Merlins Thank Trevor Wardle
The following tribute to Trevor Wardle was made by past and present members of the Merlins team following Trevor's announcement that he was stepping down as captain of the Merlins after 10 years in charge...
If all the year were playing holidays; To sport would be as tedious as to work.
Shakespeare; King Henry IV Part I
I first met Trevor Wardle in the mid-1990s not long before he became Merlins' skipper. I was captain of the Magicians (for the day) and we were short of players. Trevor, whom I hadn't met before, turned up in Richmond straight from the club bar following an earlier game. “I play Centre Half” were his opening words.
The above brief paragraph says much about Trevor. Commitment to his own side of course but also to the wider Maidenhead Hockey Club. And in recent years when Trevor's business in the States has become more time consuming, there can't be many who commute 10,000 miles each weekend just to play hockey. I believe the Merlin archives show that in extremis he missed a few games but they can literally be counted on the fingers of one hand. To the chagrin of some of his team mates, his commitment has on occasion been unwisely present, playing when “not quite 100%” - pneumonia and two days after a knee arthroscopy spring to mind - but these games added to the Wardle mystique and led directly to his sobriquet: IMOZ, the Iron Man of Zermatt. “I don't care if my leg's broken, I can stand in the D like Bob Brown.”
Until very recently, Trevor's only position on the pitch has been Centre Half and he's brought his unique set of skills to this position. His ability to attack and defend (in the same game) cannot be questioned and he covers the ground with surprising fleetness of foot. Again, the word commitment comes to mind. In the aforementioned Richmond game many of the then youngsters (and the captain on the day) made the same mental note: never play in front of Trevor. Nearly 20 years later Trevor's ability to make the ball rise at a 30o angle from a free hit still has to be seen to be believed. But, as you'd expect with Trevor's fair sense of play, the ball is directed randomly at anyone standing in a 220o arc from the free hit spot; opposition, home team, umpires, spectators and dog walkers alike.
As Merlin's captain for the last 10 years one can only imagine how many (international?) telephone calls and e-mails have been required to ensure the Merlin's season, like football, starts somewhere late August and finishes some 9 or 10 months later, well after Easter's movable feast. It is to testament to Trevor's love of the game that the Merlins play on 99.999% of available Saturdays. Many will remember playing Camberley three or four weeks in succession so that Saturday afternoon's remained unaltered, literally for that particular month.
With the exception of those in the Maidenhead Advertiser Office (apologies for starting the sentence with a preposition) who may be lexicographers at heart, a little known fact is that immediately above sobriquet in the 9th Annual Addition of The Concise Oxford Dictionary is the word sobriety, a word that has probably never appeared in a Merlins' match report and whilst is does apply to Trevor on many an occasion, it doesn't prevent his pre- and post-match beers. By example and invariably around a bar, Trevor instils a sense of friendship amongst the players and in a world where the advent of Astro has ruined the social side of hockey to a large extent, Trevor and The Merlins are always “up for a beer”.
Like many Merlins, recent long term injury in the form of knee trouble hit Trevor hard but didn't prevent him remaining as Team Captain/Organiser-in-Chief with vice-captain Lawrence Castle taking over on-field responsibilities. Trevor was welcomed back into the playing fold with open arms but has now clearly decided that a Merlins' era is to close at the end of the season. Trevor's speech following the Camberley IV's game Saturday 31st October was emotional for him and for us, his team. Knowing Trevor this isn't a decision that was reached easily or lightly but one that has been made and one we have to accept. The end of the Merlins' season is still some 8 or 9 months away so there are still a few games and beers to be had. It is fact that no individual is bigger than the team but Trevor's boots will be harder to fill than most.
To finish where we started, Trevor Wardle has never made hockey remotely tedious!
Merlins, past and present.