As we wrap things up hockey wise pre-Christmas and New Year catch up with this weeks hockey news, what’s planned for January and a few reflections at this festive time of year on what it means to be part of a 'club' !

Christmas Festivities at TSC

Thank you to everyone who came along to the Club last Saturday for the TSC festivities. The weather was horrendous so it was great to see so many people down and real respect for all the Beavers players, coaches, umpires, parents and families who braved the elements for their festive hockey matches!

The Giant Tombola was again a major success and thanks to all the hockey folks who donated prizes and over £600 was raised on the day that will go towards Club Development. Big thank you to everyone who bought tickets and took part in the December 200 Club Draw and congratulations to Rob Pates who won the £250 ‘snowball’. Janet Wood ran another one of her legendary cake stall's to raise funds for hockey development and has now raised over £500 from all the sales this season – so a huge thanks to Janet.

Above all else the TSC Festivities are about bringing people from across the club together as #OneClubFourSports and its was great to see the next generation enjoying face painting, activities and the film show, whilst the older generations enjoyed the company in the bar! It was a great #hockeyfamily turn out and we appreciate everyone finding the time to pop down to the club, including ourTreasurer, Malcolm Tucker, recovering from his recent operation. Thanks to everyone who was involved in helping run the day and Dave Howarth from Cricket the overall organiser.

A Club is for Life not just for Christmas

Its also a good time of year to reflect on what it means to be a member of a club and reflect on how being part of a club and how our TSC community goes beyond the trials and tribulations of weekly fixtures, selection, training and results. The club is all about the people – it’s the people that make everything happened from the running of the facilities, the organising of the sport, running socials and raising funds to keep taking the club and what we can do to continue to take the club forward.

Hockey’s been played at the Club, at Stockport Road, since 1886 – many people have come and gone – and often come back again! Many people have contributed to our rich history – and to what we have today – and hopefully many more will help take the club forward in the future. Part of our strength is being a multi-sports club (cricket, football and lacrosse) and that many former players and members continue to come to the club either on a regular basis or for ad hoc lunches or events.

There’s lots we can always improve on and off the pitch and we will always strive to keep the club moving forward. But it all happens because people make it happen. Its sometimes very easy to get wrapped up in what you may not like, what’s not going the way you personally want it to go – its easy also to forget that people are giving up their time to try and juggle and balance all the things that need to happen to gets squads onto pitches very week to play and train.

The Club is the sum of the people and what we are able to achieve together – people have done this for over 140 years at Timperley and will hopefully continue to do so for another 140! If you move away from the area or go to away to University – you’ll find other clubs that give you the same sense of being part of a community of people enjoying sport. If you come back to the area, or back from Uni, you’ll find a welcome back at Timperley. If you have a family you can have the joy of introducing your kids (or grandkids) to team sport and being part of a club. If you can no longer play, you can still be part of the club, socially, supporting the teams or being involved on a match day. The Club’s here all year for everyone and we hope you’ll continue to come down, get involved on and off the pitch and make the club a place more and more people want to be part of, join or even re-join!

Hockey round up

Congratulations to the Ladies Over 35’s who won their EH Masters match 4 – 0 against Boston Spa – onwards to the next round and a home draw verses Didsbury Northern. Well done to captain Tracy Rimmington and the girls and this makes it a record seven senior teams still in the EH Championships going into 2019.

The men's and woman's 1st teams got ‘low’ with flat sticks last weekend at the North Regional Indoor Qualifiers for the EH Jaffa Super 6’s. Both teams reached the semi finals with the Men losing 4-5 to City of York and the Ladies lost out too. The Under 11 Girls also had a good day at the GMJHL winning 3 of their 4 matches - awaiting results for how the boys did.

This week the FIH announced changes to the Rules of Hockey effective from 1st January 2018 – that put the UK hockey community into a spin as changes included moving to four quarters (4 x 15 minutes). See the full changes FIH Rules of Hockey Changes England Hockey has now confirmed that will be no changes to the Rules of Hockey for the domestic game in the 2018-19 season whilst they seek clarification and look at the impact for all levels of the game. So watch this space to find out what the future holds, the end of a player with goalkeeping privileges (aka kicking back) and changes to free hits in the 23 and the breakdown of short corners.

The annual Cheshire v Lancashire ‘Boxing Day’ Men’s matches for master and we think a senior team we believe will be happening some time after Christmas but we’ve not located the date / venue yet! We suspect a few Timperley Players will be in action carrying on this great tradition.

Stars in Your Eyes – Saturday 26th January 2018

We’re rolling back the years in January with the return of an old THC favourite – Star’s in Your Eyes. A social event when we can see the singing and dancing talents (or not !) from across the club! The festive season is an ideal time to get practicing and belting out some tunes – but we need to know whose up for doing a turn by 13th January so we can finalise the music and production side of the night! Please let Vicky Lomas or Ross Small know details of your act or email to timperleyhc@gmail.com

Take a look at this old school video courtesy of Dave Halkyard and see some of our previous winner’s to get you in the mood and see what its all about !
Timperley Starts in Your Eyes - past winners video

Best wishes for Christmas

Finally, we hope all players, volunteers, coaches, umpires, supporters, and families enjoy a happy 'hockey free' Christmas and that everyone will come back raring to go in 2019!