Club meeting; 7.00pm First Monday of Month at:
The Round House Murwillumbah…your input is valued!
United Hockey Club
On a dark and stormy night last Monday several shady characters gathered in the dingy corners of the hockey club to discuss secret business. Our under cover agents infiltrated and this is what they heard…
- This coming Saturday and Sunday Murwillumbah will be hosting some sort of important old fellas hockey comp and people (that’s you, the general hockey public) are requested to supply a plate of sandwiches or bikkies to the canteen in order to keep the sugar levels up on the officials. Bring on those yummy chocky dog dropping biscuits Rae-Marie!
- Someone with basic hygiene and an ability to recognize ‘burnt’ is needed to operate the BBQ and cook bacon and eggs between 8-10am Sat or Sun morning. Think of the fringe benefits! A cooked breakfast in the outdoors!
- There will be no games on the June long weekend. (No fun either. So it’s all fun and games until someone pokes a June long weekend in.)
- There are no games for Division 2 men on 19th April. There will be a split round later.
- On Thursday 24th April the local Tweed under 15’s boys will be playing Western Australia (seems unfair 12 boys against a whole state) in a Schoolboys Comp. on the turf. Gates will open at 3:45pm for a 4:45 pm game. There will be a sausage sizzle and lots of action to watch so come on down.
- The delegates found themselves out of the loop on business arising as emails had been circulated asking us to approach team members in order to bring back a vote. These emails are not reaching us and as such this matter needs to be decided on promptly and reported to Sandra or Colonel Sanders THIS WEEKEND if your preferences are to be taken into account.
- Division 1 Women Are you happy with the way the draw was last year? Do you want to coincide your Grand Final with the Men’s Grand Final? Do you want your catch up games to be on Sunday or on a Monday night? (Some catch up games will be slotted in on a Saturday)
- Division 3 Men It is proposed that you play 2 full rounds and then split into 2 pools based on pointscore in order to get 19 games rather than 16. It came up in discussion that Div 3 men wouldn’t have the lung capacity to do catch up games where you would play 2 games on one day and although that has very little to do with the above point, I felt it necessary to put in that little dig!
- Related to the communication issue; please give your email address to your captain to pass on to Kathy the Hockey Secretary, then you will be fully informed of important news before the event. They will not pass your email address on to any marketing scammers or send you rude pictures. If you would like to receive this report by email please give your address to Steve or Jenny Payne. (of course they can be trusted!!! I know where the bcc button is!)
- On the 3rd May reps are out with the Premier League so Div 1 won’t play.
- While on the subject of Reps we have a unique problem combining the colours plum, lilac, purple, jade and teal in a common rep dress shirt so men and women from this area look the same. If there are any budding designers out there, draw your idea and give it to Richard Philip. Would the general hockey public like to keep the playing shirts the same or combine them also?
- Next, a very important issue that our club needs to address. We all agree I’m sure that it just isn’t good for players of any age to ref if they don’t know what they are doing. In the case of the under 11’s players who are learning the rules of the game, it could mean that they learn the wrong thing when reffed by an inexperienced umpire and/or player. In the case of Div 3 it could lead to an all in brawl. And not just the men.
- Our club needs each team to:
- Put forward the names of 3 or so people who are able refs, who have had experience and some training. These people are the most important element in the scheme. We would very much like these people to be Mentors. The more we get the less a few have to do. As a mentor you would attend one or two sessions that explain the rules to apprentice umpires, and stand next to them to assist them when they umpire. You could have a buddy, or a timeslot when you are available. Please consider putting a little back into the club before I have to run you down and kneel on your neck.
- Put forward the names of 3 or so people who would like to become able refs and nominate for umpiring workshops and become part of the scheme where they get practice and have a mentor as they umpire. These names will go to the Umpire’s appointment committee and they will get someone fantastic in for us.
- On the 14th June the last game of hockey will be at 5:15 pm to allow everyone to go to Cudgen Leagues club for a Charity Dinner. This dinner will aid the Oncology Children’s Foundation who find out why children get cancer and endeavor to stop it. They need to raise $17 million a year. I’m sure they’ll need to have one or two dinners more than ours, however our little bit may be the bit that helps someone you love. Good on you Dr Kettle who I’ve heard has already got a table of 10 together. The cost is $40 or $50 and this gets you a 2-course meal, live dance music and the opportunity to get to know the special guests better. They are so far Susie O’Neill, Sharon Buchanan, Stephanie Gilmore and a player from the Titans. Raffles and Auctions of sports memorabilia will also take place on the night. Get a table of 10 booked and have a fun night.
General Business.
There will be no Div 4. The issue is laid to rest this year and will be raised again in Nov-Jan for next season.
It is requested that the coaches of Jnr teams who are flogging other teams please encourage their sides to pass the ball around and experiment with different positions when they get 5 goals or so up. We don’t want to demoralize the opposition. It was suggested that this was not a bad idea in all grades. I was quick to point out to Waratahs that if our Div 3 team was ever in the position where we were 12 goals up we would go easy on them. (chuckles) Thanks go to Jenny Hawkin who had all the right information on the night to encourage the grading committee to look closely at some of the teams and their players. Ciao until May. Your undercover deledorks.
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