Nottingham Hockey Centre – Newsletter March 2018

Hockey in the Community
The Christmas ‘World Class Players’ camp took place on the 22^nd and 23^rd December lead by Great Britain and Beeston player, Ollie Willars, with over 50 children taking part in the two-day camp. The next camp is taking place at Easter on the 12^th and 13^th April for children age 7 to 16 with Simon Hujwan, Gareth Griffiths, Lucas Alcalde and Paige Gillott leading the coaching.
The Hockey Centre hosted two level 1 umpires course’s in January organized by Amy Carter from Boots and John O’Brien from Beeston. Over 40 people took part in the courses.
The mixed league on Sunday’s have continued in the second half of the season. Due to disruption caused by the ‘Beast from the East’ the league will conclude in May 2018.
The U14 girls school’s county cup took place on the 29^th January and 7 schools played in the competition.
The U10 and U12 boys and girls In2Hockey county championships was held on in February and over 30 teams participated. Congratulations to Beeston U10 and U12 boys and girls who all won their respective competitions.
The ‘Hockey in the Community’ schools league organised by Kay Bond for school years 7 & 8 once again took place at the hockey centre on Thursday evenings in February and March.
As previously mentioned the ‘Beast from the East’ caused significant disruption to fixtures and training sessions at the hockey centre at the beginning and middle of March. This led to a large number of fixtures to be re-arranged. The hockey centre was forced to close for a week due to the snow and icy conditions. The second round of snow caused the England Hockey Investec U18 girls schools championships to be changed from a planned two-day event to a one-day competition. Repton School were the eventual winners.
England Hockey are hosting the ladies World Cup at Lee Valley in London this summer. A number of meetings were held across the country to inform clubs about the event and how they can be part of it. Following the Olympic Games in London 2012, participation increased across the country and it is anticipated that a similar surge in numbers will follow the televised World Cup. The Hockey Centre hosted a meeting with a number of clubs across the county.
Beeston ladies 1^st team won the Investec North Conference winning 17 games out of 18. They will now take part in the England Hockey promotion play-offs which are hosted on the 22^nd April at Nottingham Hockey Centre and on the 28^th and 29^th April at the University of Birmingham.
Beeston men’s 1^st XI finished 3^rd in the Premier League and qualify for the England Hockey championship finals on the 28^th and 29^th April at Lee Valley. Beeston’s final league game of the season on Sunday 25^th March attracted over 600 spectators, the biggest crowd seen for many years.
Events
Best Parties Ever finished their Christmas parties on Friday 23^rd December. This was their busiest year to date and they will return next November with a ‘Midnight in Monte Carlo’ theme!
The David Ross Educational Trust spring cup took place again in March at the centre. 20 schools participated in the 7 a side event.
The hockey centre hosted the England Hockey Investec U18 girls school championship finals on Tuesday 20^th March. The finals were due to take place at Lee Valley at the beginning of March but was re-arranged to Nottingham due to the bad weather.
Big BUCS Wednesday was awarded to the University of Nottingham this year. The hockey championship and trophy matches for the men’s and ladies sides was played in front of a full house at the hockey centre. The University of Nottingham ladies 1^st team and Nottingham Trent University men’s 1^st team both reached the championship final but unfortunately lost to Loughborough Students ladies and Durham University men respectively.
Over the next few months the hockey centre are hosting a number of hockey events including the England Hockey U16 club boys and girls championships (Beeston U16 boys have qualified for this), U10 and U12 midlands In2Hockey finals, AOC games, England Hockey promotion play-off men’s and ladies week 1, Civil Service men’s and ladies tournaments, men’s and ladies university varsity finals, England Hockey county championship finals, UK Lions U13 boys divisional tournament and the England Hockey U13 school and U12 club In2Hockey national finals.
The men’s and men’s master 6 a side summer league starts in May and the men’s 11 a side summer league starts in July. Entries for this year’s summer league are looking very good with 48 teams currently subscribed to take part.
Beeston are hosting the ladies 7 a side summer league on Wednesday evenings in June, July and August once again.
Repairs and improvements
The irrigation system on pitch 1 developed a fault and was repaired in March by Paul Graham.
Repairs in changing rooms 5-8 were carried out to the tiles and rotten wooden casing around the toilets by by Phil Kirk and his probation team.
Following the snow in March the beer cellar equipment suffered damage caused by the low temperatures. A number of fans on the outside wall had to be replaced and the remote cooler in the cellar was also repaired.
A new ice cream freezer in the cafeteria supplied by Walls along with outdoor parasols, bases and waste bins were delivered in February.