Bury st edmunds hockey club

With this being my second season back to hockey since school, and my first season as ladies 2s captain, I began last winter with trepidation! However, things really couldn't have gone much better! Being quite a competitive and organised person, the team had to adapt to a very different style of captaincy and selection process. Indeed we did have some minor upsets at the start of season, but after these were smoothed out we settled into a great rhythm.

The first half of the season went like a dream and we won every game but one! The game we lost was away at Harwich. Our availability was very poor but luckily some of 3s stepped up and fought hard denying Harwich anything more than a 1-0 victory. Availability continued to niggle at us meaning that every week we put out a vastly different team. By the end of the season a grand total of 40 different ladies made up our season squad sheet! This combined with some irregular commitment to training made it difficult to work on and polish our set pieces.

For the second half of the season we changed tactics, involving just the 5 dedicated players that turned up for practically every game and training session in set pieces. Along with some invaluable coaching from Alex and Nik, we put together a good selection of attacking penalty corner routines which instantly started to win us more goals. Huge thanks go out to that group of core players who filled vital roles across the pitch including Julie Dunger and Amy Morris in defence, Julie Grayling and Naomi Edwards in midfield and Mazz Chapman up front. Without them my job would have been so much harder and I guarantee we wouldn't have finished top of the league.

This change in tactics and a fresh burst of youth and enthusiasm from Olivia Rush and Kelly Clayden, allowed us to continue our winning ways despite losing some valuable players to injury, travelling and exams. Unfortunately when we came to play top of the league Ipswich 4s, we suffered availability issues yet again and crucially our star goal keeper Amy Gillon couldn't make it. Ipswich fielded a youthful team centred around one very skilled ex-national league player who dominated play. That combined with some pretty biased umpiring saw us go from 3-0 up in the first half to 4-3 down by the final whistle. However our resilience and positive attitude shone through and we won every game from then on.

In total we played 20 games, of which we won 17, drew 1 and lost 2. We scored 64 goals, and conceded only 7 giving us a GD of 57 allowing us to narrowly gain promotion ahead of Ipswich 4s as we drew with them on 52 points apiece. Scoring an epic 18 of those goals was Mazz Chapman who was not only our top goal scorer but also our player of the season along with Julie Grayling. 15 other ladies added to our score sheet notably, Racheal Boreham with 5, Sophie Robins with 5, Kelly Clayden, Julie Grayling and Naomi Lofthouse with 4 each.

I also have to commend the goal keepers that played for us this season. Only conceding 7 goals is a brilliant achievement and I can't express how important that was in gaining us promotion; Ipswich conceded 27 goals which was their ultimate downfall. Amy Gillon was a real star showing great skill and vision, letting in only 1 goal all season. With Amy in goal the whole team relaxed and her direction from the back aided attacking play as well as defensive! Elin Griffiths, Emily Houndsome and Mary Ansell also put in sterling efforts, Elin gaining personal best performances for most of the games she played for us. Julie Dunger also cannot go without mention, she has stepped up to play kicking back and goal keeper this season while also scoring a penalty flick and short corners too. The number of goals she has prevented is beyond counting, and those she scored were pretty impressive too! How lucky we are to have such a versatile and skilled player dedicated to not only the 2s but the entire club - Thank you Julie! I must extend those thanks to include Julie Grayling as well. Both ladies have helped with position, formation and tactical decisions week on week, been great friends to me especially when things were difficult at the start of the season, and they really do form the pillar stones of our team. So thanks again ladies.

Lastly with the changes to training and variety of people and skill levels that turned up, I think the coaches have had a really challenging season. Captains and coaches had meetings practically every week to iron out the creases, emails flew left right and centre, too much pizza was eaten, but I don't think Paul, Nik and Alex ever really get enough commendation for the work and effort they put in. Without them to develop the youngsters and keep the more mature ladies on the straight and narrow we would be stagnant and lost to say the very least! I personally thank you all for your coaching, support and encouragement, and would like to extend those thanks to Millie, Teresa and Grem too. I look forward to working with you all again next season - bring it on!

What a season! After finishing 3rd in the table last year, we were hoping we could improve on that position this year... it didn’t start too well! in our second game we lost  2-3 in a hard game against Grasshoppers 2s, however after the perennial early season shortage of players, our squad settled down, our weekly routines developed with good turnout at training and we were able start working on some set moves which really benefitted our match play, Vikki became the warm up specialist and the team spirit grew and we started to win, and win! Unofficially, we only lost one more game, however mid season in our game V Felixstowe 3s which we won 13-0, due to misinterpretation of the doubling up rule (ie we had a last minute sub... not allowed)....the league decided this offence had to suitably penalised, so our win was taken away and our points deducted, this did mean we were now not quite so clear of the other teams and the race for promotion was a little more tense, it also meant we were even more determined to not only get promoted but to win the league outright, which of course we did, in style, by winning our last game 17-0! (Can't take any credit for that one as I was in a bar in Prague! thank you Nicki for covering my weekends away!)

 

Ladies over 35's Team report

John Grinham asked about the likelyhood as of a 6^th Team for the Men. Bill Tasker gave his stock response for this type of request, yes please, who's going to orgainse it. It is in th development plan and is being considered, entry need to leagues very shortly so a decision will be made in the next few weeks.