Bury st edmunds hockey club

The 2013/14 season has been very successful with 39 players attending the Sunday morning training sessions. There was an even split between the boys and girls with 20 boys and 19 girls on the database. The U8’s played in the end of season tournament and will be attending a tournament at Norwich Dragons Hockey Club this weekend!

Thank you to Fiona Green, Mark Barber and Phil Gibbs for leading the coaching and Ali Page-Blair as the team manager

U10 Boys & Girls

We had a huge group of 46 players attending coaching on a regular basis, ably led by Jet Konrath and Justin Adams. Despite training together at this age group the matches are separate. Two teams of boys and girls competed in the In2Hockey league. The Girls A squad finishing 3^rd, only conceding 2 goals and the Boys A’s won the final against Felixstowe and proceeded to the Regional finals. Fielding a young team they played very well but sadly finished in last place. On the bright side is that 6 of the 10 players will still be in the U10’s next season.

Thanks to Jet & Justin, as well as Eddie Gibson who coached the goalies. And of course super team manager of the year Tim Coe!

U12 Girls

Up to 25 girls were registered for this season and were coached by Helen Bastow.

Two equal ability teams were entered into the SYL- they finished 3^rd and 4^th overall, with valuable match experience gained for many.

The girls secured the U12 Girls Suffolk Championship and progressed onto the Regional Finals. Unfortunately they didn’t manage to repeat the success of the Suffolk round of the In2 Hockey, losing 4 matches and drawing 1.

Several of the girls have been playing in the JDC selection and 6 have progressed onto JAC.

Thank you to Helen Bastow and Robert Fiske who has been the team manager.

We were once again able to put 2 boys teams out and there was stiff competition for the A team, with our B team being the strongest we have fielded for some years. The SYL matches were over and done with all before Christmas with the U12 boys A team losing to Ipswich As on both meetings, however achieving second place in the competition. At U12 level and possibly others too, this is not the competition we are all working towards and in fact seems to be like a series of friendlies. The whole year is leading up to the county competition where the top 2 teams go through to the regional finals involving the top 12 teams in the region.

The training this year and team building has been badly affected by all the county training, which typically takes most of the A team away every other Sunday. We certainly lost 6 Sundays through this. It has also made it difficult to maintain the player development that you plan for throughout the year. 

Nevertheless we entered the county competition with the only club to enter an A and B team. The A team blew Ipswich away and the Bs took them close. So once again the U12 boys were at the regional finals. We arranged a number of extra training sessions and built up our team spirit and structure. On the day the boys played brilliantly, winning their side of the draw, including drawing with Hornets, who were much fancied. The finalists go through to the National competition and unfortunately we lost to Hertford 3-0 in the semi finals. Hornets went on to win it!

I would like to thank my excellent team manager – Jamie Green who has run the team brilliantly, and assistant coach Dan Sharpe, who I hope we can encourage to do more for the club as he is a great coach in my opinion. Thank you also to Annemarie and Shelly for everything they have done this year. It is always a  pleasure to coach Bury children!

U14 Boys

The U14 boys this year had a significantly smaller squad than the previous year, with some sessions down to 5 or 6 and a maximum of 15/16.

As a result we were unable to field a full team for 3 of the 5 games in the EHB championship due to lack of numbers in the squad and fixtures being held over half term. Against Phoenix Blue Hornets we won 3-2 and against Harleston Magpies we lost 9-1. We had 3 friendly matches, the first against Ipswich, Bury won (I think 3-2), the second was against Sudbury and Bury won 8-1 and then finally against a combined Ipswich and Sudbury team which was again victory for Bury. The victory against Hornets was particularly sweet as they went on to win the region and are apparently not used to losing..! 

With approximately 12 players coming up from the U12's and as we are only losing 5 or 6 we are hopeful that we will have a larger squad to select from...then all we need is a coach! Sean is unable to continue, but will be able to assist where necessary. Ian Walters will continue to manage the side.

I would like to thank my excellent team manager – Ian Walters – without whom nothing works, Chris Schanschief who coached for the first half of the season  and assistant coach Joe Tasker, who has been a great help, turning out tirelessly each week. Thank you also to Anne-Marie and Shelly for everything they have done this year. Despite the difficulty we have had with numbers the boys have been a pleasure to coach with some already going into

 

U14 Girls

We had 26 girls attending coaching on Monday evenings at Culford this season.

The U14 girls played in the EHB championships this season. Unfortunately they lost every game, some were quite close and hard fought matches, others were not so close, losing by a considerable amount, the team only score 1 goal in all the matches and defeats ranged from 0-2 to 1-12!. We are hoping to get the use of full pitch next season in training and feel that this will improve the results greatly.

Deborah Blumfield for making sure all involved are CRB checked and advising us on all Health & Safety aspects.

Liz Bright, who as our fixtures secretary organised all the friendly and official fixtures this season

Anyone else at the club who ensures the juniors can enjoy their hockey on a Sunday morning/Monday evening

Shelly & Annemarie, Junior Coordinators


U16 Boys

Outdoors

This season we decided to have fewer fixtures because of the boys commitments to the England Hockey Single System and school hockey, but to ensure that the matches we played were against the very best opposition we could find.

The Outdoor results were as follows

8 Sept Southgate  2-3

8 Sept Peterborough 1-3

6 Oct Beeston 2-3

20 Oct Peterborough 2-4

2 Oct  Harleston 11-0

10 Nov Norwich City 7-3

24 Nov Pelicans 11-1

9 Feb Cambridge City 0-7

Played 8

Lost 5

Goals Against 24

The boys have been a real credit to the club and a pleasure to coach. There have been notable individual successes with Max Macaulay making the U16 Futures Cup team 6 players being selected for JRPC and a further 7 players being selected for JAC.

There are a number of players who have improved a lot during this season, Matthew Thompson, Ethan Lubbock and Ben Gale, but I would especially like to mention James Gibson and Josh Philips who have been regular players in the 3^rd team.

I would like to thank Keiran Williams for his help and advice throughout the last four years, at what at times has been a difficult season, he has always been very supportive of the boys both during their games and dealing with issues within the wider club – his help is vey much appreciated.

For the first time we decided to enter a Boys U16 team in to the Indoor Cup. After some hastily arranged training sessions the boys had a very successful first season culminating in a weekend at the National Finals in Wolverhampton in January of this year.

Indoor Results were as follows

Old Loughtonians 5-3

Peterborough 3-6

Rickmansworth 10-1

Norwich Dragons 4-0

Plymouth Marjon 5-2

Doncaster 2-3

Oxted 1-1

Stourport 1-3

The Boys are Suffolk Champions, Runners Up in East Region and 7th in National Finals

I hope the boys all enjoyed the experience this year, certainly as their coach it was a fantastic honour to be at the National Finals with them.

I would like to thank Aaron Blumfield for his help and support in coaching the team at the training sessions and at the finals.

I strongly believe the club should consider doing indoor training throughout the season, the benefits it brings to skills and fitness are huge and I believe that not only will it enable the U16 & U18 sides to compete regionally and possibly nationally both indoors and outdoors but it will also benefit the adult players and teams.

What was so pleasing to see at the start of the season was to have members of the U16 squad playing in all five men’s teams.

However I believe that the club have missed a massive opportunity to develop and nurture this very talented group not only to help them but to benefit the club. Whilst acknowledging there are issues with availability due to a majority of the boys being at private school, I feel that the club has not carried on the work that we achieved over the previous two seasons with the development an integration of the players in to the men’s side particularly at the top of the club.

I believe that the lower teams continue the good work and try to integrate the players but what must be remembered is they still need coaching and support and not just game time.

However the real problem is at the top of the club.

It cannot be right that junior players are not integrated or helped with coaching and development in the top sides. To hear junior players openly stating saying they do not want to play in the 1^st team is just wrong! All young players should aspire to play at the highest level possible and this has not been the case within our club this season.

This problem must be addressed immediately. This group of players are extremely talented; I believe in the top 20 sides in the country and have been consistently for the last 5 years. We as a club should make use of this talent and continue to develop whilst we have it. We know that they will all move on maybe at 18, but what has happened in the last season has been unacceptable and as the coach of the group completely demoralising. To end the season with no U16’s in the first team squad and having junior players saying they did not want to play in the 1^st team but would rather stay in the 2^nd team can not be right – something has gone badly wrong and this needs to be addressed

I am sorry that the report on what has overall been a successful season for the U16 squad has a depressing footnote but it should not overshadow the performance of the boys in coming 7^th at the Indoor National Finals what a fantastic achievement and one both they and the club should be very proud of.
U16 Girls Season Report 2013/4
Manager: Siobhan Watson

Coaches : Peter Watson,Becky Guy

The girls have had a great season – culminating in qualifying to the Regional finals in Surbiton. The conflicts of school, home and other sporting events resulted in never putting the same team out twice but the spirit in the squad was excellent. More than 20 girls played in total.

We started back in October last year – beating Norwich City convincingly 5-0 and drawing against a strong Ipswich side in the pouring rain. We then beat Harleston 6-0 at home before a crucial decider against Norwich Dragons. Unfortunately at this stage we lost Lucy Holder to Cambridge City, but despite the loss of a key player we managed a 4- 4 draw and qualified along with Ipswich to the Regional Finals.

We arrived in style – in a 40 seater coach – to the envy of the other sides. Losses against the very strong opposition of Old Loughts and Surbiton was alleviated by a fabulous 5-0 win against Canterbury.

Many thanks to all the girls who showed real grit, wonderful spirit and no little skill, and in particular to Maria Andrews who captained the side and set an excellent example. Thanks too to Siobhan Watson for managing to pull a team together, sometimes against all odds, and complying with the daunting rules – and to Becky Guy for her help coaching and to Julie Dunger and Tim Hollins for umpiring .

Bury men’s 2^nds had a great start to the season and were near the top of the table at various points in the season. Out of the 22 League games played we won 12, drew 5 and lost 5 and this unfortunately meant that we ended up finishing fifth in the league table. The top half of the league table was a closely contented battle with the exception of the Pelican who ran away with the league very early on in the season. We were the only league team to take a point from the Pelicans and were very close to drawing with them in our second game of the season. The season has seen many youngsters come up into the 2^nds and we now have a very young dependable back four in the way of Lewis Dowling, Joe Tasker, Oli Heard and Will Tooke who have all excelled during the course of the season along with Ed Hughes and of course so have the rest of the team.

Lewis Dowling received most improved men’s player of the year with Joe Tasker receiving most committed young men’s player of the year who were the stars of the season along with Marcus Roe as usual.

The men’s 2^nds have over the course of the season built up a very committed and dedicated core team of players who have been great on and off the pitch throughout the season.

The top goal scorers this season were Paul Whiting and Ian Konrath, although Pauls Whiting misses and excellent golf swing have slightly over shadowed his achievement this year, having been voted swinger of the year (Take this as you will). Joe Tasker managed to get the 2^nds most converted award ‘Hair style of the year’ for wearing a hair band during a key game to enable him to see during the match in question.

I would like to thank the team who have fully supported me as team captain throughout the season, in all weathers and look forwards to the men’s 2^nds taking top place in the league next season.

For the first half of the season we won most of our home matches and went undefeated at home in the league for the whole of 2013. However we lost every away game bar one, which we drew.

In the second half of the season there was a reversal of fortunes as we did not win a single home game but when undefeated on our travels and with three victories.

Overall our season was statically average as we won 8, drew 6, lost 8, scored 49, coincided 49 and ended up 6^th in the league.

Home Away

Won Drew Lost Won Drew Lost

2013 4 1 0 0 1 6*

2014 0 3 3 3 1 0

*result against UEA 3^rd was later overturned in our favour.

The biggest issue the third team had was after home matches, attendance back at the clubhouse was regularly low and we twice experienced opposition teams not coming back at all. This was in part due to the location of the Culford pitch to that of the clubhouse, as they are at opposite ends of Bury. This meant for some opposition teams going to the clubhouse was not convenient as it meant additional travelling.

 

Mens 4th Team  Report.

The season began with the usual movement of players with Josh Phillips, James Gibson, Rob Johnson and Fin Campbell-Todd all moving up to the 3’s while Charlie Johnson left for University. We were able to welcome some new players into the squad with Matt and Ethan Lubbock and Tim and Matt Thompson joining. We also welcomed back Bill Lake after a prolonged absence.The season started well when following an intensive preseason Bury won their first three league matches before loosing to old foes Magpies 7. Winning ways were soon resumed and we began to climb the league table until a mid season wobble whereby we lost three games on the bounce left us marooned in midtable. The addition of James Thurlow and Sean Milbank for the second half of the season helped steady the ship and we then won 6 games in a row to be in second place with one game to play. Despite losing a close game to league champions Magpies 6 we still gained promotion thanks to Pelicans loosing away at Felixstowe. We played 16 league games, winning 11 and scoring 48 goals and conceding 28. Leading goalscorer was Tim Thompson with 11 closely followed by John Briggs with 10. Throughout the course of the season players from the 4’s managed to make an appearance for every mens team in the club. Several players doubled up and changed teams at very short notice. Special thanks to Andy Longfield for being extra flexible and playing where ever he was asked. Standout moments included winning away at Kings Lynn. Thrashing Felixstowe. Robert Dyball being always late and Justin Adams experiencing a sudden onset of onfield touretts. The completely accurate match reports as usual generated a considerable amount of e-mail banter. As usual the team were a pleasure to captain and in general a good time was had by all.

To  misquote an old cliche this was a season of two halves. In our first  8 matches we won only 1 match so with 3 points we were joint bottom of the league. In our second 8 matches we won 5 losing the other 3 by one goal, and rather unluckily at that. Why the stark diffence? There were a number of reasons Initially there was a lack of organisation( my fault) including the formation the pitch. Availability was erratic ,we had injuries, factors which impacted considerably on a small squad. In the second half of the seasons major injuries receded and just as significantly we managed to strengthen the squad both in terms of numbers and quality. In November Ben Gale appeared  for the first time , by Christmas Mark Hollingsworth currently an England over 65 forward had joined us ,and finally Harry Gale and Mark Dykes became members of the squad.These additions together with the existing squad gave us an excellent ballance of youth and experience which by the end of the season was playing top quality hockey ,a match for an team in the league. We were proud of our age profile: 13 to 17, 50 to 56 and 67to 74.

As stated we ended the season on a high. Not only did we win our last 3 games but in doing so we scored 18 goals against 1 Two of the three teams had put 6 & 5 against us earlier in the seaon.  Over the whole season the goals were well shared with Dykes, Bass, Moulam  Ben& Harry Gale particularly prominent but Dykes, Hollingsworth Sealby , Mortlock & Knight all contributed. The factors that contributed to our revival have been mentioned but I would add team spirit which was absolutely excellent throughout, even when we were losing heavily.

For that reason I do not want to pick out individual for our eventual success as it was such a team effort. However I would  like to mention the younger membrs of the squad, Jennings, Melrose, Sealby, Motlock &both Gales. Not only did the all improve their own game over the seaon, but their commitment and the way they played for the team & never for themslves was exemplary. Thanks to all the squad .to Adrian Moulam for captaining. & to John Grinham & Norman Ballard for all their help to me ,including the excellent catering.

PS Nick Drake & Ben Whittaker should have ben mentioned as goal scorers. Drake only played 3 times but always scores while Whittaker got a superb hatrick on a rare appearnce.

Finally thank  to Tim Hollins for all his help over the season.

Bury entered a team in the over 40’s National Cup this season and were drawn away against a strong Bishops Stortford side. We just about managed to pull together a side and eventually had 11 players (a significant number were over 50!). Despite being a scratch side we competed well and were only 2-1 down at half time. Alas in the second half we ran out of legs and eventually lost 5-1. This meant that we then entered the National Trophy and our first game was at home against St Neots. We were able to field a much stronger side including pressganging Sean Milbank as he left mini’s training. Bury easily dispatched St Neots and won 7-0 with Paul Calver scoring 4! In the next round we were once again drawn at home against a strong Dereham side and unfortunately injuries depleted the side meaning that once again we had the bare 11. We completed well but were unable to take our chances and lost 4-2. Notable points of the campaign were Veg failing to score and Andy Tooke managing to pick up 2 yellow cards in 3 games.

The ladies 1st XI season has seen a number of 'ooh's' and 'aah's' but not quite enough 'get in the back of the net' moments to see us reach our initial target of a top 2 league placing.