BIG BOOST FROM AUCTION AND RAFFLE
I am delighted to start this week with a big ‘thank you’ to everyone who supported the Silent Auction and the Spring Prize Draw; as you may have seen on the website these raised £2907.50 and £2182 respectively. These are substantial sums of money and have given a big boost to the club’s funds and in turn to the club’s Fund Raising and Social Committee.
It was good to see the auction so well attended and encouraging to see so many playing members present in addition to the very welcome non-playing members and other club supporters. I was a little miffed when my golf Lot started with a derisory bid of £10 boosted to £12 after I made my views known over the PA system! But as I expected the bidding for the wide range of Lots soon hotted up as the very enjoyable evening went on and just before the deadline of 9.30pm some very competitive bidding was in evidence!
Our thanks go again to everyone who supported the Silent Auction and Spring Draw in any way including those members who helped with the arrangements on the night including Karen Ray and her team for the excellent nibbles.
The support of the Spring Draw was the best for years and congratulations to the following main prize winners – 1st £125 Alison Wilford, 2nd £50 x 2 Peter Butcher & Will Hall, 3rd £25 x 2 Will Blyth & Elizabeth Bamber.
Saturday’s playing highlights included the Ladies’ 2nds, and league champions, beating Norwich Dragons 2nds 7-0 (Saffron Wilford 2, Anouska Hipperson 2, Krystal Bishop 2, Lucy Whiting ) with Lucy Chubbock deservedly MOTM, the Ladies’ 3rds recovering from their heavy defeat the week before to beat Evergreens 2-0 (Kara Kilbourn, Rachel Herod), the Ladies’ 5ths playing well again to beat Norwich Dragons 3rds 5-0 with goals by skipper Shirley McAllen (2), Rosie Chubbock, Sophie Long and Emily McCluskey and the Ladies’ 6ths getting a welcome point in their 1-1 draw with Evergreens 2nds – our goal being scored by club captain Kristina Erith. Meanwhile the Ladies’ 1sts went down 2-1 to second placed Sevenoaks (for whom it was good to see ex-Magpie Sharon Davy making her annual return to Weybread) but not before they had put in a really good performance prior to running out of steam in the last few minutes. Ahead through an excellent first half strike by Emily Wilford two good chances went begging soon after the break before the visitors scored an excellent equaliser with ten minutes remaining soon followed by the winner. This coming Sunday the team has an even more demanding fixture when they travel to play Surbiton (2.00) for whom victory would ensure them the league title. But Magpies won 2-1 there last season!
Turning now to the Men’s results there is no hiding from the fact that they were once again disappointing with the odd exception. At Weybread the Men’s 5ths went down 5-3 (George Moore, Joel Nelson and Eddie Thorne) to Thetford, the Men’s 2nds lost 4-1 (Simon Hipwell) to a good Cambridge University 2nds – only the failure of teams below them to pick up points is keeping the team above the relegation zone – and the Men’s 7ths more than met their match losing 7-0 to IES 3rds. The latter are the Manchester City of their league having acquired several star players – mainly from Ipswich HC. They sporting admitted that their first six goals were lucky followed by a really good seventh! One bright spot was the Boys Development 5-3 win over Tango Titans.
The Men’s 3rds, 4ths and 6ths all returned from away games clutching metaphorical silver medals although it is good to report that Jerry Blackmore stayed on the pitch this week (in two games!) and the Men’s 7ths returned to form on Sunday with a 2-0 win (Peter Dolton and David Blackmore) over Sudbury 4ths. Meanwhile the Men’s 1sts were again counting the cost of letting slip another two-goal lead this time by drawing 3-3 (Elliot Smith, Tristan Baynes, Richard Ling) away to Teddington. This Saturday’s home game for the team against Indian Gymkhana (2.15) is in the ‘must win’ category if the prize of the relegation play-off spot is to remain a realistic possibility. Let’s hope for a good turnout of support to cheer the team to victory!
Other news in brief
a) Congratulations to the Girls’ U14s on their 0-0 draw with Dereham and their 5-0 victory (Kara Kilbourn (3), Emily McCluskey and Clea Turvill) over Ipswich in the EHB East League 1 last Sunday.
b) In the Norfolk Championship Minis at Pelicans, also on Sunday, our U10 Girls came 4th and the U12 Girls came 3rd.
c) This Sunday at Greshams’s School the U10 and U12 Boys will be hoping to finish in the top two at their Norfolk Championship Minis thereby qualifying for the East Finals to be hosted by the club over the weekend of April 14/15.
d) Also this Sunday the club’s Senior Vets entertain the LX Club in their annual fixture (12.00).
Good luck to all our teams in action this weekend. Please see the complete list of fixtures on the Home Page of the website.
With kind regards
Mike Denham
