The heat wave continues and there's no letting up on the hockey - even though we're making a few adjustments for the World Cup ! The Men's experience Caribbean conditions when playing Barbados down in London and the Ladies Over 30's reach the EH Summer Championships Semi Final ! Find out what else if happening at and around THC this week !

9th July 2018

- TSC grass pitch taskforce 6.00pm.
We need to muster a posy of 8 -10 hockey folks to join other sections to help back fill the drainage channels with sand due to the extreme dry weather. Last summer hockey made a great contribution to this 'club effort' and the more the grass is playable in the winter the less pressure on the ATP's at weekend's.
Please pop down and help if you can for an hour or so and drinks and a few butties will be provided after. Anyone can help, friends, partners, kids - ideally bring some gardening gloves if you have some and help grab some sand and fill in the channels - simples !

- Pre-season SilverFX Kit order cut off - order on-line by 9th July for delivery in early September
http://www.timperleyhockeyclub.com/news/pre-season-thc-kit-the-order-deadline-by-9th-july--2320361.html

World Cup - Impact on Hockey Dates !

As the nation unites behind England we been working fast to make changes at THC too so everyone can get to watch the England Matches . Last week we cancelled the Women's Summer League and this means the finals night will now be a week later on Tuesday 17th July.

The knock on impact of this is that stick and ball pre-season training won't now start on a Tuesday until 24th July -we're really sorry about this for a number of reasons we've extended summer league so that the format can complete the full 9 weeks league and 1 week finals night.

This week's Men's Summer League is not planned to run this week (11th July) either (however Will is currently confirming with all teams they are happy with this !). Men's Summer league Finals night was planned for 18th July and we are currently confirming if this now moves out to 25th July, or not, to fit a full 10 weeks in. Will T will be in touch with all teams.

More hockey success ....and another Semi Final .....

The Ladies Over 30's hit the A1 last Sunday and the heat of the midday sun in their 12noon push back against Newcastle Ladies in England Hockey's new Summer Championships ! Conquering the heat the girls fired in four goals to make the journey worthwhile and came out 4-1 winners and a place in the Semi Finals.

We've drawn Bridgenorth at home on Sunday 15th July - with a well times 12.30pm push back. Let's get a good crowd down to support the girls and make an afternoon of it and stay down for the World Cup Final . Good Luck to Leonnie, Cath and all the players.

Another really successful Mixed Tournament last Sunday 1st July too. Huge thanks to Sarah Chancellor (and Dan) for running the day with a bumper 17 teams taking part and Neston and City of Manchester coming out top of the two leagues on the day. Fantastic weather again and lots of happy - albeit a bit hot - player and visitors to the club. Thanks to Sarah we have raised another £800+ towards our 2018-19 fund-raising budget that goes towards meeting the costs of coaching, fitness, affiliations and lots more as match fees only cover about 40% of the cost of running hockey at the club - so every pound raised goes towards covering all the other costs and keep match fees at current rates

Strength and Conditioning / Fitness - Thursday 7pm - 8pm throughout July and August A good first session last week with Robbie - the session is open to all player so mark it in the diary and come down for these excellant sessions to get in shape for the season.
http://www.timperleyhockeyclub.com/news/for-young-and-old-dogs-pre-season-fitness-starts-5-2320359.html

Fancy following in the footsteps of Gareth Southgate !
Interested in managing one of our senior teams ? We'd love to hear from anyone that would like to get involved on a match day to support our teams (and for the higher teams the coaches too).

The role varies depending on the level of the team from Women's National League / Men's North Premier where you'll be involved with match officials and the administration on the day working alongside the coach, right through the sides going along and helping out off the pitch on a match day. Its a great way to be involved in the crack of a match day, get involved and be part of the squad. You don't need to have a hockey background to do this role, but its also a great role for any ex-players looking to get back involved on a match day.

If you're interested drop a mail to timperleyhc@gmail.com or speak to Cuey about the Women's teams, Dave Halkyard (M1's) and Kieran for the other Men's teams.
We'll also be looking for parent managers for our academy teams over the summer too.

Back to the Future .....rolling back the year in West London ! Timperley XI v Barbados

After last weeks memories of 2012 the Men hit the M40 and headed to Hounslow to Indian Gymkhanna Hockey Club for the re-match with the Barbados National Team on Saturday 7th July. On what felt like the longest hottest day of the year push back was put back to 6pm (Caribbean time) to make way for a little football ! It must be a real first for the M1's to watch such a significant match surrounded by water and orange juice ! True commitment to the cause !

With Captain Dave Halkyard away on GB Triathlon Support Duties the No. 4 shirt was quickly snaffled by Carwyn making his Timperley Debut ! Back in a Blue Shirt for the first time in 2 years was Matt Horan who took the captains armband and put in a stellar performance at the back leaping around like a gazelle early in the game picking Barbados aerials from the sky with ease and from beneath planes overhead coming in to land at Heathrow ! Good to see Matt back after injury.

Playing four quarters - Timperley took an early lead in Q1 with a deceptive slow-mo cross that found its way into the back of the net. Coming it all square at 1 - 1 at half time showed gave the Barbados coaches plenty to drill into their large training camp squad. With a squad of 13, and temperatures still hoovering around 30 degrees at 7pm, the final two quarters were always going to be an up hill struggle for the lads. Throw in some Barbados breakaways, a flick and the effects of the heat and missed opportunities for Timperley the final score ran out 4-1 to Barbados. Timperley did win the barrage of shuffles at the end of the game and gave a good performance in their first game of pre-season and certainly made Barbados work for the win. 4-1 was also an improvement on the result of the 2012 match between the sides too.

The lads certainly enjoyed the gift of some fine Bajan Rum and we presented their coach and captain with a THC Tie. It was also an opportunity for the players to meet Akeem Rudder who will be joining us in September.

If any players or families living locally are interested in hosting Akeem during his stay with us (September to March) please contact Dave Halkyard or Shelagh Entwisle. A monthly fee is made by THC to the host. Please get in touch if you'd like more details.

Football's coming home ......

Finally, however much we all love hockey this has been a week like no other since 1990 or 1966 for those old enough to remember ! Great to be in the club on Tuesday for the Columbia game and there was another bumper turnout on Saturday.

So come on down on Wednesday for this most historic of games - what better place to enjoy it than with hockey and Timperley friends. They'll be bar offers on and get down early to get a seat !

...and then to dream of Sunday 15th July at 4pm and the chance to do it all again !

That's all for this week ! We'll be getting the holiday camp on line payments live this week so don't forget to contact Caroline Small to book your place !