Ashford (Middlesex) Hockey Club

Besides the league fixtures already confirmed for the Men and the ladies 3rd team this coming Saturday 14/1/12, there is now an additional fixture at 10.30am at Short Lane, between the Ladies 2nd team and Southgate Ladies 4th team. This is a reaarranged league fixture from before Christmas. There may also be a Ladies 1st team friendly at 3pm at home, but this has yet to be confirmed. Come on U Red & Blacks.

Apologies that we haven’t been able to update the website, but there are the following friendly and two rearranged Men’s League fixtures this coming weekend. Sorry, I haven’t got push back times for the Men’s games, but they are all afternoon matches:

Home Games
Ladies 1st XI v Sunbury, Walton & Weybridge Hawks 1st XI at Short Lane at 1.30pm

Away Games
Winchmore Hill & Enfield 2nd XI v Ladies 2nd XI at 1.30pm

Epsom 1st XI v Men’s 1st XI

West Hampstead 6th XI v Men’s 3rd XI at 2.30pm (League)

Leighton Buzzard Fledings v Men’s 4th XI (League)

Good luck all.

The Xmas newsletter 2011 has recently been sent out to members via e-mail and it contains all the latest AHC news, information from Ashford (Short Lane) Sports, Ashford Antiques gossip and the league tables for all teams at the half way stage of the season and lots of other articles. Please contact me president@ashfordhockeyclub.co.uk if you haven’t recieved a copy and we hope to have a copy linked to the website soon.

Police are scouring Middx, Berks, Bucks and Oxon on the the lookout for 11 men dressed in Red-and-Black. They are accused (and profoundly guilty) of stealing a point from poor old OMT’s! There have been various sightings of them in back gardens looking for more draws to steal…

The 3rd-personed Gordo was looking after the team and was conscious he needed to be a role model and example to the team, unfortunately he forgot about the positive and good bit. The first half was a bit tough as the oppo had a goal disallowed, numerous chances and short corners and keeper Ritchie had several chances to impress his fan on the touchline. We did compete and had OMTs on the backfoot at times though didn’t look threatening. Little did we know but that was our good half!

We did not start the second half well and I didn’t realise how long it went on, Jimmy B in midfield performed wonders and we worked very hard but were close to being overrun. Their umpire blew for a shortie as their forward finished brilliantly and they then managed to stop 2 goal-bound shots on the line – I have seen this happen once very occasionally but twice!!!! The second was very amusing as their guy flicked the ball through our last defender only for another forward to stop and keep it out with his gut! And of course, with 4 minutes to go their defender miscontrolled and our goal machine, Rishi G, made some space and smacked it through their keepers legs. One shot, one goal, one all!! 5 draws in 6 and a big game against fellow strugglers, Slough, awaits this Sat as long as we can avoid the rozzers!

Saturday 5th Nov: Newbury & Thatcham 3s 0 – 0 Ashford 3s

This Bonfire Night saw Ashford’s 3rd XI battle to a deserved goalless draw against Newbury & Thatcham. Given their poor results so far this season, Saturday’s match saw the team turn in a performance that was less about explosions of individual colour and brilliance and instead embodied the dogged and intense fire of team spirit and work ethic.

For much of the game both teams cancelled each other out: chances were few and far between as the battle in the middle of the pitch burned relentlessly. The game sparked inconsistently but, as the second period wore on, Ashford began to dominate in central midfield and there were some strong forays forward from these areas that heralded pleasing and fluid positional interchange from the forwards. These resulted in a number of short corners that Ashford were unfortunate not to capitalize on and special mention must go to the Newbury & Thatcham captain who gamely took a powerful Bhamra drive to the forehead via a vicious deflection off his stick!

The plaudits for only their second points of the season, however, must go to Ashford’s defensive players. Trialing a new-look back line and defensive-midfield partnership, Ashford were resilient, combative and increasingly communicative, ultimately deserving of their first clean sheet of the season. Let them feed this newfound fire with similar levels of desire and commitment as they go into November!

Whilst the times against fixtures seem to have a bug, here’s the times for you as per the latests fixture sheet I have…but please, do check in with captains and let them know your availability…just in case there’s been another update!

SAT 22nd OCTOBER – also PLACE YOUR BETS SOCIAL from 7pm
ladies 1s vs Winchmore Hill HOME at 10.30
Men’s 1s vs Wallingford HOME at 12
ladies 3s vs PHC CHiswick HOME at 1.30
Men’s 5s vs Marlow HOME at 3
Men’s 2s vs Gerrards Cross AWAY at 12
Men’s 4s vs Oxford AWAY at 2.30
Ladies 2s vs Eastcote AWAY at 3

SAT OCT 29th
Ladies 3s vs Hendon & Mill Hill HOME at 12
Mens’s 2s vs Maidenhead HOME at 1.30
Men’s 4s vs Oxford Hawks HOME at 3
Men’s 1s vs Oxford AWAY at 1
Men’s 3s vs Phoenix & Ranlagh AWY at 2.30

All members of the men’s section are invited to an urgent meeting tonight at the Clubhouse at 7.30pm to discuss which of the way forward for the coming season as regards to the lower teams. Please be there if you can.

The AHC pre-season Newsletter has been e-mailed/posted out to all paid up members today. Or view it on line here. Pre-season Newsletter;
Hard copies are also available at the Clubhouse. Men’s, Ladies and Colts midweek winter training dates are contained in the latest, 6 page edition of ‘Read & Black’, details of the forthcoming Club Day on 3/9/11, along with all the other latest and other Club information. Please contact your team captain, the Men’s and Ladies Club Captain or pressofficer@ashfordhockeyclub.co.uk for further details.

‘Ashford will be kicking off the 2011-2012 season with our club day tournament on Saturday 3rd September. Meeting at 1pm for registration, we’ll be holding a mixed team, mixed ability tournament! Exact team size dependent upon numbers, but usually around 6-7 aside playing on half a pitch…a more gentle reintroduction into the game . Games should start at 1.30pm. Alongside the tournament, we’ll also be hoping for sunshine as we get out the BBQ and to have some social beers. If you are definitely able to make it or are hoping to, please let us know to aid catering. Should you know someone interested in playing hockey for Ashford, this is a great chance to come and meet us…so bring them along! Hope to see you there, Hynes, Lucy, Wendy & Cole’.

The Men’s summer league matches have started with four external teams and Ashford A and B sides taking part. A fixture list is posted on the Notice Board and please contact Peter Greatorex if you are interested in playing.

Men’s weekly fitness training for the 2011/12 season will start on Tuesday 28th June, on the grass at Short Lane at 7.30 pm.

All existing and new members welcome.

Nuggets of good news across the last 2 weeks…the 4′s gave themselves a reasonable chance of staying up by beating Maidenhead Magicians 3 goals to 2,  a late goal by Big Ad gave us the points, believe Shane and Adam got the others. The 5′s won this week beating Amersham & Chalfont 4-1, Jonathan from Luxembourg guested and scored from 1 yard (as ever) from a mis-hit shot by Ram who managed not to get sent off this week – and the 5′s have now won 4 games and sit in the lofty climes of lower middle! The 3′s played the league leaders and almost certain champions, OMT’s, last week and played some really good stuff. We really should have scored to make it 2-1 but didn’t and they got a late goal but a good performance and game. This week, they got a welcome point against City of Oxford who equalised in the last minute, mind you, we went in the lead with 3 mins to go from a MattSam p-flick.  He was going for top left, cocked it up and it dribbled along – fortunately the keeper had dived athletically to his right and could only watch the ball creep over the line! The 2′s had a really good game against Maidenhead 2′s equalising from an overtime short corner at the end of the first half, Gordo playing his first game in the 2′s for 13/14 years deflected it in and got very very excited! When Karan scored from close range, we were in Nirvana but a soft equaliser put the home teams tails up and they eventually won 4-2 but considering we wonly had 4 2nd team players, we should be both pleased with our performance as well as disappointed with the result.

I’m going to concentrate on the positive here covering the last 2 weeks. The 4’s got a very creditable 2-all draw against West Hampstead 6’s, which gives them real hope they could beat the drop (big game against Maidenhead this week), but played poorly this week against Leighton Buzzard. The 5’s won 4-2 against LB 3’s, weapon X getting a hat trick and I believe Kulvir, but lost the previous week 5-1 against WH 8’s. The 3’s finally got back to some decent form this week against league leaders, OMT’s 2’s. We lost 3-0 but really gave them a game and we enjoyed the contest…unlike the previous weekend where we lost 5-1 to LB 2’s, Adam H scoring and 4-1 (Frypot)  to Harrow 1’s on the Sunday to cement 11^th spot in the league!!!

While the 1’s unfortunately suffered heavy defeats, the 2’s have really picked up with another win over basement team Amershame & Chalfont by 4 goals to 1 (mind you, we lost to them the last time), Stewpot got a hat-trick and Chris B the other.

The ones continue to play some decent hockey but need to achieve more from their periods of fluency and pressure. Lewes made us pay and although they deserved to win, 4-1 (our goal from a The Lip drag-flick) was harsh.

The important thing about the 2’s was they won and 3 more points away from the bottom 3, the performance though left a lot to be desired (according to my unnamed Podge-like source) against a 10-man GX side that were deservedly 1-up at the break. Karan and I believe Jas scored the goals.

The 3’s Gordon Bennett if you are squeamish, look away now, I wish I had cos I watched the whole thing as we conspired to hand GX 2’s their first and almost certainly only points this season. I almost hope we were bribed to lose…all we can do is ensure we learn from the game and apply the lessons to this coming week. We are playing Leighton Buzzard who are just above us so I will hopefully be a happier bunny next week.

The 4’s did very well against the top team in the league, Brunel University who are leagues below where they should be. They breezed into a 3-0 lead before a nice move involving Jim B, me and Chris Lunn set up Shane Smith who still had a bit to do but reverse-sticked home. Soon after, a similar nice team move gave Adesh a chance and his zippy flick was clawed away brilliantly by their keeper. 2^nd half we were under a lot of pressure but coped very well with it, Doggers did very well but Dom Hillman had a barnstormer (?)of a game, absolutely fantastic…and it was a real team achievement to keep it at 3-1…

Again 5’s played well against a decent Marlow team and lost 4-0 – good to Mark Bell back in action Ding Dong!!!