Hockey Headlines 174

 

Under 16’s Narrowly Miss Final

Saturday saw Lought’s host the Semis, the Final and the play off place for the National U16’s Boys Tournament , with sides from Surbiton , Brooklands and Clifton Robinson’s competing alongside.

The draw, fortunately, saw our boys avoid the favourites, Surbiton and we went all guns blazing against a strong Brooklands  side . Lought’s had a great deal of possession and better chances across the game but remained unable to convert Penalty Corners and narrowly missed from a host of chances created. In reply Brooklands defended deep and in numbers and had little attacking opportunity aside from the occasional break and long aerials passes invariably swept up at the back.

The stalemate could not be broken even into extra time and eventually, the game was decided on penalties with Brooklands prevailing.

The play off saw an improved goal scoring performance and a more relaxed free flowing team scoring 4 goals and taking the Bronze Medal position. This team will surely go on to even higher things in the years to come .

 

After a formidable record in smashing their league last year, Dave Morgan’s thoughts on whether the Ladies 2’s can repeat that this season.

We tracked down, the ever youthful Dave Morgan for an interview following training this week and this is what he had to say when questioned about his team’s prospects.

“Having won last season’s Essex Division 1 undefeated we have found ourselves in a newly created East Division 3 South East. It would be easy to say our aim is to have back to back promotions, but I am not that foolish. The League will be challenging playing teams that have been established in the East Division for a few seasons.

What I would like to see is that we continue to play the style of hockey that this team has been accustomed to and not be overawed by the challenge.  My goal for us as a team, is to finish in the top half of the league, which may sound defeatist, but we need find our feet, make an impression and then push for promotion in the season of 21/22. 

We carry a very strong 2nd XI squad which will certainly make our presence noted in the new league. We would like to welcome Chloe Vaughan, Georgie Batt and Maisie Howson to, or back to the club who will only increase the strength of the squad.  Sadly we are losing two very good players, Rosie Beckley and Ellie Ahern to university - we all wish them very best and hope to see you return. 

Proposed Changes – England AGM

A great deal of work  went on earlier in the year , which was postponed and is now coming up to Vote at the EH AGM . It is the proposed changes to areas and rules.

 Peter Kempe has lead the work that has gone on in relation to this for you ,   and you can read about it here .

http://www.oldloughtonians.co.uk/news/england_hockey_agm

The Club’s position has not changed .

Wanted in The Bar

3 Years ago Chris Rowe stepped in, as a temporary measure for a year, to run the Bar for us and wasn’t allowed to escape for a further two.

He’s finally managed to get away from us (or at least will be soon ) and so we are looking for a new Senior Bar Person . Please advise the office if you, or someone you know are interested in this role going forward ?

We are very grateful to Chris for his work over the years and fortunately will still see him when he is Umpiring .

As we open up we also require cleaners. We had cut back on this in March but as we start to move forward , we need one or two people to give the bar area , and sometimes more of the Club a clean for a few hours , ideally on a Sunday evening .

Both roles are fairly flexible,  are for just a few hours a week .

Pre -Season Friendlies .

Southgate succesfully defend a Ladies 1's PC 

Pick of this week’s preseason games were between Ladies 1’s and Southgate on Wednesday night and Thursday nights run out for the Men against Hampstead and Westminster.

Both games against teams in higher leagues proved to be the ideal challenge to prepare both teams for playing lesser opposition in the coming weeks.

Opposition coach, Martin Foxall felt that Lought’s were the stronger team for the first half but eventually Southgate wore them down, their short passing game and execution around the Circle proving too much and so going on to score 6 goals in spite of some impressive Goalkeeping . Team coach Miranda Baldwin was pleased though with the Team’s performance.

The Men, narrowly lost 2-1 to Hampstead and Westminster, with another fine performance and both teams look well placed to push for great things this season.

What’s Coming Up ?

At Luxborough Lane on Saturday, matches involving 3 of the Ladies Teams , and 4 of the Men’s Teams , starting from 11:30

Monday 7pm – Management Committee Meeting .

 

Stop Press / Reminders.

-Save £20 on most Membership Fees by paying before the end of September with and Early Bird discount. (also ensures you are allowed to be selected for a team).

- We’ve had fantastic success with more than 400 Members signing up to the Participation Agreement with EH, if you haven’t done that yet , don’t lose out, get on and complete it . (Link on our Covid 19 page)

- The Bar is open more often for a takeaway service. We intend to continue to expand that and eventually allow indoors as well but in the meantime, you can get bottled beers and drinks, coffee chocolate and goodies.- Please allow this to continue by observing distancing reg’s and if in a group, just send one person in to get the round.

- Mini Hockey is back from 9:30 on Saturday morning, there may be some queues at registration, we will mark out some spacers to help.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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