The end of summer can only mean one thing: the return of the hockey season. We began the season on August 31st with our Club Day, comprising of our AGM, club BBQ & social sixes tournament, and we welcomed Sonning and Inverleith for the first Ladies & Men’s respective 1st team games of the year. Inverleith even joined us for the social of the season, the infamous ‘Ou Est Le Poulet’ – we hope they enjoyed it as much as we did!
All other teams, including our new Ladies 6th team, have been training hard in preparation for the upcoming season, with friendlies on September 7th and 14th, before the South Central leagues begun on September 21st. For any club members needing a new mouthguard for the new season, we currently have a partnership with Opro – use the code SBHC10 for 10% off!
Celebrations started early this year, as in May we were delighted to be announced as England Hockey’s ‘Club of the Year’ at the annual England Hockey Awards. This award serves as recognition of the hard work put in to helping the club achieve ClubMark status, continuing improvement in our developmental pathways as well as establishing a Young Umpires Group, and regular Walking Hockey sessions. We have even had some Club of the Year jumpers made, which are available to purchase through the Little Embroidery Company website (www.thelittleembroiderycompany.com).
We are also very excited to announce that we are one of 18 clubs starting work towards England Hockey Talent Centre accreditation. We have been awarded this opportunity due to our potential to offer a high quality junior development environment, and can't wait to get started for the benefit of our future SBHC stars.
As the season get into full swing, we will be using our new WhatsApp community for all important club communications – keep your eyes peeled!
A date for your diaries – our next club social will be on Saturday 5th October. During the day, we will be “wearing it pink”, and hosting a bake-off cake sale to raise money as part of breast cancer awareness month. New this year, there will also be a Barbie and Ken themed social at the clubhouse in the evening. More details to follow soon!