Champions !!

I'm going to start a post about the men's 1's gaining National League status - it's a huge achievement for the club in it's first year. Obviously I'd like to thank the players, this season we have certainly been blessed with the talent, but that's only half the deal, it requires application, dedication, and a healthy dose of team spirit.

Nevil as club captain, with the help of Mike Bluett put together a great management team, Simon Letchford has been an inspiration as coach, and bringing Andy Harrison as team manager along with the lesser known, but equally vital important fitness /conditioning coach James Butterfill, the off field line looked as strong as the on field one proved.

My sincere congratulations to all involved.

Below is an email from John William the ex-Bromley President and someone who put tremedous effort into the merger over the summer...(if you would like to add a comment, click at the bottom of the post on the word 'comment')


Dear Gareth, Please add my congratulations to the first team squad for their great achievement in winning their league so convincingly and thereby gaining promotion into the Nationals in the first season of the merger of two great hockey clubs. As well as the players we have to thank the work of the coach and of the team manager. It was a joy to watch many of the games and to see the skills on display and also to see how disciplined and sporting the players were when they were on the field; qualities which I am sure will be of great help to the team next year as they continue to make progress up the national leagues. Well done on behalf of all the Founder Vice Presidents of Bromley and Beckenham HC.
John Williams

Simon Evans has surpassed himself with the final match report of the season (and the South League Prem), head over to the 'fixtures & reports' menu item to read it.

Summer Tournaments

I have received information on a number of summer tournaments including
Purely Walcountians June 2nd-4th
Woking 6s Tournament Sat 17th Jun
These are fun ways to build team spirit and keep your touch ahead of next season! Any captain (or volunteer) wishing to enter a team please contact me for further details
womens.captain@brombeckhc.co.uk

Ladies Goalkeeper Open Day

Please click on this link to find out more.

Congratulations & Kent Cup Semi.

Congratulations to the Mens 1st XI who beat Purley 5-1 on Saturday
and therefore won the South Premier League which means
National League Hockey for them next year.

Following their success in the League please come and support them
as they take on Holcombe in the Kent Cup Semi Final this Sunday (2nd).
It is a 14.15 push back at Langley Park.

Celebration of Ben Simpson's life

As some of you may know Ben's Parents have asked for a bench and a tree to be installed at Foxgrove to comemorate his life. This will be taking place on Sunday the 9th of April at Foxgrove. There are a number of events scheduled for that afternoon, we are intending on playing a game of football, and to officially unveil the bench.

This is the day after the ball, and the same day as the London League finals, but we hope as many of you as possible will join us. Check back next when we will be publishing a full schedule of events.

End of Season Ball

Here's some further information about the ball on Saturday the 8th of April, at the Bromley Court Hotel.

If you have not yet booked your ticket, please speak to Emma Shepherd email : womens.captain@brombeckhc.com, there are only 20 tickets left, and we need to give final numbers early next week.

We have decided that we shall not be sending out tickets, partly to save me from forgetting mine, and partly as some teams have finished their seasons, it will be difficult to distribute them. We will instead have people on the door checking guests in against our list of who has paid.

Rooms are available at a discounted rate, £70 for a single, and £88 for a double, please mention that you are attending the ball when booking your room.

We are planning on having a revolving slideshow of images of any and all of our teams, so if you have any photos (good, bad or embarrassing), please email them to us at photos@brombeckhc.co.uk, and we will endeabour to add them to those we have already gathered.

Much effort has and continues to be invested, and I hope you will all really appeciate this on the night, my thanks to Robbie Wakeman, Ben Jones, Tara Woodward, Ceri Williams, Emma Shepherd, Nev and the Bluett boys for all their hard work getting this event organised.

More playing shirts

We have just received that latest batch of playing shirts, which are available from Beckenham Cricket Specialists, near Sainsbury's in Beckenham High St. They are £20, but if you provide proof of membership (your membership card) you can have one for £10.

Also junior shirt will be available at the club on Sunday, again £10 for paid up junior members.

This is your last chance to get shirts for £10, from next season they will be back at £20.

Mini Hockey Fun Day - March 26th

There will be another mini hockey fun day at the club (Foxgrove Road) on Sunday March 26th starting at 10:30 till approximately midday. If you normally have u8/u10/u11 or u12 training that day, this will take the place of normal practice. Don't forget to bring your boots as we will be playing on grass.

Following the success of the Christmas fun day, we have managed to book both pitches so there will be plenty of hockey for everyone.

There are some club shirts left, so if you have not already bought one this is your last chance to buy one at the discounted rate of ten pounds, as long as you have paid your membership fees.

In addition the club will be selling hot drinks and refreshments.

Getting Closer...

Well I can hardly keep up, as you may have noticed, Mike Bluett posted that the Men's 4th XI (our 6th selected side) won Kent open div. 2, and will promoted as champions with 2 games to spare. [Thanks for the tip Dan Blackman]

Win's for both the men's and Women's first teams takes them within touching distance of winning their respective leagues, and gaining promotion. The men are away to Purley for their traditional end of season clash, 1 pm start. Simon Evans has written a match report which includes directions to their ground. The women's 1's, having beaten Brentwood 4-1 this week, Rob has sent some more photos (will be posted later - follow photo archive on the menu) and take on St Albans at theirs this weekend.

As expected Lout's 3's beat Hampstead meaning our Men's 3's get promoted losing out on top spot by a single point.

This has been a fantastic week for us, with confirmation of the Men's 2's, Men's 3's, and Men's 4's all being promoted. However next week could see further celebrations with both our top teams chasing wins to confirm them both as champions. Your continued support is much appreciated - as I said last week 6 more points please !

Kent Women's Veteran's Tournament

Brombecks finished 2nd in the pool games after beating Burnt Ash by 3 goals to one (scorers Nicky F, Sam C and Alex B) despite monopolising the play against Faversham we only managed to beat them 1-0 (scorer Sam C) which lead to Scottie masterminding a change in tactics ahead of the toughest match against Sevenoaks. Sharon was superb, marking their most dangerous player out of the game and with 4 minutes to go we had held them to a 0-0 draw unfortunately they converted an unstoppable flick and the final score was 0-1.
This however was enough to take us through to the semi-final against Gravesend, winners of the second pool. Gravesend managed to score first but Nicky Fraser soon equalised with a cracking short corner which meant the final score was 1-1 and penalty flicks would determine the result.
Alison (women's first team goalkeeper and captain) was of course a star! saving all bar 2 of the twelve flicks against her! Unfortunately we were hopeless and only managed to score 1 flick from 12!!!!
So Gravesend went on to be beaten in the final by Sevenoaks!
Thank you to Gail for organising the event. Everyone had a great day of hockey and the vocal support from the sideline was much appreciated.

Squad;
Alison Fox
Gail Arnott
Sue Scott
Alex Bezant
Delyth Davies
Nicky Fraser
Sharon Bennell
Janet Batterbee
Sam Crinnion
Fran Georgel
Mel Caffin

Supporters
Katherine Hawkins
Marisa and Connor Osborne

Written by Alex Bezant

Men's 6th XI win Kent League 2.

Congratulations to Chris Dodd and the Men's 6th XI that won Kent
League 2 last Saturday with still 2 weeks of the league left to play.

Retirement of Vic Williams

Former members of Bromley HC please note that Vic Williams, the bar steward at Plaistow Lane, is hanging up his jugs and retiring after 27 years service to all the sporting fraternity at the Bromley Clubhouse. A fairwell party is being organised for Vic on Sunday 23rd April between 1pm and 2.30pm and this will be at the Plaistow pavilion.

Please pass the word and try to encourage as many ex Bromley hockey players and supporters to turn up as possible. A presentation will be made to Vic and if you would like to contribute please send a cheque to Mark Goss-Sampson who is organising the event. Also let Mark know if you will be looking in to the party on 23 April.

Cheques should be made payable to Bromley CC, Mark's address is 12 Babbacombe Road, Bromley, BR1 3LW. His phone number is 020 8460 5061 - Hope to see a good turn out on the 23rd !

John Williams, Ex President Bromly HC

Season 2005-6 Photos

OK, so Emma G has sent me some photos, taken by Rob, of the women's 1's against Welwyn Garden City, and the women's 2's recent win against Bishop's Stortford, they're here, and also linked from the 'photo archive' item on the menu.

BromBeck representation at Kent U15's...

The Kent U15 Boys county squad have won the home counties championship this season for the 3rd consecutive season, as U13's, U14's and now U15's and have yet to lose a game!! This season they won 7 out of 7. The Kent squad contained 6 Brom/Becks players :

Keiran Mulholland
Charlie Goodall
Robert Evans
Tom Doane
Matt Davies
Olly Harvey

The Kent county team are now travelling to compete in the national U15 county championships on 21/22nd April in Bath. Four BromBeck players are in the 18 man Kent squad for this competition :

Keiran Mulholland
Charlie Goodall
Tom Doane
Olly Harvey

Well Done all, and thanks to Jennie Goodall for the heads up.

Match reports

My job is dull, reading match reports makes the day go faster, so they're all good in my book. I will be updating some just in junior reports, but if you've got time to spare you should definitely have a look at Billy's Men's 2's reports, always good for a laugh, mixed with a healthy dose of humour, and even some fact. You should also check out Adam G's men's 3's reports, and the recently updated women's reports.

If you want to look at what else is out there, check out the Spencer men's 1's reports, I've no idea who they're written by, but they made me chuckle, read their away report to City of Portsmouth, and their report of our game against them before Christmas. Interesting, anyway men's 1's are playing them at LP on Saturday 12.30pm start, followed by the women's 1's v Brentwood at 2pm

weekend update

Well a mixed bag really, probably the most important result was the women's 2's winning their relegation battle 4-3. The men's and women's first team continued their respective quest for promotion, the women winning, the men taking a draw away to Greg Nicol's Brighton. I hear that Chris Howes had a standout game, and much as it pains me to admit, I think he's been the most consistent player in the first team games I've watched, and keeping the SA striker to 2 goals is something not many other teams can claim.

The men's three's lost to Old Louts, meaning that while they have gained promotion, they need Hampstead's help next week to win their league. The men's two's completed their unbeaten season, with a 7-1 win away at Richmond. Clearly the class of their league, scoring 96 goals, and only conceding 7, Lenny with 12 clean sheets.

I think all the above is correct, and if I've missed any big scores, and you want your name in lights, please drop me a line (enquiries@brombeckhc.co.uk). Plans for next week - get out and support our first teams, and keep on winning...

Our man in NZ...

" Hi chaps.

Jonesy & me are glued to the net in New Zealand more than ever and following your progress this season. I really hope this weekend goes well. If ever we deserved some luck it's now. Please pass on our regards at the appropriate time... & if all goes well Jonesy will shout everyone in the clubhouse a beer :)

Good Luck Again
Cheers

Deano "

Another big weekend coming up...

In no particular order, the Men's 1's are away to Brighton, for a top of the table clash, and the women's 1's are away to Folkstone. Home games however also have plenty riding on them, the two big ones are :

The women's 2's are playing Bishops Stortford at 3.30pm at Langley. This is a bottom of the table clash which will have a big impact on whether the 2's stay in East Div 1 South.

and the Men's 3's taking on 2nd placed Old Loughts at Langley, 12.30 push back. It's their last game of the season this Saturday. Win or draw, we win the league.

Both sides need as much support as possible so please make every effort to attend if you're able to.

Sandwiched in between these two crunch games is the men's 3A's taking on Southgate in their final league game.

I apologise if I've missed any other big games, just drop me a line if you're team's game needs a shout..

More Junior Victories

From Chris Rule - "I'm pleased to be able to report our U11 boys won the Kent U11 7-aside championships on Sunday. This is the County stage of the National Mini Hockey championships.

Our U16 boys also beat Reading meaning we will either finish first or second in the league and therefore qualify for the Mercian League playoffs.

On the same day we put out another U16 side to beat Old Bordians in the Kent league to guarantee a top 4 place and therefore qualify for the Kent league quarter finals. "

Great work, and thanks to all the squad leaders and helpers who we are so grateful to.