East Grinstead Ladies’ Hockey Club

Welcome to the 2007/8 Season

Well, what a season we are hoping to have!  After a lot of discussion and debate in the close season, we have now decided to take our club on a journey that will be both very exciting and challenging at the same time.  Our message is simple - we want to play top standard European hockey at EG within 8 years. 

Sounds a brave move but we have the facilities, resources and desire to reach that objective and yet the most difficult year will be the first as we have yet to convince people internally and externally how serious we are about our journey.

As a club we will need everyone’s help to take us on this journey; the best teams are only as strong as their weakest link so we will have to raise our standards to the highest levels in all areas to begin the adventure.  More of this later.

Our season starts with trials on Saturday September 1^st  with the plan for the day as below:

2.15pm    Registration

3.00pm    Warm up

3.10pm    Stick and ball

3.30pm    Games

4.25 pm   Warm down 

4.30pm    Meet in bar for details of the first weekend’s selections and fixtures.

Please bring with you a white shirt and a blue shirt.

Give some thought to your preferred position and second choice position.

This season the Playing and Selection Committee will be meeting every Monday night and all selections will be posted on the website and emailed by 12 noon Tuesday – it is important these are acknowledged to make the Captains’ jobs a lot easier.

To improve our preparation for matches we are planning to have a set ‘Match Day Experience’ this year so that, whatever team you are in, the planning and preparation will follow a similar pattern.  The details of this are attached and your Captain will explain more at your first match.

This year club training will be on Tuesday evenings 7.00pm – 8.30pm with Juniors and Minis on Sunday mornings.

Now for some news about the various teams:

1^st XI

We are pleased to announce that Michelle Mullins will be joining us a player / coach.  Michelle has been the Vice Captain of the Zimbabwe team for the last 5 years and has been coaching at all levels during that time.  She has made the commitment to come over and join the club for this season and we all wish her the best of luck.  I am sure we will all make her feel welcome and give her the support she needs.  While Michelle is arranging her visa, Richard Leman has agreed to coach the 1^st XI and take control of all matters until Michelle’s arrival.

2^nd XI

Shirley Cremin has agreed to Captain this team for this year.  Shirley’s huge dedication and commitment to the 1^st XI over the previous ten plus years puts her in an excellent position to provide a grooming ground for the 1^st XI.  I would like to take this opportunity to thank Shirley for her amazing support for the club and I wouldn’t be surprised if she hasn’t got a few more 1s matches in her yet!

3^rd XI

Linda Parkin has agreed to Captain the 3s again, which is great news.  The ever youthful Linda has such knowledge and expertise about the 3s and 4s that to have her in this role once more is tremendous.  We are going to be appointing Vice Captains in all teams to assist the Captains and help with the administration so if anyone is interested in those roles please let us know.

4^th XI

We will be a running a fourth team this year but until we know how the rest of the teams are shaping up we have decided to leave any captain’s appointment until after trials.  If there are any volunteers for this role please let me know.

I think it would also be helpful to let you know who is on our Committee so I will pass over to Richard to tell you more.

Look forward to seeing you all on Saturday.

Debbie Guiver 

Club Captain.

Thanks Debbie – good luck with your new role as Club Captain, I know you will have everyone’s support.

We have formed a new Committee this year to focus entirely on the Ladies and I have agreed to take on the chairing of this group.  Whilst the men and the women are formally one club we each still run our own finances and of course have to manage our own playing and selection matters.

Those two topics form the main points of discussion and we meet on the second Monday of every month at 8pm.  Everyone is welcome to attend and see how we organise the club, they are not stuffy affairs and more people who take an interest the better.

So here is the list of your volunteer team:

Chair                          Richard Leman

Club captain                Debbie Guiver

Secretary                    Sue Leman

Treasurer                    Emma Self

Junior Liaison               Linda Parkin

Kit                              Annie Davis

Publicity                      Hilary Masey

Sponsorship                Kerry Turner

Membership                Sharon Simms

Junior Reps                 Olivia Bevan, Flo Childs, Amy Pearson, Ella Davis

1^st XI Captain             TBA

2^nd XI Captain            Shirley Cremin

3^rd XI Captain             Linda Parkin

4^th XI Captain             TBA

As you can see, we have a real mixture of skills and experience which always makes for good debates.  If you would like to offer to help in some way please let me know, as there are always matters where we could do with some assistance.

May I take this opportunity to thank all those who have helped so far to begin our journey.  There is much to do but I am convinced we can achieve our goal.  There is no doubt that this season will be the toughest and we will all need to work together to make the changes necessary but I am sure we can do it.  Most important of all is to make sure we have a smile on our faces at all times!!

Have fun and enjoy your hockey!

Richard Leman

Chairman