Ashford (Middlesex) Hockey Club

The Club’s AGM will be held on Thursday 23rd May 2013 at the Clubhouse starting at 7.30 p.m. A notice of the meeting, the Agenda for the meeting, the accounts for the 2012/3 season and a proposal for the increase of subscription rates for the coming 2013/14 season have all been sent out to paid up members by e-mail this week. If you haven’t received your notification, please contact either Peter Greatorex on secretary@ashfordhockeyclub.co.uk or myself (Lynne Morgan) on preisdent@ashfordhockeyclub.co.uk. Hope to see you there.

The AHC trophy/awards winners for 2012/13 are:

Ken Miller Colt of the Year (Boys) – Joe Mulddon
Simon Morley Colt of the Year (Girls) – Molly Davis
Ken Miller Ladies Player of the Year – Nicky Benedict
Ken Miller Men’s Player of the Year – Paul Neyton
Ron Cooksey Progress Trophy – James Maitland & Chloe Russell
Bob Greatorex Team of the Year – Under 13 Girls Colts
Ian Maloney Lower XI Player of the Year – Robert Evans
Maria Taylor Most Enthusiastic Player of the Year – Nicky Davis
Bar Team of the Year – Nicky Davis & Michelle Igoe
Jubilee Plate – Peter Greatorex

Ladies 1s Player of the Year – Tracey (Luvvy) Holland
Ladies 2s Player of the Year – Victoria (Freddie) Chudleigh
Ladies 3s Player of the Year – Irene Okello
Men’s 1s Player of the Year – Shujah-ur-Rehan
Men’s 2s Player of the Year – Ryan Dare
Men’s 3s Player of the Year – James Berressem
Men’s 4s Player of the Year – Parm Singh

The winners for the Astro draw for April 2013 are:
£500 Andy(Digger)Barnes
£250 Sheila Kinnear
£100 Ian(Sherpa)Jenkins (kindly donated back to AHC)

Well done all and your cheques will be with you soon. That is it now folks until the winter season draw starts again in October. Thank you for your support & tickets can still be purchased using the form which you can down load from on the website.

The AHC end of season Newsletter has been e-mailed/posted out to paid up members, copies will also be availbale at the Clubhouse on Thursday 25/4 and one will be posted on the website soon. It has all the latest AHC news and updates:
Presidents Chatter
Club Captains views
AA’s News
AGM
Annual Dinner
Weddings
Tours
End of season performance details
Ladies Summer League

The lucky astro draw winners for March 2013 are:£100 David Sutch
£50 Hilary Hull
£50 John Vocking

Congratulations to all the winners and your cheques should be with you soon. It is only £12 per year for a ticket and a draw is made every month throughout the season, with the extra big money prizes being drawn at the AHC Annual Dinner in April. Application forms are available on the website (see link on side bar), enclosed and on the Club Notice Board. Help support the club and give yourself a chance of winning some money at the same time.

Don’t forget Saturday 23 March – Tamla Motown Evening at AHC. Tickets £10, which includes a sit down meal. Tickets available from behind the bar.

Sorry, but unfortunately the Thames Lodge Hotel have let us down so therefore we have had to make a VENUE CHANGE…The Annual dinner will now be held at The Anne Boleyn Hotel in Staines (http://www.boleynhotel.com/).

It is still on Saturday 27th April, arrival drinks will be served from 6.30pm, to be seated for the meal at 7.15pm, followed by awards, raffle and the disco!

Details of the menu and wine list have been e-mailed out to members and all pre orders of wine by the bottle will receive a 10% discount.

The tickets are £37.50, thank you to those that have already paid! The latest we need the money by is Wednesday 10th April.

This year’s Annual Dinner Dance will be Saturday 27th April at Thames Lodge Hotel in Staines. Welcome drinks overlooking the Thames, three course meal, the much anticipated awards and lots of dancing to end the evening!

Tickets are £37.50 each, please make cheques payable to Ashford Hockey Club, alternatively you can pay via bank transfer, contact Doreen Brown on treasurer@ashfordhockeyclub.co.uk.

Menus are to follow shortly.

The lucky astro draw winners for February 2013 are:

£100 Jane English

£50 Lynne Morgan (donated back to AHC)

£50 Freddie Cottrell

Congratulations to all the winners and your cheques should be with you soon. It is only £12 per year for a ticket and a draw is made every month throughout the season, with the extra big money prizes being drawn at the AHC Annual Dinner in April. Application forms are available on the website (see link on side bar) and on the Club Notice Board. Help support the club and give yourself a chance of winning some money at the same time.

Thanks to James & John for getting AHC back on Twitter & lets hear from U Red & Blacks.

As you all know, we need more players down at AHC so why not branch out to our other groups of friends or colleagues or family and get them down for a fun hockey, taster session this Wednesday evening between 7.30 – 9.30 pm.

It will be a good chance to show off your skills but also for other people to see what its like once they are there. I am not limiting it to one friend, bring however many you can find!

Even if they go away and tell other people they know how much fun they have had it might spread the word, and like Hynes said, once they meet us they wont want to leave!! free drink after for all new attendes. ‘Be there or be square’ as thye used to say!

Good luck to all the AHC teams on Saturday, especially the Ladies 2′s in their relegation battle and the Men’s 1′s who are over in Jersey. The men play Jersey HC in the 3rd round (I think!) HA Trophy match at 6 pm at Les Quennevois sports ground. I am pretty sure AHC has never played a competitive cup match out of the UK before, so this is a first! The Ashford Antiques have toured and played in Guernsey, but I don’t think any of our sides have ever played a National cup game abroad. Have a good game and all the best to all and enjoy the trip boys.

The lucky astro draw winners for January 2013 are

£100 Martin Smith

£50 Val Hardman

£50 Mark Appleyard

Congratulations to all the winners and your cheques should be with you soon. It is only £12 per year for a ticket and a draw is made every month throughout the season, with the extra big money prizes being drawn at the AHC Annual Dinner in April. Application forms are available on the website (see link on side bar) and on the Club Notice Board. Help support the club and give yourself a chance of winning some money at the same time.

All home games are OFF. Enjoy the snow.

The Ladies section are currently struggling with lack of goalkeepers and although Sarah Jacobs, Kate Thompson, Chloe Russell and Kim Downs have all helped out on occasions and sacrifuced their chance to play on the pitch as normal; we are looking for experienced goalkeepers to join us and play regularly. We are hoping Tara (Dyson) McLoughlin will be able to play again soon, and we do of course have stalwart performers in Sam Grant and Charlie Poulter, but they are our only two recognised keepers and can’t cover 3 League matches each weekend. We have been advertising for new keepers on the official England Hockey website and GB goalkeeper Beth Storry and star forward Alex Danson, both kindly retweeted my request for goalkeepers to their Twitter followers (15,000 between them) since early December, but no replies as yet. Please can you all therefore ask around to see if any of your friends, family, work, coffee or college mates would be interested or know anyone that might help us out . We do provide specialist coaching and kit, so please ask around and let myslef Lynne -president@ashfordhockeyclub.co.uk or Ladies Club Captain Emma Hynes know. MANY THANKS.

Ashford Ladies Vets (Ashford Antiques (AAs)) played Sunbury Ladies Vets (Sunbury Stars of the Past (SSOP)) in their annual challenge, Christmas match at Ashford on Saturday. Well the rain ceased for a while and we had around 15 ex Ashford players spectating, and a squad of 12 to face a very determined and large Sunbury squad. Ashford attacked early on and went ahead following a good move between skipper Lynne Morgan, winger Tracey Walsh and striker Maria Cavilla, which saw Maria open the scoring. SSOP then piled on the pressure, and only good goalkeeping by the AAs Player of the Match Ali Boxell, and a lot of hard work by the AHC defence marshalled by stalwart sweeper Doreen brown and debutant Mandy Gowland kept the visitors at bay until just before the interval, when they nipped into score an equaliser. Despite some good work and shots by AA star Jackie Parsons and others, Ashford didn’t make much headway in the second half. In fact Sunbury dominated much of the game, with Sally Jordan and others controlling play, but the AAs managed to hang onto the 1-1 draw and thus retained the trophy – just!

AA – A.Boxell, A. Saunders, D.Brown, I.Okello, M. Gowland, L. Morgan (Skipper), V. Chudleigh, S.Westlake, T.Walsh, C. Jacobs, J. Parsons, M. Cavilla