Hockey

Two more get county call-up. (Apr.2008)
Anyone with any topical news or photographs, please send them to the website email address. A parent contributed this picture of Michael Bowyer (right) and Mark Watts, who were selected to represent Lancashire in a four-county Under 14 competition at Caldey Grange.

Beavers complete another successful season. (Mar.2008)
The Beavers Player of the Season award, presented at the annual hockey dinner, was shared by veterans Nick Albertina and Eddie Cave. Good luck to both next year, as they move up to Badgers and beyond.
After an influx of new and younger players at the start of season, the Beavers have again flourished under the guidance of mentors Ian Douglas and Peter Fogden. Once the side became settled after 3 early setbacks, they rallied to mount a 13-game unbeaten run from early November, with just one further defeat and a total of 14 wins and 4 draws in the season.

Award in keeping with Youth Development. (Mar.2008)
The Trustees of the Hockey Youth Trust have awarded Northern Hockey Club a Goalkeeping Set in recognition of the amount of hard work put into the club on achieving Clubs 1st and the long term benefit it will have for developing youth hockey. Thanks go to all at the Hockey Youth Trust.

Northern to set up After-School Hockey. (Nov.2007)
On Thursday 8th November, the Community Foundation for Merseyside are holding their EGM and meeting at Aintree Racecourse. Northern Hockey Club have been asked to exhibit and attend, following their successful funding bid from the Local Network Fund to set up an After-School Hockey Club at Litherland Sports Park. The hockey section will be displaying the equipment provided, with junior members demonstrating their skills. The night is to celebrate the achievements and successes of the Local Network Fund, which has since been discontinued by the government.

The Northern Club are members of the Community Foundation for Merseyside, and as such have access to funding advice and grants. Anyone requiring additional informational should contact Wendy McDowall.

Hockey fixture books available. (Oct.2007)
Fixture Books for the 2007-2008 Hockey Season have now been printed and are available behind the bar or from team captains.
Fixtures originally posted against Bramhall Badgers and Beavers, who have dropped out for this year, have been replaced. However Southport Beavers are now unable to fulfil their replacement fixture on 20th October, so this Beavers date is now blank.
The 2007-2008 Hockey AGM is on Saturday 29th March 2008 (after Easter this year).

Three chosen as Euro Mascots. (Jul.2007)
Three of our junior hockey members have been selected to be hockey mascots at the Euro Hockey Championships in Belle Vue this summer.
Niamh Thomas is to be England's Mascot on Saturday 18th Aug, Alice Williamson is Italy's Mascot also on the Saturday, and Mackenzie Corrin is on Sunday 19th Aug.
Mascots will be wearing club kit and there will be TV coverage.

Junior Coaching Dates 2007-2008. (Jun.2007)
Sessions will resume for the new season at 10:30am on Sunday mornings as follows:
Sundays from 16th September to 2nd December.
Sundays from 13th January to 16th March.

Men back on the fitness trail. (May.2007)
Men’s summer training has started at 6.30pm on Wednesday night on the astro. All male hockey players are welcome to attend including badgers if they so wish.

Hockey Playing Dates for 2007-8. (May.2007)

Mens – 1st, 2nd, 3rd XI’s

   from

   to

Friendly fixtures

 August 25th

 September 15th

League fixtures

 September 22nd

 December 8th

Slip date

 15th December

 

Friendly fixture

 5th January

 

League fixtures

 January 12th

 March 15th

 

 

 

Ladies – 1st XI

   from

   to

Friendly fixtures

 unknown at this time

 

League fixtures

 September 22nd

 October 13th

League fixtures

 October 27th

 December 8th

Slip date

 15th December

 

League fixtures

 January 12th

 March 15th

League fixture

 March 29th

 

 

 

 

Ladies – 2nd XI

 

 

Currently unknown

 

 

 

 

 

Badgers & Beavers

   from

   to

Friendly fixtures

 September 15th

 December 8th

Friendly fixtures

 January 5th

 March 22nd


Mens 1st XI Fixtures 2007-2008
Saturdays from 22nd September. West Derby 1 (A), City of Manchester 1 (H), Southport 1 (A), Oxton 2 (H), Wrexham 1 (A), Lytham St. Annes 1 (H), Springfields 1 (A), Liverpool Sefton 1 (H), Northop Hall 1 (H), Urmston 1 (A), Winnington Park 1 (A), Springfields 1 (H).
Saturdays from 12th January. City of Manchester 1 (A), West Derby 1 (H), Liverpool Sefton 1 (A), Wrexham 1 (H), Lytham St. Annes 1 (A), Southport 1 (H), Oxton 2 (A), Northop Hall 1 (A), Urmston 1 (H), Winnington Park 1 (H).

Any Port in a rain Storm for Northern Vets. (May.2007)
Saturday 12th May was an historic date in the history of the club as the very first Northern Veterans team was assembled to take on a touring team from The City of York Hockey club led by their captain Roger Jackson. The team were staying at the Marriot in Liverpool City Centre and had taken a bit of a pasting from the Liverpool Sefton Veterans the previous evening.

On selecting the Northern side, the term “Veteran” had to be loosely applied due to the limitation of there only being 15 playing members over 30 and 12 members over 35 in the hockey section. Of the members over 35, some of them were VERY over 35 and were unable to play for fear of not being able to walk for the following month. The City of York side also applied this loose rule as they had a keeper who would not have been out the place in a 1st XI. I managed to assemble a full team with the exception of the goal keeper but Adam Batty volunteered for this position and being the 1st XI top goal scorer it became obvious very quickly he would definitely have been more effective in the circle at the other end of the pitch.

The pre-match team talk was more like a positional lottery to try and determine who played where, whilst supping down the bottle of port the opposition had so kindly (and strategically) offered us prior to the game. Adam Batty was in goal with a back line of Rob Weir, Gordon Rooney, Neil Campbell and Fred Roberts. The midfield positions went to Dominic Batty, Tim Morris and John Corrin whilst Andy Cooper took the centre forward role flanked by Kent Thorburn and Ian Douglas. Substitutes were Peter Ibison, Alan Newport and Alex Anderson. Alex was also involved in the batting side for the 3rd team as 8th man at the time but managed to share his time between the Cricket and Hockey sections extremely effectively on this day.

The Northern side started at a leisurely amble only to discover that we had perhaps underestimated our opposition. After a stuffing at Liverpool Sefton the previous night the City of York came out of the blocks with a clear intention to be the winners on this rather overcast day at the club. At half time Northern found themselves 4-1 down after some very good goals from the York side. It was clear something needed to be done so we downed the remaining Port and set about sorting ourselves out. At full time the scores were equal with a very fair result of 4 goals all.

The club house was packed due to the rained off Cricket and we struggled to change nearly 40 people in the squash changing room but once done we met in the bar for food and drinks and the visiting side were very complimentary about the club and the members and the invite is there for a return fixture in the future.

Many Thanks to everyone who turned out to play …. I’m sure we all enjoyed it, and are paying for it this week.
Regards, Dom.

... young upstart put in place by old hand Mal Chester ...
Hi Dom,
I was interested to read your article about the vets game with York. However I probably won't be the only one to point out that yours was not the first Northern vets team. Richard Dawson ran a Northern Veterans team for about 15 years which played Sunday fixtures regularly during the season against most of the clubs in the North West & actually played in the World Cup!! Also for several years we entered the HA veterans cup and one year we reached the quarter final losing 1-0 away to Basingstoke, the eventual runners-up. That competition is still running and if you can assemble enough players over 35 it might be worth entering again.
Regards, Malcolm