Its been another bumper summer for hockey at Timperley with all ages getting in on the act - see our round up below! Not its time to get focused on the new 2023-24 season! Catch up with the latest #oneclub news!

New season and some new faces and role holders
Our new Women's Performance and Development Head Coach Ali Ghazanfar is settling in well land has lead some early sessions to get to know the Performance Squad along with Women's 2's Coach Mat Gotts. We're delighted to announce that Chris Simcock will be joining us as Men's 2s Coach working with Rob Turner, Men's Performance and Development Head Coach. Well do a proper introduction to Chris next week, and he brings a range of experience and passion for the game to Stockport Road. Both Performance Squads start pre-season training this week.

Thanks to everyone who came along to the AGM and elected our committee for 2023-24 season. We had one key vacancy to fill - Women's Club Captain and we're delighted to announce the appointment of Natalie Scott to the role. Nat was last years Ladies 4 captain and coaches with the U14 Girls too and brings lots of passion for the club and game to the role. Congratulations to Nat who will join the main committee: Shelagh Everett (Chair); Rob Judd (Secretary); Andrew Entwisle (Treasurer) Haroon Bangee and Kieran Jeffery (Vice Chairs); Jo Robinson (Hockey Development Chair); Sarah Wilkins (Welfare Officer); Andrew Foster (Umpiring Co-ordinator); Anna Mawby (Junior Chair) and Dave Price (Men's Club Captain).

Nat and Pricey will be sharing captains updates over the next couple of weeks ahead of the new season.

Coaching / Training Sessions 2023-24
We'll be sending out the full schedule shortly for all ages but the key changes / things to note are:

- Performance Squads pre-season starts 18th July invites have been sent to players
- Club Squads pre-season - we are currently finalising plans to add some new pre season sessions for club players (more details to follow)
- the full 'in season' training timetable will start from w/c 3rd September. The main change will be the Women's 1 will return to their 8.15pm to 10pm Tuesday training slot and Men's 5 to 7's training will move back to 7.00pm to 8.15pm slot (this is linked to coaches / pitch optimisation)
- friendlies are being arranged incl the Patty Challenge Cup v Bowdon for all teams on 9th September
- Senior league fixtures start on Saturday 23rd September
- Junior hockey on Sunday's will re start on 11am on 3rd September (Cubs to U12) and U14/16's on Mondays from 4th September

Big year ahead for TSC and THC
This is a huge year for us off the pitch are the Club takes forward the plan to replace the Blue Pitch and enhance the pitch surroundings (in Spring 2024) and the wider clubhouse and site development. Come along to the TSC AGM on Thursday 14th September at 7.30pm to find out more about the plans for 2024 and how to get involved. Hockey need to get behind the projects and the more we put in the more benefit we will get as a club. We will be setting up a specific hockey fundraising group to focus on the 'Blue Pitch Fund' (In additional to raising funds to run hockey at the club as we do every year). The aspiration is to develop a spectator area and other improvements so we need a core team to really drive fundraising to help these new additions become a reality.

First up to kick off the fundraising will be 'A Race Night with a Difference' on Saturday 23rd Septemberr - so save the date and if you're business would like to sponsor a race details will be out shortly. A Comedy Night is also planned and we'll need a range of new and different fundraisers to boost our fundraising for a great cause.

2023-24 Membership Subs - get ahead of the game and sign up for installments now !
The TSC Membership runs from 1st April to 31st March and all hockey members must join and pay a TSC Subscription (and hockey fees from U18's). Players aged 16+ can renew their subscriptions and set up payment by four installments (or a one off payment). The deadline to sign up by installments sign up by 20th August 2023 and for those paying in full by no later than 30th September. No Pay No Play will kick in at the start of October.

Chasing Subs takes up a huge amount of volunteer time and impacts our ability to focus on giving you a great hockey experience on and off the pitch and impacts the club's financial planning and focus on the pitch replacement and overall development plans.

So please help us to help you by getting your subs paid or installments set up over the summer. For full details CLICK HERE - TSC Subs 23-24 or simply log onto your TSC membership account and set up your payment(s) https://timperley.first-sports.com/. There's also a new reduced rate sub for those aged 18 to 24 (who aren't students / unemployed) too.

We also have two new Membership Officers (hounds) this season who will be focusing exclusively on getting subs paid in on time - big thanks to Jon Mawby whose MO for the Juniors and Graeme Evans-Murray whose MO for the seniors. Big thanks to Jon and Graeme for taking on this key role.

Young Blues
Its been a busy Summer for our young Blues with new additional fun game based sessions held on Monday's and many of playing Adult Summer League too - congratulations to Danny Higgins all star lads who won the Men's Summer League! Its the final Monday session this evening and then we'll be running Hockey Camps in August. Bookings are now open for the full day Performance Camps (new school year 8+ U14 - U18) with Ali G on Wednesday 9th and 30th August BOOK HERE. Camps dates for players in new school year 5 to 7 for 2.5 hours. Comms will be sent to parents for both.

We've also had players pulling on the Tensworth (North West invitational side) short to play in a brilliant national U13 tournament held at Nottingham every year. Well done to Orla, Connie, Meg, Emily, Tilly and Charlotte C playing for the girls and Harrison, Sam S, James, William, Patrick F and Rhonan who played earlier in June for the boys.

We also start the membership renewal process this week and a new process for ALL players aged U18 on 31st August to complete
our new THC Returning Members Form 2023 (U18's) and set up their subs and hockey fees payment for the year by 20th August 2023 (including option to pay by 4 instalments). We currently have waiting lists for some age groups so it is key to know whose returning so we can manage the waiting lists and plan for the new season.

We also have a new email for all junior enquiries juniors@timperleyhockeyclub.com if you have any queries - again we will contact parents via Pitchero this week so check your messages.

There's also a new form to use for anyone looking to join and play junior hockey at Timperley THC New Player ENQUIRY Form 2023 (U18's)

Glorious Summer for our Masters players !
Its not just the young blues pounding the turf in the sun and rain! Our Masters players (from 35 to 76!) have had a bumper summer! Our Mixed Masters Team is into the finals of the NW500 really having cracked to format (total age of 10 outfield players have to be 500 or more!). Thanks to co-captains Niall Scott and Sian Barlow and to all the players whose.

We had lots of players representing North West Age Groups in the recent national 8 Area Tournaments from O35s to O70s and good to see Calvin O'Connor picking up a stick again. Congratulations to NW O35's Coach Mat Gotts and player Kelly Burdett picking up Gold at the 8 Area tournament for second year.

The International Masters season is also underway and this year as well as home nations we've Timperley Players out in force at the European Championships. David Hans and Lou Hutchinson have already picked up Gold in the WO50 and MO40's and great to see Robin Cooper making his O35 debut for Wales at the Nottingham last month. This week we have three Blues out in Valencia for the next batch of age group tournaments - all the best to Sarah Impey, Debbie Chalcraft and Col Taylor. You can follow their progress at https://masters.altiusrt.com/

Finally, thanks to everyone whose been involved in running Summer League (KJ, Ross, Sarah W, Jo Rob and Sammy H) this year - 36 teams, 18 nights and 100+ hours of hockey and lots of happy players. Not only is this a great opportunity for social hockey it also helps raised enough funds to cover the costs of all our annual affiliations and insurance so thank you to everyone involved and if you owe match fees please settle up asap!

Regular updates will now be back to give you your weekly fix of all things hockey at Timperley!