Ashford (Middlesex) Hockey Club

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.

Fixture list now updated to include fixtures for games that were re-scheduled due to the snow in Jan.

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.

The Xmas newsletter 2012 has just been sent out to members via e-mail and it contains all the latest AHC news, information from Ashford (Short Lane) Sports, social dates and teams performance stas at the half way stage of the season, Ashford Antiques (AAs) gossip and lots of other articles. Please contact me (Lynne) via president@ashfordhockeyclub.co.uk if you haven’t recieved a copy and we hope to have a copy linked to the website soon.

Specialist goalkeeper training will be provided by Mark Appleyard for Lady and colts goalkeepers this coming Wednesday 7.30-9.30pm, during the normal Ladies training session at the Clubhouse. AHC members and any interested goalkeepers are welcoem to attend.

Ash Factor last night was excellent and enjoyed by all with a record eight entries. Well done the organisers (Abi Frith & Elliott Smith), judges (Stewart Fry, Hynes, John Lewis, Abi F), comperes (Dave Baker & Darren Cole) and all the contestants. The Ladies colts singing and dancing troupe won narrowly from the Men’s 2’s ( a sexy Westlife imitation group). The result being decided by the audience and the volume of their clapping/cheering for the two finalists. Great stuff all.

Well the sun shone, the newly refurbished goals and corner posts were in place, and PHC Chiswick let the Club President take the first push back in the first game on our new playing surface and we (Ladies 2′s) then went and lost 1-5. The consolation was that Freddie Chudleigh scored the first AHC goal on the relayed carpet and our weakened team held them well in the first half. The Ladies 1′s followed us on and
looked to be well on the way to a 3-0 defeat by Staines 3′s, when Maria Cavilla pulled one back and a determined Emma Hynes got another shortly after to frighten our neighbours somewhat, who snatched a fourth goal in the dying minutes of the game to finish winners by 4 goals to 2. I am pleased to report though that the other games played at home were the men’s 2 ‘s who won 4-2, with the being Jas, Freddie C, Shaggy and Alex Betts. They were followed by the men’s 3′s who won 3-1 (Harry Weigner 2 & Sam Betts) won and young Matt Sutch scored the first AHC own goal under the new rules on our new pitch! The men’s 1′s also won 5-4 in a high scoring game v Old Merchant Taylors, whilst the 4′s lost 0-5 away to local rivals Staines. The Ladies 3′s only had 10 players and had to travel to Richmond for a some what late 4.45pm match. A gritty performance, led by some solid goalkeeping from Charlie Poulton kept the opposition at bay and secured a point for AHC as the match finished as a 0-0 draw.

Eastcote 2′s 1 v Ashford Ladies 1′s 2
18.2.2012, Middlesex Premier League.

Ashford returned to hockey with a couple of weeks off due to snow/frozen pitches with a tough league game against Eastcote who were lying just above them in the table.

Although Ashford were missing three regular players from the 1s squad, retired GK Alison Boxell and 2s players Wendy Baker and Kath Evans all stepped in to complete the team. Wendy Baker joined the defence as Sweeper alongside Tracey Holland, Kim Fry and Elize Brown. Eastcote used to the bouncy pitch quickly moved into attacking formation and Ashford’s defence were tested within 5 mins from the start. GK Alison Boxell made the initial save only for the ball to fall to an Eastcote attacker, Kim Fry and Wendy Baker immediately forced the attacker to lose possession of the ball but unfortunately it fell only for it to fall loose and be slammed into the back of the net.

Ashford soon settled down and got into their stride with some great runs down the left hand side from Claire Emmerton feeding Maria Cavilla, Lucy Uttley and Kim Downs the chance for a couple of shots on goal which were kept at bay the Eastcote Keeper. Ashford’s first short corner saw Jacqui Bashford inject the ball for a straight strike from Cavilla, the rebound from the keeper fell to Emma Hynes who smashed the ball far left corner for Bashford to make sure it went over the goal line.

Eastcote fought back and were rewarded with a short corner just before half time. Numerous fouls by Ashford led to the corner being taken three times and the last time saw Keeper Boxell beaten by a strike to the right hand corner only for Holland to deflect the ball away to safety.

So with the second half starting off 1-1, Ashford piled on the pressure and started switching the ball down the right with Kath Evans feeding Rasna Sandhu to drive down the line and put some fantastic crosses in. Ashford defenders man marked superbly frustrating the Eastcote forwards, allowing Ashford’s midfielders Emmerton, Hynes, Bashford and Evans to intercept and lay off to Ashford’ forwards; Downs, Cavilla and Uttley to put the Eastcote Keeper under great pressure.

Ashford’s second goal came from a free hit taken quickly by Bashford who slipped the ball through to the speedy Lucy Uttley who sprinted down the left, beat two defenders and took a shot from a very narrow angle which clipped the inside of the right post and into the goal.

A great win moves Ashford up to 5th place, and with 6 more games to go, Ashford hope to pick up at least 9 points out of a possible 18 to hopefully keep them midtable.

Team: Alison Boxell, Wendy Baker, Kim Fry, Tracey Holland, Elize Brown, Cath Evans, Claire Emmerton, Emma Hynes, Jacqui Bashford, Rasna Sandhu, Lucy Uttley, Kim Downs, Maria Cavilla.

In case you haven’t been contacted, all three home games at AHC today (11/2/12) have been cancelled due to a frozen pitch. We don’t know as yet if colts training or the Men’s HA Trophy cup game away tomorrow will go ahead. The Clubhouse will of course be open for business as normal from noon today and tomorrow and live sport will be on the TV, all welcome.

Ashford Ladies 1st XI returned to league hockey with a 2-3 away victory against Hendon and Mill Hill on Sat 21st January.

Ashford started off with great enthusiasm and it paid off within two mins as neat passing between the new partnership of Lucy Uttley and Nicky Benedict up front led Nicky into netting her first goal.

Ashford continued to hold possession with great distribution from midfielders Claire Emmerton and Emma Hynes feeding to Rasna Sandhu who had some great runs down the right.

Ashford’s second goal came from fantastic linking play between Jacqui Bashford, Kim Downs and Lucy Uttley who slipped to Nicky Benedict for her to score her second goal.

Hendon and Mill Hill had a few chances but were tharwted by outstanding saves from GK Sam Grant which led to the score remaining 2-0 at half time.

The second half saw the oppo come out strong and secure a short corner. Their well worked routine saw the ball hammered onto the black board.

Ashford hit straight back following a slick move from Kim Downs to Jacqui Bashford who fed the ball to striker Lucy who skilfully beat two defenders and reverse sticked the ball into the net.

Ashford were unfortunate to let a Hendon And Mill Hill player slip through unmarked to score another goal for the oppo.

With Kath Evans making her debut along with regular defenders Sophie Smart, Kim Fry and Tracey Holland, Ashford tightened up in defence and deservedly held onto their 3-2 win.

Team: Sam Grant, Sophie Smith, Kim Fry, Tracey Holland, Kath Evans, Claire Emmerton, Emma Hynes, Jacqui Bashford, Nicky Benedict, Rasna Sandhu, Lucy Uttley, Kim Downs,