Hockey in the Community
Two World Class Players camps took place on the 12th – 13th April and 31st May – 1st June. The camps were coached by Simon Hujwan and Mark Wadsley with support from Paige Gillott, Gareth Griffiths, Kyle Marshall, Robbie Gleeson and Great Britain international, James Albery. Over 100 children took part in the camps.
The Lenton Abbey fun day is due to take place on the 7th July and will again be supported by coaches from Beeston Hockey Club.
An England Hockey coach education course was run at the hockey centre by Colin Booth on Sunday 10th June with thirteen people completing the course.
The men’s masters summer league and men’s 6 a side summer leagues on Monday and Tuesday evenings started in May and will run through to the end of June. 35 teams have entered the competitions this year, an increase from previous years.
Beeston Hockey Club are once again organising the ladies’ 6 a side summer league on Wednesday evenings in June to August and Nottingham Players are running a mixed summer league on Friday evenings in July.
There are a number of corporate fun days being hosted at the hockey centre in June and July. Ensek, KPMG and Domestic and General have all chosen the site for their annual summer events. It is anticipated that over 600 people will attend these events, with families from the organisations able to enjoy activities such as bouncy castles, dodgems, face painting, garden games rounded off with a BBQ.
Beeston Hockey Club hosted the second ‘STICK project’ meeting in Nottingham. Representatives from HC Rotterdam, KHC Dragons, Pembroke Wanderers HC, Athletic Terassa HC, Erasmus Rotterdam University, Antwerp University, Dublin University and Nottingham Trent University attended a two-day conference in June in Nottingham. The project proposal aims to design a sport and academic exchange scheme in to the Erasmus plus programme so that elite sports men and women do not have to choose between their academic and professional life and their sport life, enhancing their dual careers. At the same time, clubs will not lose talented players when their players will be abroad, as they will be receiving high performance players from other EU countries in exchange.
Events
The England Hockey U16 boys and girls clubs finals took place over a weekend in April. The In2Hockey U10 and U12 midlands finals were held in April and the In2Hockey U12 clubs and U13 schools national finals took place in May.
The University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University varsity finals took place in May with over 400 spectators enjoying the hockey finals.
The annual AOC (colleges) games were hosted in Nottingham once again this year. The event is a muilt-sport event and the centre hosted the hockey tournament. Over 2000 students participate in the event at various sporting venues around Nottingham.
The England Hockey play-off finals weekend 1 took place at the centre in April with Beeston ladies 1st team playing. The following weekend at Birmingham University the ladies finished top of their group and were promoted in to the Investec Premier League for the 2018/19 season. Beeston HC are now one of only four clubs to have both men’s and ladies teams in the respective premier leagues.
Other annual events including the Civil Service men’s and ladies’ tournament took place over two days in April, the Sikh Union 6’s and U13 boys UK tournament in June, as well as the Junior Rounders event in June. We have hosted these events for a number of years now.
The 60th anniversary of the County Championship finals took place on the 2nd June. This was marked by a special lunch for former players who have played in the competiton.
Beeston Vice-President, Annie Early, organised a reunion hockey match and BBQ for former Crimson Ramblers HC members to mark the 125th year of the formation of the club. The event was attended by over 80 people.
England U18 girls are due to play Scotland U18 girls on the 23rd June at the hockey centre. Both squads are staying in Nottingham for a three-day training camp with practice matches.
Finally, the annual Beeston HC junior BBQ and awards evening is due to take place on Sunday 1st July at 5pm. Simon Hujwan is organising a number of club games for children before the BBQ and awards presentations start.
Repairs and improvements
One of the sewage pumps in the waste chamber had developed a fault and has been repaired. The pumps were installed in 2001.
On the main pitch the live streaming tower has been extended on the ground floor with a small media room being built. This will be used on men’s and ladies’ first team match days for the live streaming, announcements and entertainment music for spectators.
The knee rail along the car park and road is being extended from the end of the car park to the front entrance. The old damaged wooded teeth have been removed and replaced with a much more robust system.
A new bin store has been added to the existing external storage area at the side of the clubhouse next to pitch 2 to keep the waste bins secure and out of view from the public.
A new pitch line marker for lining the 6 a side marking on pitch 1 has been purchased and the lines will be marked in house from now on. A chemical spraying system has also been purchased to treat the hockey pitches which need to be treated twice a year. Previously the lines were marked, and pitches treated by an external company. This will save over £2,500 per year.
