Winchester Hockey Club Oracle Edition 5

Winter weather arrives!

A number of our teams played against Havant last weekend, braving the grim weather that was such a change from earlier in the season. The U10s had their first outing against another club, taking 3 teams to Bournemouth for a series of matches.

Thanks to all players, coaches and parents for making it all happen despite the conditions!

This coming weekend, we have a full section wide fixture against Bournemouth, with a total of 10 matches scheduled which will see around 150 children representing the club. That sounds like something to celebrate!

This edition includes an article about our juniors who are training for their umpiring qualifications. It’s great to see them keen to do this, and many thanks to Richard Macer for running this programme.

We are always on the look out for interesting content. If you have anything that you would like to include in future editions, please do get in touch.

Next Weekend Fixtures

Weekend Results

Junior section wide fixture v Bournemouth including:

U16 Boys - Bar End 12.30pm

U14 Boys - Kings 1.30pm (B-team) and 3pm (A-team)

U12 Boys - Kings 10.30am (B-team) and 12pm (A-team)

U16 Girls, Chapel Gate, B’mouth 2.30pm

U14 Girls, Chapel Gate, B’mouth 11.30am (B-team) and 1pm (A-team)

U12 Girls, Chapel Gate, B’mouth 10am (A & B teams)

Anthony Munden Architect U16 Girls v Havant U16, Havant College: 3.00pm - lost 2-7

Team Summit U14 Girls v Havant U14, Havant College 1:15pm - cancelled

U16 Boys v Havant U16, Bar End 11:00am - cancelled

U14 Boys v Havant U14, Bar End 12:30pm - lost by some to more

U12 Boys v Havant U12, Bar End 2.00pm - won 1-0

Minis, U10s v Bournemouth - everyone’s a winner

COVID Regulations Update

Thank you for your co-operation in helping us comply with the England Hockey regulations around COVID.

We have seen a number of absentees across the junior section this week because of a requirement to self isolate. Obviously this is very frustrating but it is crucial that we all abide by the government and England Hockey regulations.

Please remember that spectators are no longer allowed inside the cages at either Kings or Bar End. Please comply with this and watch from outside the cages, socially distanced, from now on. Note, this currently does not apply to under 8 and under 10 parents who may enter the cage at Kings, as long as they remain on the tarmac strip.

Please make sure that you continue to sign you and/or your child into the Teamo Playsafe register, every time you attend a training session or match, to help us fulfil our track & trace requirements.

Full details of regulations and guidance can be found on the Club website, here.

Junior Players - Umpires of the Future

Over this last summer period several Winchester HC juniors have taken the initiative to go online and register to do their hockey umpire theory course. They have all come through with flying colours and that puts them on their way to work towards gaining their LEVEL I Umpire qualification.

This week 2 more juniors have enquired how to do the course, so the momentum is gathering.

For juniors this is a superb qualification to add to their CV.

So for all these budding new officials their next step is to umpire lots of games. They will get some mentoring by experienced umpires as well to help them in some of their matches. Hopefully they can progress quickly and start to think about completing their ‘assessment’ match. For that they will be watched by a Hampshire Hockey Umpires Association Assessor - that match has to be for a Saturday adult league game, in order to confirm they have reached the required standard.

That will also qualify them for the now coveted Winchester H.C. green umpire polo shirt which you will all start to see around in many matches from now on. Once qualified they will also be eligible to collect a fee paid for by the Club, in appreciation for their efforts.

In recent weeks, the following junior players: Matt de Lara, Alice Lander, Harry Wilson, Tom Shire and Max Wedderburn have all completed their theory course joining Will Crompton who did so pre-lockdown!

If you see any of them umpiring soon, please give them your support. Initially they will mostly be seen in action on Sundays covering junior matches (Max however has already completed one Saturday league match).

Please contact me if you want to join the group. I can advise how to complete the on-line umpire’s theory course (and claim back the course fee back from the Club). It is a skill for life and for those that want to start to think about covering matches outside of Winchester Club matches then the Hampshire Hockey Umpires Association will soon make that happen - again with plenty of mentoring support in order to climb up the umpire qualifications ladder. The ultimate target is to umpire at the Olympic games…

Richard Macer

The Mighty Under 10s

Under 10s practising technique ahead of their Bournemouth festival

4th October: v Bournemouth

Fantastic Festival of Hockey

The U10s had a very successful first outing of the new season on Sunday. We took 3 teams to play Bournemouth Hockey Club in a round robin fixture. Despite the elements (constant rain and a cold wind) the players all excelled and enjoyed themselves.

Our recent training sessions have focused on our stick skills, passing accuracy, beating a Defender and goal scoring. It was great to see this all put into practice by our teams with some flowing moves right from defence, through midfield and into attack.

The fixture ended with an impressive Winchester tally of 13 wins, 3 draws and 2 losses. Well done to all the players who showed great spirit and commitment on and off the pitch and thank you to the parents for braving the weather and offering such positive support. Here’s to more good hockey over the weeks ahead!

Under 14 Boys

In a stark contrast in the weather conditions compared to the last 2 Sundays, a very young Winchester team of U14 boys battled bravely to the end, in an inter-Club friendly match with Havant. With many players absent at Hampshire ”DC” training including all 4 of the Winchester goalkeepers, this match gave 14 players some match play experience and the situation was all set for a goal fest!

Havant with some very large yr. 9s who had clearly played for Hampshire last season dominated the first of 3 x 20mins sessions scoring at will. This quickly confirmed that this scratch home side had no natural defenders!

Winchester strengthened by some late comers and a more structured defence set up, won the second session 2-1, whilst thankfully many of the big Havant lads were rested!

In the final session with the older Havant boys back playing again, Winchester held them up well. The goals still flowed a bit, but the structured way the young Winchester boys worked the ball when in possession was indeed a very encouraging.

All in all, a great event to help the coaches to start to identify where all these boys are best suited to play. The U14 group this season is big and very young with a high number of Yr. 8 players. The current focus is to find out where they are most comfortably playing, work heavily on basic skills and learn how to use those to compete with physically stronger teams - as may well be the case this season. Also well done, Harry Wilson our young umpire for this match who officiated very well.

Next Sunday we have 2 more inter Club games (v Bournemouth) so a great chance for many more of the group to experience some match play.

Sponsorship Opportunities

As we look to invest in the coaching programme and resources, we are giving local business an opportunity to sponsor individual teams or the entire junior section.

For a modest contribution, sponsors will have:

Their name associated with specific teams
Bespoke coverage in newsletters and social media
Recognition of their sponsorship in local press coverage

We would very much like to hear from you if you are interested, or have contacts at local business which may be prepared to get involved. Please do get in touch.