match, beating Trojans (Southampton) 2-1.  The boys play in the Mercian Home Counties League and the U-18’s have won their only match so far, beating Guildford 4-2.  The boys U-16 have had two comfortable wins so far, scoring 15 goals without reply.  There are two U-14 teams, the A team having lost one and the Development side having won their only  match.  The U-12A team can challenge the U-16 boys to be the team of the season so far with five wins out of five.  At the youngest level are the minis who get to play in the monthly Thames Valley Mini Festivals.  Clubs typically accept children from the age of six but this depends on the availability of coaches since you can only manage very small groups at that age.

U-10 minis at Marlow

Parallel to junior hockey at clubs is the Development Pathway which starts with County assessment and goes all the way to national level.  Congratulations to Daisy Hacking and Caroline Spence on being selected for the U-17 High Performance Assessment Camp at Lilleshall.  Also to Sam Welsh (U-16), Callum Addison and Cameron Ryall (U-18) on their selection for the Futures Cup at St Albans.  These are steps on the way to selection for the national age group squads. 

Everyone should watch the video of Daisy training on Facebook – spectacular!

Coaching News

Lisa Bennett has been nominated as Community Coach of the Year in the Wycombe District Council awards.  Congratulations.

Umpiring Courses

With only two Wycombe adult members signed up for the course that Heidi has arranged for November 6 we clearly need more.  The next available course is at Sonning in January and Heidi is planning to arrange more at Cressex.  Nobody is going to pretend that umpiring is more fun than playing but it least it’s an opportunity to learn the rules.  And the course cost is refunded.

Veterans Dinner

Mike Staight organised a most successful dinner at the Cricket Club.  About 50 attended including several who hadn’t been seen for more than ten years.  There was general agreement that the event should be held again next year, but not on a Friday when there are matches at  10.30 the next morning.

Senior Hockey

A novelty this year was the first ever live radio commentary of a WHC match.  This was local radio, Wycombe Sound, now on FM at 106.6.  The commentator had never seen a hockey match but, after a little coaching from David Stone, did very well with only the occasional lapse into football terminology.   His celebration at Paul Stock’s late winner was outstanding.  This is set to become a regular if not frequent occurrence.  Matches at Cressex will be a little simpler than those at Bisham where we are still waiting for clearance from Sport England.

The leagues are now well under way and every team has been providing coverage on Facebook.  Here are the league positions as of the end of October.