We are now well into the 2017/18 season and I trust you are all enjoying the hockey thus far. Every section of our club has been in action with senior leagues, youth leagues and junior tournaments all underway. It was a pleasant and welcome change to have a day of sunshine at the recent junior tournament we hosted at Sport Wotton! Below is our regular monthly club wide update which I hope you find helpful and of interest.

Don’t forget you can stay in touch with us via Facebook and Twitter under @wottonhockey. There is also a closed facebook group for members.

With best wishes
Stuart Emms, Chairman

DATES FOR THE DIARY
Sat 11th November: Music Quiz at Town Hall. 7.30pm onwards. Teams of 6 (max) £5 per person. All the details on recent email or via the FB event page. Team social reps will also be in touch.
Sat 9th December: Xmas Jumper Pub Social (& Disco TBC) Swan Hotel. More details on this to follow but do please save the date
Sat 21st April 2018: Annual Dinner Dance & Awards - Venue TBC but again please save the date.

CLUB CAPTAIN (Mens)
This is one senior appointment we have yet to fill and are keen to do so. James Cruickshank has kindly stayed de facto in post while a replacement is found. If this is of interest to anyone or anyone would like more information about the role then please do get in touch.

UPCOMING UMPIRES COURSES
There are several L1 umpires courses being run in the next month throughout the region.
Given the poor uptake from members when the club ran its own course last year, I’d be grateful if members would consider attending one of the courses listed below.
This will ease the burden on those L1 or part qual umpires in the club currently, and reduce the likelihood of games being cancelled due to lack of officials; if you are looking for an opportunity to put something back into the club, this could be your chance. Normally the courses last 0930-1630.
You will need to go on , register and pay yourselves. Provided you commit to umpiring a reasonable amount of games per year, the club will refund the course fee. Indeed the course at St Peters is part subsidised by Glos HA.
Please let me, Steve Dexter or Myra know when you have registered
12/11/17 Bradley Stoke Community School
19/11/17 Bath Uni
19/11/17 St Peters School, Gloucester
http://www.englandhockey.co.uk/courses.asp?section=2031&sectionTitle=Find+a+Course%2FWorkshop&coursetype=0001300000050007

GLOUCESTERSHIRE ACADEMY SQUADS (GIRLS)
Please join me in congratulating Holly Morton, Millie Mayer & Naomi Culpepper for the recent selection to the Girls u15s & U16s academy squads. Holly was our Ladies 2nd XI Goalkeeper for most of last season and was voted L2 Player of the Year for 2016/17. Millie has recently broken into our Ladies 1st team and is now a regular starter, scoring 4 goals in as many games in the season so far. Naomi has been a regular member of L1/L2 squads for the past 2 seasons.

ENGLAND HOCKEY CHAMPIONSHIPS UPDATE
This is the revamped competition which has replaced the old National KO cups; ‘tiered’ to accommodate different levels of the game.
• Both Mens 1s and Mens 2s have received a bye in the first round of their competitions.
• Ladies 1s will play league rivals Redland UWE II at home in the first round of their competitions on Sunday October 29th.
• Our youth teams (boys u14s/16s and girls u16s) play in a regional round robin format before National rounds in the Spring.
We will publish more details of these and other games nearer the time in order to get some decent crowds along and hopefully replicate some of the ‘Super Sundays’ we’ve had at our home turf over the past few years.

DOGS & PARKING ON SPORT WOTTON/KLB SITE
Just a reiteration following previous reminders, there are strictly no dogs allowed on either the KLB or WCSF site.
Also, we had some negative feedback about a small minority of members following school events on recent Thursday evenings. It is very important that when, on occasion (such as school events or cross country etc), there is no parking on school site and we are asked to park elsewhere or near the pitch via the New Rd gate, that we fully comply. I’ve heard reports of members being rude or aggressive to those school staff ‘policing’ the sports centre car park on these Thursdays which I was disappointed to hear. Please no repeat of this, and take note of emails or social media posts with such requests in future and thank you to the majority of you who did as we were asked.

‘TOP GUN’ TROPHY UPDATE
After the first few rounds of senior league matches, the race for the Leading Scorer trophy (awarded at the end of season dinner) begins. Early runners as follows:
Marcus Smith (M2) 7
Jas George (L1) 6
Dave Chevin (M3) 4
Archie Cropper (M3) 4
Lauren Leyland (L1) 4
Millie Mayer (L1) 4
Steve Dexter (M2) 3
Abby Ellis (L2) 3

SAFEGUARDING & PLAYER WELFARE
These are both subjects the club takes very seriously. Club Secretary and Child Welfare Officer Myra Patterson has been doing sterling work behind the scenes to ensure we take account of updated guidance as appropriate – we will communicate further with members on this in due course.
We have also been made aware of the amount of hockey and other sports being played by some younger members and we want to ensure that we work with players, parents and the school to ensure younger members are not being ‘over-played.’ More on this to follow but if any players or parents do have specific concerns then do speak to me, Myra or your usual team contact.