PLEASE COME!!

Whether or not you have a ticket please come to this Saturday’s End of Season Bash. Tickets will be on sale at the entrance to the marquee. If we don’t celebrate at the end of the season we have just had we are never likely to celebrate again!! So I remind you of the event as follows. Please come along.

In the last week or so a lot of work has been carried out at the club including the repair of the scoreboard, the tightening of the carpet at the clubhouse end of the water-based pitch, the spreading of nearly 15 tons of shingle on the car park and the tidying up of the banks on two sides of the sand-based pitch. These are the sort of jobs which are required from time to time if we are to keep our facilities in top class order.

The car park maintenance and bank tidying was kindly carried out by Harry Flatt and his expert team of David Alexander, Jerry Blackmore, Neville Chubbock, Giles Flatt and Robin Hayward and I am very grateful to them.

I was sorry I was unable to be present during their labours to offer them unwanted guidance as I was on my way to a very sunny Hamburg to see the Last 16/8 rounds of the Euro Hockey League which is now in its second year. Round 1 in October involved the top 24 teams from across Europe with eight eliminated at that stage. Fortunately the three English clubs, Cannock, East Grinstead and Reading made it to Hamburg.

As well as seeing some of the best players in the world in action once again, including Teun de Nooijer of HC Bloemendaal, Holland (three times the FIH World Player of the Year and the best player I have ever seen), Pol Amat (Club Egara of Spain, the 2008 World Player of the Year), Taeke Taekema (Amsterdam’s and Holland’s penalty corner specialist), Sohail Abbas (the legendary Pakistani penalty corner ace who now plays for Rotterdam) and Richard Mantell (Reading’s outstanding defender), I was able to witness for the first time the new free hit rule which was used in the European League last season and which will be a mandatory experiment in all hockey from 1 September 2009. It enables a player to make a self-pass at any free hit and is particularly useful in the attacking half of the pitch as a player is permitted to hit the ball along the ground for not less than one metre before running with it. It has the potential if used properly to make the game of hockey even more exciting.

East Grinstead, who had earlier beaten St Germain HC of Paris, were caught out by a Bloemendaal player who having been fouled just outside the circle took the ball back to the dotted five metre line (as is required) before bursting into the circle to fire into the net. EG, for whom player coach Mark Pearn was in top form, eventually lost 3-2 to Bloemendaal (the conquerors of Cannock who were without injured top scorer Gareth Andrew) and Reading, who had earlier edged passed RC Polo Barcelona, lost 2-1 to KHC Leuven of Belgium whom they should have beaten. Frustratingly EG and Reading were both defeated by late goals. Following a feast of superb attacking hockey Bloemendaal now play Rotterdam and Leuven play reigning champions UHC Hamburg in the semis on Saturday 30 May with the final the next day; the Dutch venue to be announced shortly.

The teams were allowed one referral per half to the video umpire and more often than not the teams were successful including once instance where the umpire incorrectly deemed the ball to have crossed the goal line! If this system becomes common practice in big hockey events it has the potential to make or break umpires’ international reputations. However, I am confident in saying the system is some years off in being used at Weybread!

Best of luck to all our teams in action this Sunday (19 April) at the Dereham Minis – please click on Reports-Blog on the Home page of the club’s website for more information.

Last but certainly not least I extend commiserations to Andy Palmer who broke his upper left arm playing in goal for the Vets at Pelicans last Thursday. Andy went down early in the game to make a save and after recovering from some discomfit in his arm played on before sustaining another knock which necessitated a visit to Kings Lynn hospital. Andy is likely to be incapacitated for some weeks and I know I speak on behalf of all members when I wish him all the very best for his recovery.

With kind regards to all HMHC members and supporters.

Mike Denham Tel: 01603 506925 E-mail: [email protected] 15/4/09