The second half of the season is now in full swing, with one eye on final league positions and junior finals come the end of March. I’m sure as ever there will be the usual classic matches, memorable victories and nail-biting Saturday night reviews of the league websites ahead in the coming months! We had an incredible day at the pitch with Rio Olympic gold medallist Crista Cullen for our junior and youth members recently. This Sunday it’s the turn of our top 2 men’s teams to take centre stage at their cup double header, the details of which are below. Please come lend your support if you can.

Tickets for our Annual Dinner-Dance & Awards on April 21st are now on sale, and details of other season end events will be released in due course. There is plenty of hockey ahead for everyone in the weeks and months ahead and the usual hard work going on behind the scenes to make it all work, so thanks again to all of our volunteers for making it all happen. As previously advised the committee is currently reviewing the management structure of the club – we will keep members abreast of these developments.

With best wishes
Stuart Emms, Chairman

DATES FOR THE DIARY
Sun 11th February: England Hockey Championships Last 16 – WUE HC Men’s Double Header – see below
Sat 3rd March: Pub Social – more details to follow
Thu 19th April: Junior Social & Awards - details TBC but save the date!
Sat 21st April: Annual Dinner Dance & Awards (Tortworth Court) – Tickets now on sale! See separate email or Facebook event page for details…
Mon 21st May: Annual General Meeting. Details to follow
Sat 16th June: Party in the PARC 2! Details of hockey club involvement to follow
Fri 6th -7th July: Nibley Festival. There may still be volunteer slots for priority tickets via our face painting stall – contact Sonya Priestley or Nicki Palmer for details
21st July – 5th August: Women’s Hockey World Cup. Olympic Park, London. Details below.

ENGLAND HOCKEY CHAMPIONSHIPS – DOUBLE HEADER, SUNDAY 11TH FEBRUARY @SPORT WOTTON
1200 Tier 3. WUE HC Men’s 2nd XI v Royal Wootton Bassett HC
1400 Tier 1. WUE HC Men’s 1st XI v Reading HC
Our Men’s 1sts have been drawn at home against Reading HC in the last 16 of the Tier 1 England Hockey Championships THIS SUNDAY. The Tier 1 Championships are hockey’s equivalent of the FA Cup and Reading HC are 6 times National Champs as well as previous winners of several European trophies. They’ve long been regarded as one of the country’s BIG clubs and still boast a lot of Internationals in their line up (whether they all travel remains to be seen!) So this really is akin to being drawn at home to Man Utd or Chelsea in the Cup, and potentially a massive day for us and Sport Wotton. This is preceded by M2 taking on Wootton Bassett in the Tier 3 competition, so it promises to be a memorable afternoon. A place in the quarter finals awaits both winners on the day, with the finals being played at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in May.
Refreshments will be available and programmes will be on sale, which also enters you into a prize draw. I’m looking forward to the usual bumper #bluearmy support for this exciting double header.
It’s a chance to see 2 great matchups and top flight hockey in our home town, so don’t miss it!

***UMPIRES COURSE***Cotswold School, Sunday 25th March 0930-1630
We are very short of umpires at the club, and therefore we are asking for 2 or 3 volunteers from each senior squad, in addition to any interested parents/supporters to attend an umpires course in March. This one is ideally timed for people to complete the course and do some practice matches during Summer League matches or similar. Without more volunteers, games WILL be cancelled and its unlikely that further teams will be able to be added, i.e. the club will stop growing. The course fee will be refunded should you umpire an agreed amount of games, and don’t forget – for each game you umpire, you get a match fee ‘credit’. For more click here: http://www.englandhockey.co.uk/courses.asp?section=296&sectionTitle=Find+a+Course
Or speak to umpires co-ordinator Steve Dexter

REPRESENTATIVE HONOURS & PERFORMANCE CENTRE RECOGNITION
One that slipped under the radar (modest chap he is!) was club stalwart and current Badgers coach Stuart Saunderson’s selection for West Masters for 2017/18 – apologies for its belated nature but nevertheless, congratulations Stu! Also we have had both Millie Mayer and Imogen Sparrow’s continued progress into the next stage of Regional (West) Performance Centres to add to our number who have reached this stage in the last few years. The club is very proud of you all – well done.

KIT UPDATE
Members will recall the email I sent in December regarding the unexpected need to change kit supplier. As advised, we are currently receiving tenders from those firms we invited to pitch for our business with a view to relaunching a revised kit offering in the Summer ahead of the 2018/19 season. I appreciate this delay is frustrating for some of you, particularly parents who’s children have outgrown hoodies etc, but with only a few months left of the season we wanted to look for a fully inclusive club wide solution rather than piecemeal for each team; the rationale for which I included in my December email on the subject. Me or my successor will no doubt keep you updated on this. Thanks for your patience.

HALF TERM CAMPS – GOCREA8 HOCKEY,
Mens 1s Player-Coach Matt Fairburn is the founder of GoCRea8 Hockey which regularly runs hockey camps for 7-14 year olds in the holidays. Details of the half term camp at Sport Wotton – and how you can book – can be found here. http://www.gocrea8.co.uk/classes

WOMEN’S HOCKEY WORLD CUP 2018 – 21 JULY – 5 AUGUST 2018
This is the biggest hockey event in the world and the first time it will be hosted in the UK since the Men’s World Cup in 1986 (I’m old enough to say I was there!). A total of 16 world-class teams, including England, will be welcomed to the Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre on Stratford's Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, the home of the sport. Though most England matches are already sold out, other tickets are still on sale and there will be a ticketless spectator village outside the venue showing games on the big screen. It may be that the club runs some events to tie in with this so watch this space; all the matches will be shown live on BT sport, with some games possibly on the BBC Sport livestream (TBC)
For more details visit http://www.englandhockey.co.uk/landing.asp?section=1196&sectionTitle=Women%27s+World+Cup+2018

SENIOR LEAGUE UPDATE
M2 & M3 are still in the promotion mix in their respective divisions. M1 have now registered several impressive wins as they fight to retain their Premiership status. L2, L3 and M4 have all registered some good wins and are looking to climb their tables, while L1 continue to be in the top 4 of Berkeley Div1. You can track our league progress through the season here:
GoCrea8 Men’s League: https://www.wswhl.co.uk/
West Club Women’s Hockey League: https://www.wcwhl.co.uk/

YOUTH UPDATE
Boys & Girls u16s have all played a good number of games both in the Gloucestershire Circle and (for the girls, given the lower number of Glos teams) additional games in the Avon Junior League. In order to provide a full programme of fixtures, additional games have been played in the England Hockey Championships. For similar reasons, the U14 Girls have played games in the Firebrands Academy League and Avon Junior League – this approach seems to be working very well, giving all the kids plenty of opportunities to play.

JUNIOR UPDATE
The mini-hockey (4-7 year olds) on Saturday continues to grow and be well attended so thanks to those new volunteers making that happen. U8s and U10s (boys and girls) have played in 3 Glos HA tournaments this seasons thus far and it’s the U12s turn in a couple of weeks. Our last home tournament was on 26th Nov. We continue to build to the Glos HA finals in March with places in the regionals up for grabs for the top two teams at the u10 and u12 events. The Boys u12B has also been playing in the Firebrands Academy League which is another good development. Our next home tournament will be on Sunday 25th March and more details will follow on that nearer the time.

LEADING SCORER UPDATE:
The race for the ‘Top Gun’ trophy continues – who will be presented with the silverware at the Annual Dinner on April 21st?
Scores on the doors as follows:
Dave Chevin 22
Marcus Smith 19
Archie Cropper 14
Jasmin George 14
Harry Willcox 11
Richie Owens 11
James Cox 8
Corinne Gibson 7
Millie Mayer 7