With summer coming to an end, this is the perfect opportunity to outline what’s install for you here at Maidenhead Hockey Club for the 2018/19 season.

The 2017/18 season was a successful one for the men’s section, which saw:

• the 1s reach the play-offs of MBBO Regional 1;
• the 2s win their league and get promoted to MBBO Division 1;
• the 3s finish mid-table in MBBO Division 6 (without a regular goalkeeper);
• the 4s secure their status in MBBO Division 8 [East] (on the last day of the season);
• the Merlins win more matches than they lost; and
• the Mavericks start slow but finish the season strong.

This season sees MHC running 6 sides again in the men’s section.

Good luck to all our teams for the upcoming season!

We are always keen to increase the number of playing members and welcome new players looking for a welcoming club and offer a varied standard of hockey to suit most needs. To those of you who know friends who used to play hockey and have stopped for one reason or another, we would encourage all of you to invite them to come down to training and to get them back into hockey at MHC.

Coaching

We have a very strong coaching set-up overall in the men’s section for this coming season.

Paul Loudon continues in the key role as the Director of Coaching covering the men’s, ladies and colts sections and will provide coaching support for a number of the other men’s teams.

We are delighted that Lee Pettifer will continue as Men's Head Coach, who guided the Men’s 1s to the playoffs in his first season. Lee will lead the coaching of the senior squads on Tuesday evenings.

We are further delighted that Colin James has again agreed to coach the 2’s as well as leading the general club coaching on Tuesday evenings. Colin was instrumental in the 3s winning the league and being promoted to MBBO Division 6 during the 2015/16 season and 2s winning the league and being promoted to MBBO Division 1 last season - hopefully with his guidance, we can get more teams promoted in the upcoming season!

Umpiring

With the start of the 2018/18 season only a few weeks away, we are looking for volunteers across the club (including parents and spectators), who would like to challenge themselves by trying their hand at umpiring.

Below is a link to England Hockey's rules section for anyone to sign up and review the rules and take a quiz. On completion, you will receive a certificate which shows that you have demonstrated awareness of the Rules of Hockey.

This will help boost confidence on the basics and is the first step for those wanting to take their Level 1 exam...

All playing member are encouraged to brush up on the rules and take the quiz!
https://hockeyhub.englandhockey.co.uk/rules/

Matches

Competitive league matches start on Saturday 29 September 2018 for all teams apart from the 1s whose fixtures start on Saturday 22 September 2018.

There will be friendly fixtures before the league starts.

Captains will be in contact with their teams.

Team Selection

All players will be assessed by coaches and captains throughout preseason activities and allocated a playing side. Some players may be asked to move training sessions as well as sides.