Wotton under Edge Hockey Club

Club Day & AGM
Though it already seems like a lifetime ago, we again held a well attended and thoroughly enjoyable club day back on 21st April. While Wotton and the surrounding areas were getting a soaking the sun shined on us at Thornbury and the day produced its usual mix of classic banter, weird and wonderful partnerships via a mix of age, gender and ability and not forgetting of course some good hockey!
We followed this up with our AGM on 26th April. Grateful thanks should go to our senior officers who are stepping down this year: Alan Hooper (Chair), Leila Grey (Secretary) and Lianne Hoyle (Treasurer). We've made some supplemental appointments post AGM but FYI the current line up of management committee and playing officers looks as follows:

Chairman Stuart Emms
Secretary Myra Patterson
Treasurer Simon Wells

Men's 1s Captain James Cruickshank
Ladies 1s Captain Cathy York
Ladies 2s Captain Katy Cruickshank
Ladies 1s v/capt Jasmin George
Ladies 2s v/capt Corina Whitear

Fixture Secretaries Alan Hooper (men), Jas George (ladies)
Pitch Bookings Alan Hooper
WCSF Rep Mark Patteson
Fundraising Gideon York

As you will note volunteers are still needed in key areas: Men's 2s captain, Vixens coaching, more volunteers to serve on fundraising / social sub-committees, Sharron Bates has expressed an intention to hand over the reigns on the junior side so we will need more assistance from senior players and parent volunteers in that area too.
If any members or parents would like to speak to me regarding these roles or indeed any other areas of expertise they can lend to the club (design, fundraising et al) then we'd love to hear from you.

Summer League - Men & Ladies
Not that you would know it from the weather, but 'Summer' League has been going on, with all of our teams doing well. The ladies XI has been giving the opportunity to many of our younger players with no drop off in results, with some memorable wins and the chance for various players to try their hand at captaincy by wearing the armband. The men are running two teams this year with the 1s not having lost only 1 game and the 2nd 'development' XI winning and losing games in equal measure but playing a large amount of older badgers - recently claiming the scalp of the league leaders. All good stuff...

Men's & Ladies League Restructure 2012/13
As mentioned in previous updates, both the men's and ladies leagues are restructuring for 2012/13. I attached a summary of the men's changes in my last email but I've reattached a one pager showing the new league placements for reference. Before anybody asks, no I don't know where on earth they got those division names from; if in doubt blame the Welsh :)
On the ladies side though the names of the division the Ladies 1s will play in hasn't changed the make up of the teams therein has; it essentially means less travelling and more local derbies against teams this side of Gloucester and North of Bristol. Similarly, the Ladies 2s will play in Severn 3 and though this division only has 8 teams, clubs will play each other 3 times so they will play a similar amount of league games to the rest of us. The ladies changes need ratification by league committee but if it differs I'll let you know.
All the detail attached for your perusal, as well as a very early draft of fixtures (ladies fixtures not yet released)

New Road Pitch Development
I know that some of you may be frustrated with the lack of official word from the club over the development of the New Road site; particularly as there is a lot of informed (and ill-informed!) chat floating around the town about what is or isn't happening. As I'm sure members will appreciate, as a club we need to respect the wishes of the stakeholders involved at this crucial time in the project's development, and therefore all the committee can say at the moment is that a lot of progress is being made behind the scenes. When I am in a position to give a more open and detailed update I will, in the meantime please bear with us.

Website Redevelopment & Electronic Payments
Following on from the sterling work done by webmaster Grace Hanney in the last few years, the club is exploring ways of enhancing its online offering with a view to attracting more sponsors, creating an online club shop and the ability to fill in membership forms, pay subs and match fees online from 2012/13. Grace has kindly offered to continue maintaining the site, with the development being undertaken by Crooker, Simon Wells and myself. If any members have any experience in these areas or feedback on website improvements then get in touch. Further details to follow.

Club Representation at County Junior Development Centres (JDCs) & West of England Junior Performance Regional Centres (JPRCs)
In my day (he says trying not to sound too old) it was County (Gloucestershire) and then West of England; but what England Hockey refer to as the 'player pathway' is a little different these days. Nevertheless, the club is proud that several of its young stars have been selected for further development *:
Boys U14s
Ben Eames, Dan Jones, Michael Buist, Benjy Wells, Callum Niddrie, Charlie Thomas,
In addition Henry Patteson has been selected to attend a West Regional performance centre (JPRC)
Girls U14s
Beccy Chalmers, Ellie Stimpson,
Girls U16s ( + recently attended Glos Academy programme & selected for West JPRC)
Anna Patteson + , Beth Priday
Girls U17s ( + recently attended Glos Academy programme & selected for West JPRC)
Emma Chalmers + , Lottie Aldridge +
* info provided by Glos HA /West Hockey


Olympic Torch Relay & Glos HA Awards
Two of the club's legends have recently been granted notable honours:
* Club Founder & current vice President Will Cruickshank carried the Olympic Torch through Chippenham at the end of May (plenty of photos on the facebook page)
* At their AGM, the Gloucestershire HA gave its Lifetime Acheivement Award to Alan Hooper, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to hockey in the County not least for his involvement in two of the County's leading clubs (Stroud HC & Wotton under Edge HC) over the last 30 years.
Congratulations to them both!

Jubillee Games & Olympic Coaching
James Bull, Alan Hooper, Eilidh Rogers and I delivered some hockey taster sessions at the highly successful Jubilee Games event organised by Sharron at KLB recently; feedback was good with a mix of those who had played some hockey and those who had never picked up a stick before. Crooker and I are following this up with some 'Olympic themed' sessions at KLB at the end of the month and I've already been approached by Kingswood Primary school to deliver some Quickstick sessions there in the Autumn.
All good examples of the club working with the local community.