The Future’s bright, the future’s purple

Men’s 1st XI v Chichester

The Old Loughts men’s 1st team had their second game back in National League against Chichester. The game was to take place at the Luxborough Lane fortress in front of the masses of adoring fans, chanting and hungry for a win.

The first half was a cagey affair, both teams looking a bit nervy. Chances were few and far between but wannabe German goalkeeper Frank Whitefëld was on hand to calmly snaffle out the rare Chichester chances. Loughts looked dangerous in patches, with new addition Lewis Mclennan leaping like a deranged salmon whilst volleying the ball just wide of the top corner.

The second half saw Old Loughts coming out with a calm intensity, noticeably stepping up their game. Dangerous breaks from Philip Lahm-esque George Lilley at right back were a constant menace and William Smith was an impressive physical presence, his new gym membership really paying dividends. The first goal was deservedly for Loughts, a penalty flick given for a hideous foul on Jeremy Hopkins, efficiently converted by Rory Coltham. Chichester rallied, a good routine from a short corner showing why they have national league pedigree, made the game 1-1. However this would not deter the men in purple, a dogged run down the left wing saw Mitchell Jones somehow find the bottom corner of the keepers goal, making the game 2-1. Despite pressure from Chichester and an interesting second penalty flick from midfielder Coltham, the game ended 2-1. Another 3 points pushing newly promoted Old Loughts into 2nd place in the league; the future’s bright, the future’s purple.

Post-game, centre back Stu Bloss spoke with the reporters – ‘Look, it’s been a good start but we know it’s going to get even harder from here out. I feel like my broad shoulders will feel the weight of the added pressure this year, as will the rest of the guys. Everyone knows how important it is to battle hard and keep picking up points’.

Elsewhere, the men’s 2nd and 3rd teams both won convincingly, continuing the great starts all round.

New beginnings

The new Men’s 6s “Willows” team (named in memory of Tom Wilson) have their first ever league match this Saturday 7th October at 4pm at home.   If you were thinking of popping down to the club to see the Men’s 1s at 5:30pm, why not come a bit earlier and lend us your support?   We can show you a refreshing change from the boringly fast, accurate, effective play of the 1s...

Brentwood Indoor Division 1 match report

As many of you know the Brentwood indoor competition is used by the club to develop the colts in readiness for the upcoming indoor competitions with the under 18s playing in Division 1. Last year the under 18s were runners up in their group missing out on regionals but hope this year will be different. 

Thursday night saw the first round for the under 18s where they took on Brentwood and then Old Southendians.

The boys started their first match nervously conceding early on having not got back fully into the indoor format. The boys however knuckled down and quickly levelled the match with a goal from Nathan firing it into the top corner of the goal. The second half was back and forth with the boys again coming from behind. Josh utilising the space made by the other players by pulling the opposition away from the ball, scoring, then fairly quickly Ansh scoring in a similar move. With the game level and with not much time left, an opportunity arose and Nathan keeping a clam head slotted the ball home for the first win of the evening.

The second game was against last year’s winners of the Division with the game immediately after the first meant the boys had to recover their composure quickly. Again the experienced opposition tried to rattle the boys but Loughts scored first with a goal from Nathan from a penalty corner. This seemed to rally the opposition into action and they quickly fired themselves into a 3-1 lead. With cool heads required from the colts they turned on the heat moving the ball well causing the opposition’s defence to make mistakes with a goal from Callum and a penalty flick scored by Nathan it was all square again with minutes to spare. The boys pushed looking for the winner which came from another team effort with Nathan pushing the ball across the line for his hat trick of the game.

A brilliant effort all round with special mention to Xavier in goal who was calm and collected keeping the opposition from penetrating the circle and organising the team from the back.

Team

Xavier Cook, Ansh Joshua, Callum, Nathan, Ignacio, Jake, Tom, Tarun, Richard and our experienced Nigel Creswell

Goal scorers

Game 1: Josh (1), Ansh (1), Nathan (2)

Game 2: Nathan (3) Callum (1)

Membership

The deadline to complete membership renewals was 30 September.  If you have not renewed please do so now so that you are eligible for selection for the weekend.

It is easy: 1.           Just check your membership details online

                  2.           Fill in the 4 boxes on the membership form and sign it;

                  3            Return the form to the office with your payment.

                  4.           You can play.

Please do not delay as captains and managers will not be able to select you until everything has been completed and they have a difficult enough job each week without having to chase players for payment.  Everything you need is on the website http://www.oldloughtonians.co.uk/membership_form

Honours Boards

Thank you for all the good feedback about the honours boards in the foyer.  The club has the full records of winners for the last two years but not before.  If you are a past winner 2014/15 or earlier (or have old winners' lists) please let Jo know so that we can get as many names up as possible.

England Hockey Consultation

At the England Hockey AGM in March 2017, a resolution to review the structures within the sport was put to the AGM and passed via a 98% majority. The AGM resolution read as follows:

“This resolution proposes that England Hockey review the sport's current governance structure across the country so that it provides the best opportunity to develop the sport; increasing participation levels and the chances of sustained success at national and international level while safeguarding participants and giving members the best possible experience in the 21st century”.

To inform the review we want your views about the way in which hockey is currently run and managed at regional and county level and whether this meets the needs of players and clubs. We want to know if you feel that it currently works well or if improvements could be made and, if so, we want your thoughts and ideas on practical solutions. 

Over the coming months there are two ways to provide feedback:

• Online survey. This will be available from mid October to mid November 2017. The survey will be open to individuals and representatives of clubs, leagues, county and regional bodies to complete. If you want to receive a personal notification of the survey when it opens please provide your name, email address and organisation via https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/AGMResolution

• Consultation meetings. These will take place in the last two weeks of November and will consider the feedback we have received from the survey, with a focus on exploring future options and finding workable solutions if issues have been raised.  Clubs and associations wanting to attend the evening consultation meeting will be able to send a representative.  Full details to be confirmed but dates and locations:

§  Wednesday 22 November – East Molesey, London

§  Thursday 23 November – Taunton, Somerset

§  Monday 27 November – Leeds, Yorkshire

§  Wednesday 29 November – Solihull, West Midlands

§  Thursday 30 November – Stansted, Essex

Spaces will be limited – any club/association wishing to reserve a place for their representative should email AGM.resolution@englandhockey.co.uk with contact details.

Coming up……

Men’s 1st XI at home 7th October 17:30 push back

 

Items for HH to office by Monday 10 am please