Nickname: I am known by my second name of George. This came about when I joined the Royal Navy. There were five David’s in the hut of newly enlisted recruits and to avoid confusion someone suggested that I be called by my second Christian name. I now wish that I had resisted this idea!

Age: I am 81 years old, being born on 25th January, 1935.

Period of time playing hockey:
I was born in Plymouth where hockey is not a widely played sport. When I was
introduced to Rugby Union at school I knew at once that this was my game and went
on to become the school’s 1st XV team captain. When I joined the Navy I continued
to play rugby for various Naval teams until I left at the age of 29 to train as a teacher at St Luke’s College, Exeter. It was whilst serving on board the aircraft carrier HMS Triumph that I was introduced to the game of deck hockey. This game had no rules and was played on the flight deck of the carrier with a puck made with materials bound up with insulating tape. The sticks were like old fashioned walking sticks in shape. There were no touch lines and the puck was frequently lost overboard! However, I really enjoyed these games.

I was married by the time I started studies at St Luke’s (September 1964) and stayed in digs during the week, travelling home to Plymouth at weekends. At that time St Luke’s was a national powerhouse of Rugby Union but I was unable to commit to the strenuous training schedule. Instead I began to turn out for one of the college’s hockey teams which often played games midweek and did little training.

When my two years of teaching training was over I moved to Hastings to begin teaching at the Grove Senior School, St Leonard’s (August 1966). At that time, it was an’ all boys’ school of about 450 pupils in size. I involved myself in the school sports and ran several rugby teams but soon realised that East Sussex was not a strong rugby playing area. To get games one had to travel as far as Lewes and further. Soccer was by far the main interest for boys at the Grove.

Period of time playing hockey for South Saxons:

It was shortly after I had moved to Hastings (1966) that I received a telephone call from Robin Gregory who had somehow found out that I had limited experience in hockey. I gather that he was in some difficulty keeping the Saxon 2nd XI going; Saxons only had two teams at that time. I was delighted to have the opportunity to play for a local club and it was the start of a long friendship between myself and Robin.

Robin was a very good hockey player and team captain. I was very fit at the time but Robin described my game as being like a headless chicken! He should have known as he was a chicken farmer from whom I would often purchase six ready plucked chickens!

I continued playing for Saxon’s until ???(1990’s) I would have continued to play longer but an injury forced me to retire. At that time, we were playing light hearted summer hockey at the Swattenden School with the permission of Ted Rayner the headmaster. Ted played for a Saxon team. During one game in the summer holidays, a wild swing from a guest player (a doctor!) hit me full in the face badly cutting my lip and dislodging several of my front teeth. This was at a time when gum shields were not widely used. The doctor had a friend working at Battle Hospital who had a lot of experience at treating professional boxers for cut lips and so it was to Battle that I was taken. He made an excellent job of stitching my lip. I later went to Nick Matthew’s father, a dentist and I think a former Saxon player. Nick gave me the bad news that if I had another injury to my mouth he would not be able to repair it. It was at this stage that I decided it would be best for me to give up hockey, a decision I felt very sad about.

Best memories:

Moving to Sussex from Devon meant that I had little knowledge of the countryside around Hastings. Many Saturdays I was a passenger in Brian Collin’s posh car taking me to some obscure town or village. This was a great way to discover Sussex and Kent. Few clubs had their own clubhouse and there were some strange arrangements for getting changed and showered after a match. Refreshments were often in a public house or hotel, warmed by a large open fire with plenty to eat.

The 2nd XI’s first fixture of the season was with Rye. We had a touchy teacher as our umpire and Rye had a similar character as their umpire. Not long after the start of the game the two umpires had a disagreement about which part of the pitch each was responsible for. The game had to come to a halt whilst the umpires had a furious argument and it took the two team captains a lot of time and effort to calm the situation down. Later that season we had a fixture at Canterbury and I noticed a home team knocking up before their game. This was surprising as I knew that the Rye club had ceased to exist. It seemed that they had not bothered to let any teams know of this on their fixture list!

Soon after I started teaching at the Grove School the new all-weather hockey pitch was put down. This was for the use of the local community, financed by the London boroughs for their overspill folk being settled in Hastings. At the same time, a large group of boys aged 13 to 14 moved from the lower school to the upper school and were therefore able to use this facility. Amongst this group of lads were Simon Bollom, Roger Coleman, Steve Boswell, Neil Hatch, Tony Garrick and several other promising young players. I was able to supervise practices after school and arrange games with other schools. We had some notable victories and as a result I was asked to manage the Sussex under 15 county team. Many of the Grove and Hastings Grammar school boys played in county teams and at one time the Grove could field a team of players all of whom had played at county level. For the first time the Sussex under 15 hockey team won the Southern Counties Championship.

Two other developments had implications for the club. I found myself skipper of the 5th XI and was able to play many of these promising youngsters in the team. I think before I took over, the 5th XI was always subject to changes to the team due to the requirements of the higher teams for replacements due to sickness, etc. I wanted stability for the team so that the youngsters could mature and the team become strong. I managed this by having the best of the youngsters playing constantly for the team whilst having a small pool of other players who could turn out for the higher XI’s when required. The 5th XI had three or four senior players who would give lifts to the youngsters to far away games. This system worked well but eventually became undone when a senior team was due to play after the 5th XI on the Grove all-weather pitch and realised the quality and skill of many of the 5th XI players! However, when specific players were asked for by higher teams I did insist that they kept them for two or three games.

Around this time, I read an appeal in the newspaper from a Dutch youth team looking for games here in the UK. Their manager was Olav Movig who was connected to the Tilburg Club in Holland. I answered the advert and he brought his team of young Dutch internationals to play the Grove team. I mentioned to him that most of our players were older than his boys but that didn’t seem to matter. I think he was certain that his team would win. The Grove defeated them comfortably! This contact led to four Sussex school teams being The Grove, Crowborough, Hastings Grammar and Varndean 6th Form College, travelling to Tilburg to take part in a competition, and many other visits followed on. Later the Saxon senior teams also developed a relationship with the Tilburg club.

Worst memories:

The team I was playing for had a game at Sittingbourne. In the second half we were awarded a free hit just a little way forward of the goal line. Ken Boulton put the ball down and prepared to take the hit. Alarm bells began to ring in my head as Ken could strike a ball with tremendous force and I was not very far away from him. I turned and ran as fast as I could away from Ken to put some distance between us. The ball struck the back of my left wrist and I soon realised that a bone was broken. I carried on playing one handed until the end of the game! Rather than attend a hospital A and E department so far from home, with great difficulty I drove back to Hastings and went to the A and E department there. My arm was put into a plaster cast reaching up to my shoulder. It weighted a ton! Finding a comfortable position to sleep at night proved impossible. I had great difficulty carrying out my teaching duties and my predicament caused much amusement for my pupils.

Other players of my time:

My memories of other players are somewhat limited as I am not very good with dates. I may spell some names incorrectly.

Geoff Tree was a great character who did much to ensure that our grass pitches were properly prepared and marked out. His funeral service at St John’s Church was very well attended by hockey and squash players.

David Jenner was someone I came to know and admire. I seem to remember he had only one good eye.

John Seekings was very active in the club.

Alan Hooper helped to produce some very fine players at the Hastings Grammar School, one of whom was my son, Philip, now 54 and still playing for a local club in Kent.

Ted Rayner was someone I played with and I remember witnessing an incident which I think may have influenced Ted to give up playing. A game was being played on the Grove pitch and our opponents had a very small centre forward. Ted was a tall man, over 6 foot in height. Some sort of dispute arose between Ted and the centre forward, with Ted looking down on the little fellow who must have felt threatened by Ted’s presence as he swung his stick and hit Ted between the legs. Ted went down and it took several minutes for him to recover.

There was an interesting period when the club had an influx of highly skilled Asian players, one of whom had played for the Pakistan Olympic team. They were a pleasant bunch of people who had been forced to leave their country. After a short time, they moved away from Hastings to other parts of the UK.

I played many matches with John Bollom and with Richard Mockett, a friend I still meet up with.

Thoughts on the modern game:

I haven’t watched much of the modern game but it reminds me very much of the frantic deck hockey I played in the Royal Navy. I am not familiar with all the changes of rules but the most obvious change is to the rules re. ‘turning and obstructing’. It seems as if anything goes these days!

Advice to Saxons:

The modern game demands the use of astro-turf pitches and I think the club should campaign for each secondary school in Hastings and Bexhill to have one of these pitches.

Hockey is a game which is non-physical and is ideal for young players to play alongside older folk. However, it is important to consider how a youngster will socialise after a game. It is not always easy for a young player to chat to older players. What is needed is a group of three or four young players who can talk amongst themselves. If they can do this, they are more likely to retain their interest in the club.

I am out of touch with what is happening in schools, but if little hockey is played then the club should consider running a youth team.

Early in my playing time for Saxons I was Fixture Secretary for a few years. When I took over many of the old established clubs had fixture lists that had remained unchanged for many years. It was very difficult to improve a club’s fixture list but I did manage to get extra games with a few top rate clubs. The introduction of leagues has broken up the set pattern of fixtures. I am not sure what the situation is now but a good Fixture Secretary is a great asset to any club.

Conclusion:

My playing days with Saxons were very enjoyable and for three or four years after I finished playing I did some umpiring. However, with my wife’s dementia getting worse my contact with Saxons was broken. It is good to renew contact with the club this year.