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.

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.

Young goalkeeping talent Chris Taylor proved to be a shining light in an otherwise dreary affair. His stubborn resistance between the sticks kept the scoreline reasonably respectable – one particular save saw a solid block from a stinging effort, followed immediately by ‘the splits’ and then the balance and foresight to fling his free hand round behind his body and flick the ball away from between his legs. Some things, it seems, are impossible to teach. Last and by no means least, Ashford’s team included three talented young lads from a local school who demonstrated both aptitude and considerable promise. Hopefully, as Ashford looks to cement its links with surrounding schools, their presence will set a precedent for new young players joining the club.

Ashford IV & Vs  1 – 3  Staines Veterans
(17^th September, 2011)

 This week’s pre-season friendly between two local rivals saw a combined team of 4^th and 5^th XI Ashford players narrowly defeated by a team of hockey veterans from Staines. In a game that dashing debutant captain Shane Smith used to gauge his potential line-up for the new season and trial a new formation – a daring attempt, in case you were wondering, to flood the midfield when defending and encourage ball retention, width and pace in attack – Ashford were unfortunate to come up against a team of, for the most part, technically superior players, many of whom had, in their glory days, played at a higher level than Ashford’s predominantly youthful squad. Staines’ experience and guile would serve them well throughout the match, but it was Ashford who started the strongest; their energy from the off putting their visitors under consistent pressure and breaking with pace from midfield. Indeed, Ashford were the first to score: persistent and aggressive hounding by their captain led him to steal possession near the opposition byline before breaking into the ‘D’ and cutting the ball back for fellow debutant Sam Betts to finish with a calm confidence that defied his tender age.

For the most part the new tactical plan paid dividends and, aside from a soft goal at the beginning of the second half, Ashford only conceded when they lost their shape. In retrospect, this was the result of a lack of physical fitness leading to mental fatigue and the unfamiliarity of a new formation. One would expect both fitness and tactical awareness to increase tenfold as the season progresses, making this weekend’s loss no cause for immediate concern. In fact there are plenty of positives for Ashford to take from the game and, in particular, they demonstrated an encouraging blend of astute experience and youthful vigour.

If you’d like to try your hand at hockey or perhaps take up your stick again after a period away from the game, Ashford Hockey Club has the facilities and personnel to offer a welcoming and stimulating environment in which to fulfil your social and sporting needs. Please feel free to contact Club President Lynne Morgan (president@ashfordhockeyclub.co.uk), or simply turn up to Men’s training on a Tuesday night.

Shane Smith, 4^th XI Captain.

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!!!