League action for all (or nearly!)

Last weekend saw four of our teams – the Ladies’ 2nds, 5ths, 6ths and Development – play their first league matches of the new season and this Saturday (27 September) the rest of our teams, with the exception of the Men’s 2nds, follow suit. The Ladies’ 2nds had an encouraging 4 – 0 East Div 2NE win over Bury St Edmunds 2nds and this week are away to Ipswich 3rds while the 6ths beat the 5ths 7 – 5 in an exciting M&A Norfolk Div 3 end-to-end clash. This week the 6ths are away to Thetford 2nds, the 5ths are away to Herlings and the Development team, after their excellent 4 – 0 away win over Norwich City, are away to Watton as they seek to retain their Norfolk Development League title.

The Men’s 1sts, now kindly sponsored by Hunton Legg of Bruisyard, Saxmundham, begin the defence of their NE14 HOCKEY East Premier A crown with a visit to Bishops Stortford boosted by their dramatic away friendly win last Saturday over last season’s play-off opponents Fareham, the reigning South champions. Three down at half time the team responded well to the words of wisdom of manager Robert Stimpson and with four goals by Andy Hipwell ended up 4 – 3 winners! In contrast the Ladies’ 1sts, again kindly sponsored by Kitchen Sense of Harleston, lost at Southgate after leading at half time but after a generally encouraging pre-season should be able to travel to Maidstone for their opening Slazenger England Hockey League Women’s Conference East (phew!) match with confidence.

The Men’s 2nds, after their 8 - 0 win over Norwich City, should have entertained Vauxhall in East Div 1 but with the majority of the Vauxhall players due to be celebrating an important Muslim festival as part of the month of Ramadan the match has been postponed until 13 December.

The Men’s 3rds were in equally dominant form against Norwich City 3rds, with Matt Brand again amongst the goals, and after a really good build-up to the season under the captaincy of Joel Nelson must be looking forward to the weeks ahead starting with their East Div 3NE home match against Lowestoft Town (4.00pm). Meantime the Men’s 4ths, after their friendly win over Norwich City 4ths, begin their Div 3NE campaign away to Norwich City 3rds while the Men’s 5ths are away to North Walsham 2nds (in East Div 5NE) and the Men’s 6ths, after a very promising win over Norwich City 6ths, entertain Norwich City 4ths (12.30pm), also in Div 5NE. I hope you are still with me!

This leaves three other teams to also wish ‘good luck’ to for this weekend and the season ahead, namely the Men’s Veterans, who travel to Bishops Stortford, the Ladies’ 3rds (Norfolk Premier Div) who are away to Reepham and the Ladies’ 4ths (Norfolk Div 2) who are at home to Harriers (10.30am).

News and comments in brief:
• I take this opportunity to thank Nigel and Sue Bedingfield of www.WaveneyValleyBlog.com for their sponsorship and maintenance of the club’s really excellent website.
• The weather relented sufficiently last Friday for the lines to be repainted on the two pitches and I apologise to the U11 Girls and Boys and their coaches for the restricted space they had on the sand-based pitch that evening while the paint dried.
• The scoreboard on the water-based pitch failed to work last Saturday which was a nuisance but at least it prevented the operators suffering a repetitive strain injury to their thumbs! I hope the board will be back in action this week.
• The above are good examples of the maintenance which is required at the club on a regular basis and which is largely unseen by members and our visitors.
• Each year we reluctantly say ‘farewell and good luck’ to a number of our young members as they go off to university and it is now the turn of Logan Bedingfield, Harry Blandy, Katie Forsyth, Jess Hull, Richard Larkin, Carl Sitch and Amelia Thomson. They will be joined in 12 months time by a number of other young members who are still with us during their ‘gap’ year.

With kind regards and best wishes to all members, supporters and friends of the Club.