The Under 18 Boys did the Club proud with their performance at the recent England Hockey Super 6's National Club Indoor Finals in Telford. As a squad of eight players (only two had played indoor before December 2016) we went into the Nationals after finishing North Runner's Up in the qualifying tournament in our first experience of playing indoor at this level.

Qualifying for events like this are also important so that we continue to get the 'Timperley' name out there in the wider hockey community to help promote us as an option for players moving to the North West. It was also great to be able to play along side many of the biggest and most successful hockey clubs in the country including: Surbiton; Beeston and Canterbury.

Congratulations to coach, Albert Marcano, who gave the boys a crash course in the skills, tactics and art of indoor hockey over a couple of training sessions. All bar two boys were new to indoor hockey so it is a credit to them all to pick up the basics so quickly and being able to compete at this level. With two wins and two defeats we finished a solid third place in the group.

Results:
Timperley 4 - 3 Lichfield
Timperley 0 - 9 Surbiton (who went on to win the tournament)
Timperley 2 - 5 Harleson Magies (Runners up in the pool)
Timperley 7 - 1 Ashmore

Congratualtions to:
Lewis Rogers (GK); Matt Booth' Josh Reeves; Bilal; Chaudrhy; Ben Jones; Ben Entwisle; Ben Nicholson and Jack Entwisle (Captain). Coach: Albert Marcano. Manager: Kerry Smith.

Thanks also to all the families and supporters who traveled down to Telford to support the boys and were treated to a great weekend's hockey - we certainly had a number of converts to indoor hockey (or maybe it was the benefits of watching without the wind and rain and having an elevated comfy seat to watch from!).

As well as Timperley Club Patron - John Wood - coming along to support the boys, 'Old Boy' John Jordan also came along to watch. John was the THC Men's 4's captain in the 1960's and still supports our old boys lunches so it was great he could come along. John was so inspired by the weekend that he has kindly made a donation to THC to support our work to develop young players. We thank John for his generosity and he shared the following thoughts:

"it's a pleasure to support the Timperley boys and girls and I hope the boys feel they got recognition for their efforts; I thought they showed appropriate aggression and resilience as well as excellent technical skills. I hope they can find local pitch facilities and opponents to develop rapidly.

So onwards and upwards for next season - and in our planning for 2017-18 season we will be looking at booking a suitable sports hall and hopefully being able to offer more players the opportunity to develop their skills through the indoor form of the game - senior and under 18.

Finally thanks to Sarah Chancellor who took the boys of a training session over the holidays and to everyone who lent the boys their indoor sticks - including Bart, former THC player and Polish International who know plays down the road in Red and Black !