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456 News
Chris, County call-up .. Tom, broken arm .. KevF, 5PPPC Skittles Champ .. Henry 4 .. Winny, party .. a local umpire and a 3s defender admire 5s Skipper's granddaughter .. Mitch, County
MARCH 2005
County break: as a great reward for the effort, enthusiasm and maturity he has shown for the 5s and 6s this season Chris has been selected for the County U11 squad. Well done Chris and the best of luck.
FEBRUARY 2005
Another break: for the second successive week a hockey related broken bone has robbed us of the services of one of our bright young players. This week it is Stevie and a broken ankle. Get well soon Stevie, we all want to see you back very soon.
Broken: More disappointment for the 4s bit of 456 as Tom fractures his forearm defending a short corner in an under 18s cup game. Though obviously out for the rest of the season we wish Tom a speedy recovery.
JANUARY 2005
Missing: Disappointment for 456 as news come through that Ally is having to take a break from hockey for the rest of this term and Steve is working most Saturdays and unlikely to turn out again. The good news is that Geoff is signing new players all the time with Nick and Adam the latest recruits.
DECEMBER 2005
I'll tell you a story: In the late 1970s, when The Skipper was captain of the 4s, Pinger had just started playing hockey. Despite being 15 he was not much bigger than Mitch and not nearly as good. In fact one the the 4s players that year, who'd been a bit useful in his day, actually said "I'm not passing the ball to that boy, it's a waste of time, he doesn't know what to do with it". Now is that a case of "How times change" or what?
South Atlantic Raider: Returning to the scene of former glories - if that's what you call digging a Falklands trench in record time - www is off to South America and the Antarctic for Christmas. Leaving a few hours after the Xmas party Webby is returning minutes before the 5s next game. Planned with military precision we say.
Party success: What a great night the SHC Xmas Party always is - and 2005 was no exception. The 5s Skipper was especially gratified to see 13 of the squad that went to St Ives for a chilly 11 am pb survived to be at the event - including 4 in the as ever excellent Club Band (tell me Hammy are they officially "Da Nidge"?). Not surprisingly very few 5s left The Chequers at 4am with the other SHC renegades.
Skittles Champ: The Annual 5s Post-game Pre-Xmas Pub Crawl (snappy name eh?) was according to Cocky - a self proclaimed expert in these matters - an unmitigated disaster (probably not enough to moan about). But all contestants enjoyed the Table Skittles tourny at The Cock in Broom. With Sebby and Pinger trying to smash the 50 year old table to firewood, it was left to the more subtle skills of KevF and www to actually knock the pins over. www scored the only max and KevF was crowned champion after a cheese-off with Webby.
NOVEMBER 2005
4s Addition: The 4s are not to be outdone in the baby producing stakes as Captain Jezz & Tracy present Geoff with a potential new recruit. Henry was born on Thursday 17th November and weighed in at 6lb15.
Winny party: Angela and the 5s team took a lot a trouble to keep Winny's retirement party a surprise for him and it worked. He was left at the club wondering why we were all leaving so early after the game and dreading having to go to "some old codger's retirement do": it was his. The look on his face when he came into the room was a picture; has anyone got it? A good time was had. Nads was there, looking much better than when last seen, and says he will turn up to watch the 5s ... "I may even umpire". The Skipper warns him that the Courts are very hard on those using threatening behaviour.
Sweepstake result: Pieman wins correctly forecasting 7 November as the birthdate of his own daughter - and the 5s Skipper's first grandchild. Had Emily been born just two minutes later it would have been on her dad's birthday and Uncle Dave would have scooped the pot.
OCTOBER 2005
What are Shandy up to? Our guess is ...... they used to run 5 teams in our league, but they have been allowed to take out the 3rd team to play in a Vets League this season. But the Vets League don't have many fixtures. So when Sandy turn out only 4 teams their "4s" and "5s" are strengthened (e.g. against our 5s!!) and when they have a Vets game they are weak - they have already scratched two 5s games. A bit unfair on the other teams in that division we think. But we'll be ready for them next time .....
Do you have
the enthusiasm, initiative and skills to help shape this growing sports
partnership? Too late - the
post of Herts Hockey Development Officer has been offered to the best man.
Congratulations Simmo - he starts work on 1 November.
5s forward Mitch played Beds and against Norfolk for Hertfordshire under 13s on October 16 - and we're very pleased for him even though it meant he weakened our league side at Shandy .....
Where have they gone??? Many players are asking what happened to the great surfeit of players we had in 2004/05, before the decision to launch the 6s. Here's a few clues:
Retirements : Ian E (2) Cats (5) Long Term Injuries: Gavin (2) Pinger (1) Mark (3) Starsky (1) Found another Club: Peter C (1) Peter H (2) Freddy (2) Kevin R (3) Moved Away: Rob B (2) Robbie (4) Gone to Uni: Bendy (3) ????? : Tim W (2)
Not a bad team is it? Even with Cats in goal. And they have given us the chance to bring in Stuart, 2 Callums, Ryall, Aron, Will, 2 Daniels, Fez, Chris, Mike, Stevie and Rob