Welcome,

Season end news letter with some updates for all Club Members.

Richard Macer

The Club was delighted that Richard was nominated at the recent England Hockey Awards for a Lifetime achievement award.

Richard has tirelessly contributed to hockey for many years. Within our Club (there cannot be many families or current players & parents who have not at sometime been coached, umpired or motivated by Richard). He has also contributed his time and expertise to Hampshire, Hampshre youth, Southern Counties and England Hockey, serving on many Committee’s.

Richard – the Club is proud of you and congratulates you on your many achievements. Thank you.

AGM Update

The Club AGM was held on 13th June, and confirmed all the details of another successful season across the club; presentations on the current club status were made, and the club accounts and budget were approved.

New Life Member: We are pleased to confirm that the Membership duly proposed and fully endorsed the award of Life Membership to Stuart Swift, our Men’s Club Captain, for all his significant contribution to the Club over a long period of time.

New Vice President: We are equally pleased to confirm that the Membership duly proposed and fully endorsed the award of Vice President to Maz Eaton, who has also made significant contribution to the Clubs success, volunteering many times, across both senior and junior activities.

As Chairman, I also could thank the work of all on the Committee, and all Team Captain’s and managers for their support in making the club a success.

Committee roles.

Brian Bosley spoke passionately about his positive experience of voluntarily helping out with the club over many years, having first been on the Committee as a young 17 year old! (Ask him who he took to Salisbury back in the day?). He encouraged all Members to come forward and be involved, and make long term friends, while putting something back into the game.

Currently, the Club is seeking Club Members (and parents) to come forward and join this years Committee in the following roles:- Club Secretary, Club Treasurer, and Junior Chair.

We have a full training and support programme in place to manage smooth handovers and ongoing support – please do consider if you could assist, and contact Andy Craig asap. We cannot run the club with vacancies.

The Club sincerely thanks Richard, Tim and Vijay for their super contribution.

Subscription Change – EH affiliation fees.

For the coming season England Hockey have made significant changes to the method of calculating affiliation fees, and what they fund. At the AGM this was reviewed in detail, and the impact it would have on the Club.

The bottom line is that while England Hockey will increase its activities to grow the game, the financial impact is that our affiliation fees (which include Club and Member insurance) will rise from £4,800 to £9,800.

This change was approved at the EH AGM, and will apply from September this year. (More details on the EH programme can be found on the EH website – or from the Committee)

As a result of this the Committee recommended that a small increase of £5 to all subscription rates for the coming year would enable the club to continue operating without incurring growing losses, and this was unanimously agreed at the AGM. Subsequently, subs for the coming season are as follows:-

There will be no changes to match fees, and all Club Umpires who are Level 1 qualified and registered on GMS will be able to claim £14 per match.

Other news Snippets

Women’s 6th XI Team. We are really pleased that this season we see the Women’s group expanding once again with the first ever formation of a 6th XI. We wish the new team every success and ask for all players to commit their availability as far ahead as possible and assist Women’s Club Captain Erica Jefferies and all team captain’s in the successful launch and running of this additional team.
This will help ensure more players have more pitch time to enjoy their match day hockey.
Umpiring

Now is a great time to hone up your umpiring skills, and practice at all the summer league matches. We will continue to need more umpires accredited to Level 1 and registered on GMS this coming season.

The good news – it is possible for players to take a quick online umpire’s course and get qualified and be able to help out. Ideally, we need each team to put forward two players to get this accreditation. For more information please contact Graham Beck.

Visit the EH website & register here https://hockeyhub.englandhockey.co.uk

Junior Club Action

Junior activity is non-stop through the summer – a full Talent Group Development programme, great junior intro to hockey sessions, and top level representation for South Saxons in the national UK Lions hockey competition, the junior group continues to develop our younger players.

We especially thank our super sponsors Happy Hot Tubs for their support.

As we get ready for the new 2025-2026 season, we will be in contact with all the updates. Please help us by making sure all your Teamo contact information (Phone numbers / email address etc) is up to date – thanks.

Best wishes and good luck to all playing throughout the summer

Newsletter June 2025