Author Archives: whc-user

2024/25 half time report. Mens 1s and 2s top their leagues at christmas !

Hard to believe, but its half time in the 2024/25 season already. As we head into the festive break, what a season its been Worthing Hockey Club already.

The Mens 1s sit top of the South East Mens Division 1 West by a single point from Reigate Priory in a tough battle at the top of the table. The Womens 1s are just a point away from the top half of the Division 1 Martlets league recording 4 wins and 4 losses, with the Womens 2s having a great first half of the season currently in 4th place behind East Grinstead who are the runaway leaders in Division 3 Martlets.

In Mens Division 2 Martlets which features 3 Worthing teams, Mens 2 are also top of their league, in a close battle, leading Crowborough by a single point. Mens 3s and 4s have both had a healthy start in this league, ending 2024 6th and 8th respectively.

In the Division 3 Martlets league Mens 5s have had a tougher start to the season, but with promising recent performances are looking to climb the table as we head into January. The Mens 6s have had a great run of recent results and are looking to consolidate a top half position in Division 4.

During the season it is fantastic to see how each team has grown and how the club’s policy of promoting junior players has young players in every team across the club.

On the junior side itsself, Wolves (U16s) have had a strong start to the season with 5 wins from 9 games, and sit in the top part of their league, a great achievement whilst introducing 9 new players to the team during the first part of the season. Both U14 and U16 boys teams have been in action in the South East Tier 3 Sunday league in partnership with Horsham – both teams having an unbeaten first part of the season.

Our youngest players have been in match action too – with both Boys & Girls U12s and U10s giving strong performances at regional festivals held across Sussex during the first few months of the season.

Overall a great first half and we look forward to resuming after the christmas break. Merry Christmas !

Meet our President, Chair, Mens and Womens 1s captains

A strong club is built on experience and firm foundations. Meet our President Clive Neil-Smith, Chair Anthony Fuest ‘Ants’, Mens 1s Captain Luc Hinton and Womens 1s Captain Ellie Chambers. All have long connections with the club. Luc and Ellie have even agreed to take part in our Comets juniors Q&A to learn more about what inspired them to take up hockey and progress from juniors to the 1st XI.

Captain Allan heads to the Masters

Worthing Hockey Club stalwart, Andy Allan, heads down to Auckland, New Zealand, towards the end of October to skipper the O60’s England B side.

It’s a long road from his days as a stylish 70’s prep school lad, where the only masters he would have been familiar with were those teaching at school! It was at Broadwater Manor school, across the road from WHC’s old home, where Andy first picked up a hockey stick.

Having joined the club as a young man, he forged his reputation as a club man and all round nice guy with many years service across his peak years in Worthing’s 4th team. In 1995 this side was rebranded the Hooch XI after the release of the popular alcoholic lemonade drink. It witnessed many promising youngsters passing through, with Andy prominent in passing on his journeyman wisdom before waving them goodbye to higher teams.

It wasn’t until his 40’s that he started taking his hockey seriously and eventually made his 1st XI debut. He still holds the record for oldest first team player to score a hatrick.

He progressed from here into age group international hockey, initially via Scottish heritage, then onto a gold medal at the Cape Town, South Africa Masters in 2022.

With his wife Lisa playing on the club tennis circuit with Storrington and two very talented daughters, Holly & Nicole, Andy has become very driven in his later years, not wanting to be the worst in his family. He can be found regularly park running, taking on huge mountains in the Alpine air or completing triathlons in competitive times.

Now a VP of Worthing Hockey Club, everyone connected with this great institution wishes him well on his latest journey. His family are super proud to see him head off to New Zealand as captain of his country.

Andy has family members out in New Zealand, including a twin sister who was born the day before him. Those of us that have played with Andy for many years will recognise this trait of arriving later than everyone else, though on that occasion absolutely no way was he at the Washington roundabout !

Good luck Andy, we will all be watching. x

Introducing our coaching team

We are a very fortunate club to have a strong coaching team across our Men’s, Women’s and Junior sections. Whether it is a coaching session on a Tuesday, Wednesday, Sunday or coaching at Saturday 1st team and junior matches, you will find our dedicated team bringing as much skills training, passion and tactical knowledge as possible to our WHC teams.

Fantastic turnout for Andie’s Golf Day raises £2750

In the words of our Chair : “On behalf of the club, I would like to thank everyone involved in Andie’s Golf Day. I truly cannot remember a better day. The organisers and their elves put on a day that shows the club as a hockey family. Thank you for the immense amount of work to create a fantastic atmosphere on the day.”

The day was blessed with beautiful weather (and the occasional decent golf shot !) Congratulations to The Drawshanks for retaining their crown by a single putt from The Sour Cherry and Apple Squashies (named after their team kit). In total there were 11 teams which was brilliant to see.

The event raised £2750 with all proceeds going to St.Barnabas Hospice in Worthing, as well as the golf there were raffle prizes, longest drive, nearest the pin, fines for missed greens, donations, evening curry and the traditional 11th hole fund raising drinks ! A great way to raise money for a great charity. See you next year !

Annual Dinner / Dance and Awards Night 2024

Fantastic 2023/2024 end of season celebrations at The Ardington Hotel, Worthing, followed by partying at The Vudu lounge. The perfect venue, fabulous food and what a wonderful time each and everyone had. Everyone made a massive effort and dressed up for the occasion.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to a great season and congratulations to our players of the season for each team.

M1 Josh Appleton M2 Liam Struthers M3 Reece Matthews M4 Marc Taylor M5 Dave Scott

M6 Nathan Keeley Wolves Ben Holliday W1 Ellie Chambers W2 Emily Keogh

End of season wrap up 2023/24

Wow, what a season its been. Fielding 17 different teams from Under 10s to Over 50s, it has been a true ‘club’ season. Our Mens and Ladies 1^st teams both finished mid table in their respective leagues, consolidating their positions ready for more high standard hockey next season.

Across both Mens and Ladies teams we have had young players moving up through the club and performing brilliantly which is great as they are the future of the club. Strong finishes to the season moved Ladies 2s and Mens 5s up the leagues to safe league positions.

On the junior side, the Wolves Boys development team had another strong season finishing in 2^nd place with the Boys U14s and U16s finishing in creditable mid table positions in their first visit to the South East Sunday leagues.

The U10 and U12 Boys and Girls had some great matches with the U12B achieving 2^nd in the In2 Hockey Vase and 3^rd in the Ron Easton tournament.

The Mixed team enjoyed a cup run whilst the Mens O50s went a step further before being edged out in the England Hockey Championship Semi Final.

Adding in a significant number of our juniors making the Sussex Academy and Sussex Championship squads, plus multiple social club matches and off the field social events – it has been a fantastic season – thank you to everyone at WHC !

Mens 1^st – South East Division 1 West : Position 6^th

Mens 2^nd – South East Division 1 Martlets : Position 12^th

Mens 3^rd – South East Division 2 Martlets : Position 6^th

Mens 4^th – South East Division 3 Martlets : Position 3^rd

Mens 5^th – South East Division 3 Martlets : Position 9^th

Mens 6^th – South East Division 4 Martlets : Position 9^th

Ladies 1^st – South East Division 1 Martlets : Position 8^th

Ladies 2^nd – South East Division 3 : Martlets : Position 7^th

Wolves – Sussex Boys Development League : Position 2^nd

Boys U14 – South East Tier 3 Pool B : Position 5^th

Boys U16 – South East Tier 3 : Position 7^th

Mixed – England Hockey Mixed Tier 2 Championships : Round 3

Mens O50s – England Hockey O50s Tier 2 Championships : Semi Final

Boys U10s : Interclub tournaments

Girls U10s : Interclub tournaments, In2 Vase Quarter Final

Boys U12s : Interclub tournaments, In2 Vase Runners Up, Ron Easton 3^rd place

Girls U12s : Interclub tournaments, In2 Vase 3^rd place

Meet our Sunday league teams and fantastic umpires

Every weekend, Saturday and Sunday we are so lucky to have a team of fantastic umpires – thank you so much to you all – the games literally would not happen without you. Thank you. In addition to our Saturday league teams, we also have Sunday Mixed, O50s and Junior leagues / tournaments, covering Boys and Girls U10/U12, Boys U14 and Boys U16. The mixed and O50s play in the England Hockey Championships, the U10/U12s in the Sussex tournaments and U14s / U16s in the South East Sunday Tier leagues. It is great to see so many out enjoying their hockey across the weekends.

Meet our Saturday league teams

Every Saturday through the season WHC has fielded 6 x Mens, 2 x Ladies and 1 x Junior Development teams. Come rain or shine, this fantastic group of players represent the club across Sussex and wider the South East region. Mens 1s compete in South East Division 1 West, the Mens and Ladies teams across the South East Markets leagues and the Sussex Junior Development leagues. Thank you and so great to see so many enjoying their hockey every week.

Super Sunday of tournament hockey for WHC

What a fantastic weekend! #weareWHC #supersunday.

After a full day of saturday league hockey, we were lucky enough to have our Mixed knockout and Mens O50 quarter final championship games held at our home pitch in Angmering on Sunday.

The weather carried on in a very British style but it didn’t dampen the quality of hockey played.

The mixed team did us proud with some exciting play in an extremely close match ending in a 1-2 defeat to Horsham.

Our Mens O50s had a rather wet and cold game which was all worth it taking the 2-1 win meaning they secure a place in the semi finals in March. Great game, with lovely teas cooked by your Chairman and some wonderful comments from the opposition, Ocean City, Plymouth.

“Hi Anthony. Thank you so much for the welcome you and Worthing HC gave to Ocean City yesterday. We really appreciated the effort you went to. What a great club you’ve got there. It’s opened my eyes to what is possible if you get the right people with the right mindset. Very best of luck for the future. I certainly hope our paths cross again. Brownie”

Our U10/U12 Girls & Boys participated in the In2Hockey matches at Hurstpierpoint with plenty of wins, draws and goals. Great potential was shown with the Boys U12 taking the Vase runners up award which was a fantastic achievement.

Sunday also saw our U16 boys continue in the South East league in combination with Horsham – narrowly losing out in an exciting and end to end 4-5 result against Sevenoaks.

We thank everyone who gets involved and helps make these days such a success for Worthing Hockey Club.

Christmas Message from the Chair

Message from the Chair.

As we wrap up the first half of this season, I thought I would bring you up-to-date, having just had what I consider one of the best weekends personally at the hockey club with hard competitive play, even if all the results didn’t go in our favour.

The 2 cup games with the spectators present on Sunday were especially enjoyable, resulting in 2 EHC cup wins for the mixed and 050 men’s, both hard fought and well deserved. Looking forward to the draw for the next rounds.

I am particularly pleased with the way the club is pulling together. Particular thanks go to the people who run the clubhouse, both officially and behind-the-scenes, making the club the warm and inviting place it is to both socialise and play hockey.

The team who organise and run the social aspect of the club are working particularly hard to ensure that at least once a month there is an organised event – with loads of exciting plans for the second half of the season and beyond. 

The umpires who turn up week in and week out, many officiating multiple games over the weekend, are true heroes and I’m pleased to say that we’re now in position to start signing more umpires off once they have completed their online course. If anybody would like details of how to start their journey into umpiring, then please let me know, we can show you how.

The various sections within the club,  ladies, men’s and juniors have seen the biggest influx of new players across the board that I have ever witnessed. The hard work of all those involved within these sections and the way new players and their families are welcomed into the Worthing hockey club family it’s a joy to see. I am particularly delighted with the way our junior section has doubled in size since September, showing the way forward for more competitive hockey within this section for the second half of the season and far beyond as this section continues to grow. I thoroughly enjoy the morning sessions on a Sunday, when I come down to witness the delight on the children’s faces, as they grasp the fundamentals of hockey, many of which will be future stars for the club. On this point due to the success and growth of the junior section, we are looking for volunteers to help with the admin of running some parts of this section. The club is looking for a number of junior coordinators. 

1. Fixtures coordinator for the various tournament and games on a Sunday – U10/U12 girls and boys. One for each would be ideal
2. Coordinator to manage the hosting of games and tournaments at the club on Sundays. 
3. General admin for the whole Comets junior section, being a first point of contact, and then passing any necessary information, questions, or requests onto the relevant people within the club.

The committee have now had half a season to get a firm grip on the club and you would not believe the hard work that every one of them has put in over the last six months. 

Our coaching staff have really got to grips with the needs at the club and I’m delighted to say that we now have a level three coach within our ranks to help enhance and improve the already fantastic coaching facilities that we offer. Remember that coaching is included with your membership and everybody is welcome to use our evening coaching facilities.

The next event at the club is the ‘Boxing day’ games on 30/12/23. Please see Teamo for full details.

If you don’t follow the club on any of this social media channels, then you are missing out on some fabulous posts, with updates on what is happening at the club both on and off the pitch.

The club only works when everybody pulls together, and we are always looking for more people who feel that they could enhance the club. If you feel there is something that you could contribute or help out with then as usual, please feel free to contact me at any time. 

We’re also always looking for new sponsorship, especially targeted at the junior section. Various sponsorship packages are available.

I will end this update by wishing you all a very Happy Christmas and look forward to seeing you all in the New Year or at the ‘Boxing Day’ games.

Warmest Regards Ant

07802202571

antfuest@btconnect.com