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Pre-season Update - gearing up for the 2022-23 Season!

Pre-season Update - gearing up for the 2022-23 Season!

Shelagh Everett25 Jun 2022 - 12:25
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Catch up with all the news and updates as we move from a summer of hockey to new season plans !

With our THC 2021-22 Season AGM done and dusted its full steam ahead for our 2022-23 Hockey Committee planning for the new season following a Summer when we've offered even more hockey to members. Whilst its 6 weeks since our last weekly update its been an extremely busy time on and off the pitches.

We're going to have to get a bigger Trophy Cabinet !
This week we had the pleasure of a trip out to Golborne SC to the North Wet Hockey Adult League Presentations to close off the 21-22 season and collect a bit more silverware for the Club! Ross Small picked up the Men's 2 latest promotion as Division 1 Champions making the step up the North West Premier Division for 2022-23. Closing the gap between the M1 and M2 has been a long time aim for the Club and its a been an incredible few seasons with the M2 now playing immediately below the M1's - congratulations to all involved to achieve what at one time looked like an impossible challenge. At the other end of the North West League structure Shelagh Everett also also picked up the trophy for the Ladies 6's as Division 7 Champions.

The Summer of Hockey that just keeps giving !
Summer League is working well and including the new Friday Night slot for the men. Still some struggles each week on available so if you fancy a run out in either Summer League be sure to update your availability on Pitchero or contact Jo Robinson or Ross Small. The Whistlers have done a great job helping out but would be really good to see some of those wishing to get some umpiring experience under their belt doing a few games - contact Fozzy or update on the Whistlers Whats App Group. Sarah Chancellor, Ross Small and Kieran Jeffery have done a fantastic job so far on the major weekly logistics to run the Summer Leagues - thanks to all those who've helped weekly too.

The new North West 500 Mixed masters league has been a great success with lots of different folks involved and introduced to the wonderful world of mixed masters ! Big thanks to Will Reynolds and Ruth Maddocks for herding all the oldies and doing the maths to get the outfield players ages to 500 ! Final League game before the play offs is on Sunday 3rd July.

Today is the Ladies Vet's 7's Tournament and a bumper field of teams from across the North West and newcomers Gloucester HC who are here with Cuey making a return the the Club. Thanks again to Jo Nicholson for organising this major fundraiser again and Leonnie Molloy for all her work to make the day a success. Rory Gibson and Steve Hallmark also did a brilliant job running the Lower Men's Teams Tournament earlier in May and thanks to them. Our final major tournament of Summer2022 will be the return of the Timperley Mixed 7's on Saturday 30th July - and thank to Sophie Binder and Connor Miller for taking on running this one too. All the tournaments and summer league make a major contribution to our finances and will go towards funding hockey delivery in 2022-23 season. So not only do we enjoy some great social summer hockey we also raise vital funds for running hockey at Timperley too .... and have the chance for a few beverages!

Coaching and pre season 2022-23
Suns out and the 1/2's squads have started their running programmes getting back in shape ahead of stick and ball training commencing in mid July. Club training will re-start at the start of September and the Academy will start their season on Sunday 4th September.

All leagues are due to start weekend 24th / 25th September and pre-season friendlies will be set up across the full range of teams to give everyone the chance to get some pitch time under their belts before the leagues start. Fixtures should be available later in July and will be loaded onto Pitchero so you can update when you can play with all those autumn break, weddings !

Weekend 10th / 11th September we will be playing the 2nd Patty Marston Challenge Trophy Ryder Cup style tournament with we hope over 20+ different teams playing Bowdon over the weekend. So save the date(s) and we are planning an informal social at the club on the Saturday evening.

We're currently finalising coaches for the season and regret to announce that John Bell has confirmed that he if unable to take up his appointment with Timperley HC and the EH Timperley Talent Academy. We will be advertising this weekend to fill a number of roles in the Talent Academy and across our Performance Squads. We have a number of options and are positive about filling all the roles and being able to confirm the full coaching programme by the middle of July. We are working with Rob Turner and Albert to ensure pre season plans are in place for all teams from Mid July.

From September we will also be moving Under 14 and Under 16 Boys and Girls training to Monday evenings 5.15pm to 6.45pm. This will be followed by the new Talent Academy coaching sessions 7.00pm to 9.00pm. Under 12's and below will continue to train in the regular Sunday 11.00am to 12.30pm slot. Senior team training will continue on a Tuesday with Club Sessions for Men and Women 7.00pm to 8.15pm and Performance Squads 8.15pm to 10.00pm for both genders on a Tuesday and 8pm to 10pm on a Thursday.

Planning, Budgets and getting organised for the new season !
We held our first committee meeting of the new season this week and had a productive session looking at the priorities for 2022- 23, the challenges and opportunities and how we organise and work together. Andy Entwisle has joined the Committee as Treasurer and Timur Asar as Men's Club Captain. Work is underway to review our budget and increases in costs and how we generate our income to run hockey and we will be sharing more details on any impact for the new season over the coming weeks.

We also confirmed the plan to enter a Men's 8 team into the NW League from September to offer more playing opportunities and accommodate more of the juniors moving up the age groups. The team will compete under the development team regs that allow for doubling up of playing and league points don't count. This will bring us up to 14 weekend senior league teams - and whilst adding more opportunities will also add to out logistics challenges and volunteer support requirements.

We will be re-launching a number of small working groups or committee to break down the tasks of running hockey at the club and hopefully spreading the workload but getting more people involved. There are lots of ways to support hockey at the club from full on likes on the committee or captains through to helping out on and off the pitch on a regular or ad hoc basis. Anna Mawby is also relaunching the Junior Committee to support her in the running of our growing Under 18 programme. Take a look at our THC Get Involved Now Comms and Survey - thanks to those who have replied already.

We're keen to plan the big socials for the coming season so let us know what events you'd like us to bring back or run for the first time and even better is you and some teams mates would be up for organising an event this season.

Enjoy the good weather and your hockey from social hockey to all our Blues representing England (and Wales !) in the Masters international tournaments. Good luck to all those juniors playing for Tensworth nvitational teams and in the Performance Centre Challenge Cup coming up. We'll be doing a roll of honour to cover all those Blues gaining representative honours this Summer as the numbers grow and we continue to put Timperley on the hockey map.

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