This year our committee put together the first Fylde H.C club weekend across 27th and 28th August. The weekend saw not only glorious sunshine but also over 150 players, volunteers and spectators enter Mill Farm . With players from U8s to Over 60s it was great to see so many people enjoying playing hockey this weekend.
On Friday we had a huge turnout of players from our senior teams to take part in a mixed hockey tournament, with nearly 70 players stepping foot on the pitch. We had representation from every senior team. Our social secretary Georgie Hampson was tasked with the responsibility of trying to split these players into even teams and shepherd everyone into action.
The mixed tournament saw two groups of 4 teams battle it out for top spot. The standings were close, and the Purple team, led by Ian Swaine, pipped the Black team, led by Alex Brandwood, to the win in group 1. In group 2 again, the scores at the top were tight and it went down to the final game to decide who would enter the final. Navy team led by Jamie Oakes came through to win group 2 with the yellow team led by Jay Currey finishing a close second.
In the final games of the evening to decide the top spots we had Navy vs Purple, and Yellow vs Black. The Black team ended their campaign third after beating the yellows whilst the Navy and Purples were looking to end with a draw, with two minutes to go no one had managed to get the ball into the back of the net. Spectators were starting to get excited at the prospect of penalty shuffles! With great driving runs from the forward and midfield line made up of James Oakes, Lisa Perry and Duke Jones the Navy team finally managed to break the dead lock with the result ending 2-0.
The trophy was awarded to the Navy team’s player of the match Lisa Perry by Chairman Ian Swaine.
A huge thank you to our volunteer umpires Gabriel Appleyard, Heather Appleyard, Caroline Hampson, Ian Swaine, Simon Major, Alex Brandwood, Becky Evans, Martin Stringfellow, Molly Maguire, Craig Tilley, Nigel Sadler, Beth Wolstenholme and Georgie Hampson as well as our super efficient timekeepers and score-masters Lisa Leil and Karen Major. Without you the tournament would not have been possible.
A huge thank you also to Rachel Harvey , our photographer for the event, for capturing the many memorable moments throughout the evening.
The Friday night was then followed up with friendly games on Saturday morning for our junior section, we had U8s, U10s and U12s all dusting off the cobwebs after a long summer away from the hockey pitch. Once again, the day would not have been possible without our volunteers Phil Hope, Junior Club Captain, and Fran Loffler-Thompson, Ladies Club Captain, who organised the junior event as well as coached the teams alongside Georgie Hampson and Martin Stringfellow. The junior section will return to training week commencing 6th September and all training times can be found on the website along with the dates for the holiday camps which will be running over the season.
The weekend acted as a celebration of the start of the 2021/22 season and, as committee, we are so pleased to be able to offer playing and social opportunities once again after the many setbacks last year. It was brilliant to see so many players not only being able to meet up and catch up with old friends but also, the number of new friendships and connections being made across the club with the integration of the players who are seasoned pros as well as those who only turned 13 a couple of months ago and are now eligible to play adult hockey.