Wishing all our #HockeyFamily as Happy New Year and a healthy and positive 2021! Take a look back at a year like none other in most of lifetimes and as well as the challenges there have also been many positive and along with tears. The spirit and support across the club has been fantastic and as a community we've probably discovered that being part of the club is about far more than whacking a ball about !

So, that a look back at 12 months life of hockey at Timperley Sports Club !

January 2020
Hockey as normal, handling the ball, teas, changing rooms, sharing cars, kit and water bottles - no news here! Social highlight was Stars in their Eyes with Tim and Rob Judd predicting the future with an excellent rendition of Always look on the bright side of Life but were pipped to the top spot by Amy Winehouse and the Wino's with Ladies Club Captain and Hockey Chair as backing singers !

February 2020
Still nothing on the horizon about a virus named after a beer and we're back with Saturday Night Hockey under the lights The big news was it was Wet Wet Wet with Storms Ciara and Dennis caused havoc with the hockey and Green Pitch - clearing water off it became a regular pre match activity !

We were also all still enjoying Janet Woods cake sales and ran our big fundraiser as a final push to raise the final slug of hockey's £12k contribution to the new Blue Pitch lights. Take a look back at our Race Night with a Difference (video highlights) - when we had a cracking night and raised £1600.

March 2020
Starts pretty much as normal with the Cheshire Mini's and the Boys U10's finishing Runners Up and booking a place in the North Finals. League hockey rolls on and not much sign of any big changes !

First Covid Statement from EH came out on 12th and we entered a new world of guidance including with stick taps - replacing handshakes, no sharing of water bottles (how odd does that sound now!) but n we play for what turned out to be one final weekend and what a weekend ! The Mens 5 and 6's gained promotion, Ahmed's Mighty Men's 7s won their first league game of the season and the Ladies 1 secured 3rd place in the league with one game to spare. By the 16th March -the bombshell announcement came of the suspension of hockey and national lockdown and the closure of the Club.

April 2020
The start of a whole new era with everyone adapting to lockdown and no hockey. The impact of Covid-19 hit home as we marked the sudden passing of much loved former member Chris "Boy" Ryder .

We started to adapt to the new 'normal' and had a flurry of online activity with Mini Masterclasses with the Mawby's, , Ladies 2's Easter Challenge and the first of 13 Academy Bite Size Coaching Sessions from Albert and Mark T and launched our Timperley Hockey You Tube Channel where you can see all the videos.

We also had our own #OneClubFourSportd NHS Tribute. The TSC 200 Club Draw also went online with streamed on facebook - now a regular feature !

May 2020
The Men's 1s got running in doing a Marathon a Day in the Month of May raising over £2500 for NHS Charities and running 1632km in 31 days! The 200 Club grew due to increased online sales and became the 300 Club ! Cricket was back at the end of the month and EH announced the Return to Hockey Roadmap and we were nearly back on the pitches after two months off !

The Club also made a huge decision in a period of great uncertainty and signed off the Business Case to replace the Green Pitch and was successful in gaining a number of grants and social investment funding to support the project but the challenge was set for members to raise £20,000 towards the £240,000 project.

June 2020
Hockey was back initially for a week at Step 1 (household only or with one other person) and then the racy excitement of Step 2 Hockey (households or up to 4 people from different households!) no contact, no tackling, no touching the ball, no goals, no parking, no toilets and 2m social distancing but boy were we happy to be back on the turf ! Pitches became play zones and we introduced our own Dutch style skills zones and grid too - everyone had to pre book. Albert and Mark T also started our 121 and small group coaching - hockey was back !

The Great Timperley Auction entertained up and raised £7000 for the Green Pitch and we launched our Pitch Squares fundraiser.

July 2020
Everything took an upturn in July ! The Green Pitch Project got underway and the old Green Pitch was soon being shipped off site! The Bar re-opened on the 17th July and lots of new Rules and 'takeaway' became the norm or the excitement of booking one of the 8 tables with up to two households ! Hockey continued in Step 2 and we all got used to whacking a ball around in a play zone ! Still no games or tackling !

We held out first online THC AGM and had over 60 members attend including two from a tent in Cornwall - top effort from Emma Bartlett and Simon Meir ! Take a look back in at the 2019-20 Review of Season Video

August 2020
The new Green Pitch was handed over and as the sub base didn't need replacing it was full steam ahead to plan replacing the 29 year old fencing and planning upgrading the floodlights. A real positive to have such a great new facility during such adversity. Take a look back at the Making of the new Green Pitch

Just as we looked like we were going to move to Step 4 and playing and tackling more change came along with the Greater Manchester Restrictions ! The Bar Rules changes and we were back to one household per table and more restrictions outside.

When Step 4 was announced it was all change ! Yes hockey was back but in a way like we'd never seen before ! Fozzy took on the role of Covid Officer and the Covid Support team was set up - everyone had to sign up to an EH participation Agreement and the now familiar Covid Check in and register had to be completed and sent to EH within 24 hours of each session. Pitch side pens appeared for check in but by this stage we'd do anything to play and matches returned with new rules and cards for spitting and tackling was back! New sights on the pitches of socially distanced team talks and subs ! Rocking Up to training or playing became a thing of the pastas everyone needed to 'book in' in advance and check in to keep to the player number limits per pitch.

September 2020
Hurray - we hit EH Step 5 competitive hockey was back and the leagues season began - we even grew our number of senior teams with the new Ladies 6's team! Still no changing rooms, teas or squeezing as many players as possible in cars for away games but we were back and happy ! Gate Marshalls joined the crew and everyone on and off the pitch was pulling together and match fees went cashless too ! Even more excitement we could park back onsite too - how the little things made a difference !

The EH Masters 2019-20 championships were completed with the Ladies Over 35's heading to Nottingham for a social distanced finals day sadly missing out on gold to Bedford HC. The Academy were back too with Anna Mawby and team doing a great job managing the logistics to get as many players on the pitches as possible within the Covid guidelines of 30 per half pitch.

October 2020
Just when we got back to some sort of routine it was all change again as Tiers were introduced having a major impact on the 1's squads as we hunkered down to just playing teams in Greater Manchester. The North West and Cheshire Leagues regrouped all the teams and the Badgers and Beavers were back playing and academy at GMJHL. We continued to play and train as best we could!

Everything was put in perspective again in October as the whole club had to come to terms with the sudden loss of Pat Marston - the heart felt loss shock the club and local hockey world and was marked by a touching 'Remembering Patty' weekend - and Pat will be remembered through a new Umpire of the Year Award and our Timperley v Bowdon Club Challenge (sadly postponed this weekend).

November 2020
The news no one wanted to hear came in November as we headed to another full National Lockdown 2.0 and all adult sport stopped from 5th November and the clubhouse and bar again closed its shutters. The Under 18's had an exemption and continued playing as much as they could. For senior training switched over to Zoom sessions to give time to cover some of the key tactical bits of the game we dont get change to cover at training.

We held our first TSC AGM and again it was well attended - take a look back at the first TSC review of the Year Video

December 2020
Hockey was back at the end of lockdown and the good news was were were still able to play matches against teams in Greater Manchester and beyond for the Under 18's /Academy. Sadly the Bar wasn't to re-open and no socialising was added to the EH rules for hockey - but we kept calm and carried on !

Knowing how important ay form of hockey was to lots of players of all ages we set about planning a month of hockey to get everyone who anted to back on the pitch - we even featured in an EH Clubs video sharing ideas to get hockey back on! So we had Festive 7's, Festive games and the return of Boxing Day (+1) Hockey - with Family 7's and Mixed.

We also ran our first Festive Raffle and raised over £2100 for hockey funds to help us start to recoup the loss of fundraising in 2020.

As if we've come full circle the news that GM was moving to Tier 4 on 31st December has taken us back into a phase of Lockdown 3.0 with adult hockey and training suspended and sadly causing us to postpone our inaugural NY Challenge v Bowdon (24 game / mini tournaments over one weekend) in memory of Patty M (mind the snow and frozen pitches would have put paid to the games anyway!). Under 18 hockey continues to have an exemption to play and hopefully with the vaccine bow being rolled out and hopefully the new Tiers helping to reduce infection rates - we will return to hockey as we know it in 2021!

Huge tahnks to everyone whose made hockey possible in 2020 and the future looks good as we will be bounce back and we've lots of plans for lots of hockey in 2021 !

Most of all we look forward to welcoming back to the club everyone whose doesn't live in GM as we've really missed you guys and can't wait to be reunited as #OneClub!