Club Chairman's Statement 2011

The next couple of years are going to be exciting and busy both on and off the pitch. Thanks to a tremendous amount of hard work by key members (Rodney Hodge, Phil Honey, Bob Cowen, Jo Gaspar, Phil Edwards, Bridget Passmore and Gareth George in particular) we are now officially Tavistock Hockey Club CIC (a Community Interest Company). This means we are able to start investing the money from the sale of the old pitch - and that means a new pitch! Whilst there is still a lot to do, everything is moving in the right direction.

Of course two pitches would mean potential for a bigger club. Our junior section grew last season from around 15 to 50! We have invested in training up coaches but we need more and a number of members will hopefully take their level 1 Coaching Assistant award with England Hockey this season. Nicky Sellers entered our juniors in the Plymouth Friday evening league and to everyone's delight our under 10 Badgers (mixed boys and girls) and under 10 boys each won a medal, coming second and third respectively in their first ever season! This year we will be targeting Tavistock Community College with a view to recruiting more players in the 12 to 16 age bracket!

Of course all these new players - not to mention the 'old' ones - will need training and getting fit to make sure our standard of hockey doesn't slip as a result of all this new activity. Phil Edwards has taken on the job of co-ordinating the club training sessions and details will be published here on the club website.

Greg Curno has taken on the mantle of 'Webmaster' and the website will become a major feature of the club. As well as allowing us to update results and publish match reports, it will become the main way of communicating with our junior section and their parents. In due course you'll be able to find results and photos for all the teams including juniors, and of course social events! If you are a player you will need to take a camera to matches to make sure we have a good supply of photos throughout the season.

The social aspect is the backbone of the club (the summer league does a great job of keeping us in touch through the 'off' season and we now run two teams) and we look forward to the chance to meet friends old and new in the coming year. We also have social events in and out of season, and of course our traditional annual events such as the Presentation Dinner and the Men's Tour (when are the ladies going to organize their own tour?)!

This is an important year for the club and it will be much more successful if everyone pulls together. Like most clubs we have a 'hard core' of people who do most things - I am hoping this year that people who haven't really been involved in the past will get stuck in - especially our younger members who will be here for many years. Get involved at whatever level you are comfortable at - collect money at the junior sessions, help a captain contact his team, train as a coach - it's up to you. We'll get out what we put in. Above all - enjoy yourselves!

Dave Anning
Chairman Tavistock Hockey Club