magpies


SEVEN FROM SEVEN

Weybread was a happy hunting ground last Saturday for home points as it was seven games played and seven wins for HMHC. The Ladies’ 3rds set the ball rolling by beating Watton 2nds 4-0 to maintain their fine start to the season and shortly afterwards the Ladies’ 5ths achieved their first win of the season with a resounding 6-0 victory over Old Buckenham 2nds. Next up were the Ladies’ 1sts and with four goals in the first half against Northampton Saints victory was virtually assured but it could have been different had Cali Clark not made a fine penalty stroke save at 2-0. Cherry Seaborn again caught the eye posing some unanswered questions to the visitors’ defence with her speed and two goals in an excellent 5-0 squad victory.

It was then the turn of the Men to get in on the victory act with the 5ths edging out Dereham 4s 4-3 to achieve their welcome first win of the season before the 3rds took their record to three wins from three with a hard earned and incident packed 3-1 victory over old rivals Gorleston; rounded off by a calm penalty stroke conversion by Paul Shelley.

The final two home successes were achieved by the Men’s 2nds who beat Broxbourne 5-1 and the Ladies’ 4ths who beat Watton 3rds 4-1. Both teams are newly-promoted and both now have nine points from a possible nine. From where I stood it seemed that Simon Hipwell put the 2nds ahead with a well directed mishit with Robbie Kinsella doing the same in the last few seconds! No doubt both will claim otherwise! But this was another fine win for the team with the other goals coming from David Francis and MOTM Hamish Barton (2).

Spirits were raised even higher at Weybread with the news of the excellent 6-0 win by the Men’s 1sts at Chelmsford and it was good to hear later of the 5-2 win by Ladies Development over Norwich City.

This Saturday at Weybread – with the Ladies’ 1sts away to Horsham, the Men’s 1sts playing on Sunday and the Men’s 2nds away to Harpenden – pride of place goes to the newly-promoted Ladies’ 2nds who entertain Wisbech Town (12.30) still seeking an elusive first win of the season. Please come along and give your support to the team.

The Men’s 1sts entertain Bromley and Beckenham at 2.15 on Sunday in what promises to be an exciting and closely contested match in front of, hopefully, another big crowd. The bar will be open from 12.15pm. The lucky number programmes will still only cost £1!

Good luck to all our teams in action this weekend.

Congratulations to our young members who have progressed along England Hockey’s Single System Player Pathways – namely Sarah Brook (U15), Tom Graham (U15) and Verity Blyth (U17) who attended a High Performance Assessment Camp last weekend and to Ben Wright, Cali Clark and Cherry Seaborn who will be playing for the Saxon Tigers U18s in the Futures Cup at Cannock at the end of the month. To those members who have not progressed to this stage I urge not to be too disappointed. Ratty Alexander missed out on selection for the Junior World Cup years ago but subsequently went on to play for GB in the Olympics and recently won a gold medal for England in the European Championships!

News and comments in brief

· The club is hosting a series of Mini games (for U11 and U13 Boys and Girls) involving local clubs on Sunday starting at 9.30am.

· Our teams playing away from home are asked to phone the clubhouse with their result as soon as reasonably possible please.

· Last weekend John Ryan Van Der Rief converted five penalty corners for Old Georgians against Team Bath Buccaneers in the national league and still ended on the losing side!

· Many thanks to our teams which regularly post their match reports on the website. If your team doesn’t – why not?!

· Congratulations to Reading on getting through to the next round of the EuroHockey League. Hopefully East Grinstead and Beeston will also be successful when they compete in their first round pools in Paris over the weekend of 23-25 October.

· Tickets for the Curry-Oke to be held in the clubhouse on Saturday 24 October (7.30pm) are available from the clubhouse bar. Please come!

With kind regards and best wishes

Mike Denham 01603 506925 [email protected] 14/10/09