Ashford (Middlesex) Hockey Club

Ashford 3’s 2 OMT 4’s 4

Bit of a damp squib end to the season. We showed flashes of the play that have seen us move from 11^th up to 7^th  during the 2^nd half of the season but can have few complaints losing to a more-motivated OMT side.

We had plenty of chances to score and lots of D action and – if I am being positive – last season we would never have had that D action! Unfortunately, we weren’t too clever often delaying the actual scoring attempt until it was too late.

The other thing to day is that some woeful collective defence saw us give up certainly 3 of the goals. We did get back to 2-all with Wild Man’s 4^th goal of the season and a flick from yours truly but conceding a 3^rd goal pretty much straight from push back didn’t really help much!

Ho hum, well it has still been a top season for a side that has come in the bottom 2 or 3 for the last 3 seasons – we should come 8^th and may come 7^th

It has been a very enjoyable season and we have been a real team – not bad for a team starting at 14 and finishing at 53!

Our success goes on against the top teams in the league. 4^th-placed Marlow had a similar side to us with a few old boys and talented sprogs (though probably a bit older than ours) and once again we had a really good game of hockey regardless of the score.

Started off poorly and after the first 15 we were deservedly one-down but we then steadily improved throughout the rest of the game. We only got one shortie but scored from it – Harry flicked Sam’s rebound home – but I was happy to get the first half out of the way.

Second half we really worked hard collectively but would single Harry out for his all-round game, he sometimes suffers from ‘enthusiasm varies with interest’ but he was certainly interested today and was on hand to bat in our second from close-range, another good team goal but I cannot remember anything else about it!

A draw would probably have been fair but we have probably had 3 games this second half end in draws when we should have won so I think we deserved a little rub of the green. Also a big thank you to Bobby who came out in awful weather to help out Marlow and umpire.

So we go to the last game safe in mid-table obscurity and with only one defeat in our last 8 games and this is already a terrific season for us.

Newbury & Thatcham 3’s 0 Ashford 3’s 0

This was a very entertaining, hard-fought game and the only failing was a lack of goals though the home team had about 12 short corners and we had at least 5 1-on-1’s but we will be nice and put that down to good defending.

One of the major assists to the success of our season has been fantastic availability of our regulars but we did have the opportunity to give a debut to Parm – father of Kulvir and Aranvir – who played at left half and did very well (I brought Aranvir up to look after him). Also I had to reshuffle midfield with Matt S playing the Jimbo role and he moved forward to partner 14-year-old Rob Forster who played his first game in midfield for us.

The team as a whole got back to basics after the second-half blip against Wycombe, we lacked a little bite generally in the first half and put ourselves under pressure but the second half was more even and we were always dangerous. The last ten minutes we tired and Newbury had a couple of open play opportunities plus a couple of shorties but we still had a 1-in-1 to win the game!!

This point probably means we are staying up but we will leave the fizzy pop in the bottle for now…

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.

Witney 3′s 2 Ashford 3′s 2

Maybe we should just play the league leaders away every week! It could also have been it was a lovely, mild day again but off we went to Witney and although a point apiece was a fair reflection of the game, conceding 2 goals in the last 4 mins was a little hard to take! The game was a bit sleepy and had an end of season feel for much of it, very strange given Witneys’ championship ambitions. It was a pleasure to renew acquaintance with the burly no 17 Nick Viagra who as usual seemed more interested in umpiring the game than playing it! Playing up front, Viagra certainly provided stiff opposition. After 15 mins, we took the lead where the oppo stopped for a foot which was not given and Harry had no compunctions in putting the loose ball away. We played pretty well but nothing spectacular and saw the half out fairly comfortably and for much of the second half, the game continued in a similar uneventful vein. Witney in the last 20 mins started to exert pressure and good play from Andy R in goal and a Viagra cock-up ensured we kept our lead when shock! with 7 mins to go we had a shortie and a loose ball was pounced on by the very person typing two-fingered here for his first outfield goal for 4 years! Witney threw everything at us and we cracked 4 mins to go and 2 mins later (groan) a weak shot was blocked but the loose ball put away and we were hanging on! A last-second shortie for them was not good for my heart rate but their captain very kindly hoofed it to keep things all-square. Before the game, I would have snatched a point so gotta be pleased.

Ashford 3 Wycombe 3

Not so pleased with this draw, we gave up 3 very soft goals and one in the last 30 seconds to snatch a point from the 3 that were pretty much on the plate. We pretty much completely outplayed the oppo in the first half and they were lucky to be only 3-1 down. We were profligate in front of goal and made some poor decisions in the D and the second half was as poor a performance I have seen from us. A lovely team move and run and cross from young Matt saw Shane slide in at the far post for the first. Sam banged in a stonker of a shortie and after we had gifted them a goal back, Chris Lunn scored from close range. Right at the end, a lad appeared up front – I think his surname was Ringer – and we needed to adapt to cope with him in the second half. We didn’t and the team as a whole but also myself as the captain need to learn from this. What is good is that I can carp about giving up a game like this. We have improved throughout the season and the second half of the season has been great fun and we have played some lovely hockey and 1 defeat in 5 is nothing to sniff at…however we are still a work-in-progress!…

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.

…when the 3’s beat the might of Leighton Buzzard 2′s 3-1 and knocked them off the top of the table!! I happened to be at Van Dyke school playing in the game! Probably one of the most enjoyable and rewarding games of my 38 years of playing hockey!!! And I’m getting carried away with these exclamation marks!!!!…

Went to LB really hoping more for a good performance than 3 points – we had a young, decent team (I was a year older than my 3 other defenders!) although Chris was ill – the main point I put across to the boys was we had to be patient and hold the ball well cos LB (and Witney) are comfortably the best teams in the division. Starting with a bare 11 against LB with 2 subs, off we went a little nervously as usual but we survived a couple of minor scares and got into the game with Chris Lunn putting a shot just past the near post. We went one-down against the run of play when the LB forward snapped up an errant clearance and they finished nicely. We continued to play decent hockey and forced a few shorties and pressurised the home defence and with 5 minutes of the half to go, a lovely move down the left set up Wild Man who slapped the ball home from near the top of the D, lovely finish. 1-all and the home team were arguing with themselves, half time and I had virtually nothing to say bar keep going.

Second half was just a real pleasure to play in and it would have been great to have done this with a home crowd as I really didn’t think we had such a complete performance in us. Defence was solid and spread the ball, midfield dominated their counterparts and allowed us to pressurise their defence and the forwards were too quick and skilful for their backs and everyone worked tirelessly.

We were awarded a penalty from a shortie when their guy kicked it then fell on top of the ball! And I took my first p-flick for at least 4 seasons, yes, the normal one! We didn’t sit back on our lead and kept playing and it was no surprise when we went 3-1 up with 8 minutes to go. Right by the back line, Harry turned on a sixpence (I don’t know what it was doing on the pitch) beat one player, two players, flicked past the keeper and Wild Man deflected it in from close range (for goal no. 3 of the season and his best-ever season return!! Doorknob nomination for a forward/midfielder!) and we played the game out in comfort. I’m sure LB had a few players out but this result will have rocked the hockey world – well MBBO Div 6 anyway! Well done, lads, very proud of you…

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

Everything about the game versus bottom-team Abingdon was good apart from one thing: we played well and had an enjoyable game against much-improved opposition however we couldn’t make the game safe and suffered not only a late-equaliser but a last-minute goal-that-never-was!

First half was relatively even but we were more incisive and forced several saves from their ‘keeper while Chris T in our goal was untroubled.

Second half, we were on fire! Could have scored 2 or 3 times before a smart team move down the right resulted in Chris Lunn slapping home from close range. We really did play some lovely stuff but you gotta have some product for your pressure and we didn’t get the second goal. 5 minutes to go, we let in a bit of a soft goal but credit us, we kept our heads up and pushed the oppo back in search of a deserved winner. Last minute, young Sam worked his way into the D and stuck a reverse-biff inside the far post. Next thing we knew it hit the fence behind the goal and appeared to have missed. No goal given and when we looked we found 2 small holes with one short rung missing and the ball had gone through one of them.

Ho hum I guess after the surprise point against Harrow this was Hockey Karma restoring itself!?!

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.

After a couple of disappointing results and good if ineffective performances against Eastcote and Oxford (both of whom we beat first time out), I awaited with some trepidation the visit of Harrow who are lying 3^rd and dispensed with us back in October and the team even lighter in adults than normal. Well, what was I worried about?! A terrific first half performance and an increasingly backs-to-the-wall second half saw us hold off a very useful Harrow team who were physical but never dirty.

All the side played well but have to single out Andy Ritchie in goal who made what seemed like a quadruple set of saves coupled with desperate defence from the rest of us and that was one attack!!

The first half we played some really good stuff to hold back the visitors who were particularly strong going forward and we had a fair bit of play ourselves, some lovely short ball pass-and-move hockey by midfield and attack at times which gave us a bit of rest at the back and gave Harrow’s defence food for thought.

Second half, an interesting airborne tackle by Bubs meant we held our breath to see what the ump would do (short corner, phew!) and he did himself a mischief so we had another re-shuffle with young Ryan coming into the back. Harrow pushed us further back and the last 15 minutes reminded me of the Battle of the Alamo (except we survived!). So nil nil – we should have had Nil Smith umpiring!

Great fun and very proud of the team!

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.