Cheltenham Hockey Club

Overall, the 2007-8 season for the mens 3A's can only be described as disappointing, especially given our great promotion winning season last year. Hopes were high after the first game, where a solid 1-1 draw gave us a good start in what was going to be a difficult higher league. From then on until Christmas, we struggled to get any momentum, not helped by the varying degrees of availability of players, and we suffered a number of frustrating narrow losses, and the odd thumping thrown in for good measure!

There was, on occasion, some good, and at times very good, hockey being played, and a number our younger players (Matt Goldsmith, George Ratcliffe, Iain Jaimeson, Dan Hills & Dean Rae to name a few) showed dramatic improvements on last season and had no problem competing at this slightly higher level.

Still, we were struggling for results, and by Christmas, a meagre 2 points saw us propping up the table. Even though we had the players and the team, the narrow defeats dented confidence, and we just couldn't get a run going.

A post Christmas friendly victory over Evesham should have kick started our new year, but with an increasing lack of available players through the club (skiiing holidays beware!), the lower teams especially struggled to field what could be described as a competitive team, and the run never materialised! Our fisrt win of the season on 19th January at Stroud which gave a brief positive kick, but this was followed by 3 heavy defeats in a row, and then a narrow 3-2 defeat to Leominster effectively sealed our drop to H & G 2.

A big thanks during this period to the Uni lads who at times made up over half our team! Thanks Ben for being committed and sorting some good, and some lucky, players! You know who you are!

Wez did rally towards the end of the season, with 2 wins out of our last 3, and really did play some great hockey, defeating both Gloucester (woohoo!) and Newent (who finished 4th in the league) 3-1. Special mention in these games should go to Iain Jaimeson and Matt Goldsmith who really turned it on and gave their chances of promotion next season a push in the right direction. Also worthy of mention are Eddy and Jean Paul, and other Castlers, who stepped in for our last game and were in no small part to thank for the great result.

A big thanks to all who played, and hopefully next year we will be able to field a more regular and consistent team of players, to give us a chance of getting re-promoted! Playing hockey as we did in the last 3 games is obviously possible, and if we play like this next year, promotion should be a given.

Thanks to George, Craig, Iain, Matt.G, Matt.G, Dave Fielding, Hoppy, Ben, Greg, Phil, Campbell, Brad, Slabbert, Dan, Dean, Eddy, Adam, Tom, Nick & Dave Bagnall. If I've missed anyone, sorry!

Charlie Mylchreest