So we are a few weeks into the season and your Club Captains have been working with the coaching team and senior captains to finalise our Selection Policy for the 2019-20 season. The Policy was agreed by the Hockey Committee in October and was developed following feedback from our 2018-19 Season Player Survey. We've drawn on examples of Selection Polices from other clubs and developed what we think best fits our ethos and what will work for us as a Club.

Although we haven’t published a formal Policy before as a Club, we have been working in line with the principles and attached Policy since the start of the season to test out how it will work in practice, and whilst it’s not all been plain sailing we think we can make it work!

One of the key principles of selection at Timperley which we all need to embrace in order to fulfil our ever expanding schedule of fixtures is #oneclub and when you pledge your availability for a Saturday it’s for the club as a whole not a specific team, irrespective of age or ability. First and fore most we are all members of the Club not a specific team.

We know that all of our members have busy lives (and hockey is just one part of this) but when trying to field 12 Senior Teams on a match day and many academy sides, and Sunday sides your flexibility and commitment to the club as a whole is essential. Availability has been a challenge this season across the club and compounded by Half Term holidays and to field sides and not concede games has been a major challenge and we than all the captains and academy manager for their work to help get sides out and for the flexibility shown by many players playing where needed to help balance and get sides out.

Please take time to read the policy and understand it – if you have any questions please contact your team or club captain. For the Academy information is also set out in the Parent and Player Handbook.

Talking of which…in order for us to field 12 Adult teams, and all of our Beavers and Badgers games, Cup and Academy games requires us to provide in the region of 13-16 Umpires every Saturday spread across home and away fixture as well as on Sunday. Will Reynolds, our Umpire Coordinator is doing an excellent job of scheduling Umpires but it seems to be getting increasingly difficult to get volunteers.

We have come extremely close to having to cancel matches over the last few weeks and as a club with the number of playing members we have this is very disappointing. All senior players have a good enough understanding of the Rules to umpire academy Saturday games or tournaments so our expectation is that you will all do one game during the season! Please volunteer when approached by your captain or run the risk of your own game being cancelled if volunteers are in short supply.

We'll be reminding players of our other policies over the next week or so - our Code of Conduct is attached as a reminder

Thanks for everyone's Support and we hope the Policy will help players and parents understand some of the challenges of selecting and balancing teams each week and the criteria factored into decisions. Of course there are times when 'needs must' and we have to select people for a range of teams to get the game on rather than concede games.

Jo Robinson - Women's Club Captain
Col Taylor - Men's Club Captain

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