University of Warwick Mens Hockey Club

With the Summer Term well and truly upon us and the lingering shadow of exams creeping ever closer, one could be forgiven to be thinking that the UWMHC boys would be slowing down and turning their attention to their academic studies. But no, the magnificent men of the Warwick Hockey Club are as busy as ever showcasing their eclectic talents across the University Campus as the new Exec take the reins and get to work on moving the club onwards and upwards.

The Easter Holidays saw UWMHC retain their long standing title of European Champions as they took on the cream of the crop in Spain. It was, by all accounts, a fantastic tour and credit must go to Robbie Newport for organising such a successful trip.

As a club the Men’s Hockey boys have always been keen to boast of their wide ranging sporting prowess and this term sees them turn their attention away from Hockey and onto the domination of various other sporting domains. While there is of course the matter of an indoor Hockey tournament awaiting on Monday 30th April (very kindly organised by the girls) the highlight of the term will certainly come as the UWMHCC reform under the convivial leadership of Ben Askins who warms up for his role as Club Captain next year by captaining the talented side. Last year’s campaign saw the side denied only by exams and a lack of availability. Tom Trower will have to work on his game against the spinners if he is to live up to expectations but the side is jammed packed with talent and it would be a foolish man who bet against them taking the title. Similarly the club will be hot favourites to take the intra-club tennis tournament, add to that a Rugby 7s tournament, Floorball competition and Netball championship and the BUCS Midlands 2B Conference trophy may well have plenty of company in the UWMHC cabinet.

Perhaps the most important of all this terms’ activities is in the invaluable charity work the boys are involved in over the next couple of months. Sunday the 29th April sees 15 of Warwick’s finest Hockey players taking on the gruelling 13.1 mile Shakespeare Half Marathon in Stratford. The boys are raising money for Macmillan Cancer Support and there is still plenty of time to donate at http://www.justgiving.com/UWMHC/ Please support the boys as best you can. On top of this the club, in partnership with the Girls, are continuing their excellent Hungry for Hockey scheme which culminates in the hosting of a tournament for local schools at the University (more details coming soon). The Leamington Dolphins scheme is also in full swing as the boys don the swimming costumes to take local disadvantages school children to the swimming pool. The work of Rich Smith and David Whitworth is invaluable and the support of the club is much appreciated.

The Library isn’t the only place where things are happening this term so stay tuned for all the latest news here at UWMHC.

Yesterday (Wednesday 7th March) saw Warwick achieve one of its most exciting results in recent times. The 1s travelled to Beeston hockey club in Nottingham to take part in the BUCS Midlands Conference Cup semi-finals. Their adversaries were Nottingham 2s, and with both teams top of their leagues with very similar and impressive seasons under their belts, the game always had potential to be cracker.

And so it was that on the lush water-based surface at Beeston, a titanic battle was to take place between two teams competing admirably to reach the final. Warwick started brightly, coming out of the blocks strongly and seizing the initiative with a Joe Davies short-corner goal. After the goal, Notts came back into the game, commanding the play until half time. It seemed somewhat inevitable that Notts would equalise, though they were unable to convert a number of short-corner and open-play chances. Pressure told, however, and Notts finally bundled in an equaliser.

Again the momentum swung, and Warwick were spurred on to find a winner. And that they did, in the form of a breakaway goal composed of slick passing and a cool, clinical finish from Matt Williams. 2-1 it was then, at it looked like Warwick may have done enough until in the final 15 minutes Nottingham once again ramped up the pressure on the Mag Men. With a very high press, Nottingham restricted Warwick and forced them into turnover after turnover. As the Warwick goal came under siege from a determined Nottingham side, some heroic defending maintained the 1 goal lead.

However, when the Mag Men were reduced to 10 men (as is traditional for the side this season) after a display of petulance from one of the club’s most senior members, the pressure began to tell. Despite a heroic diving goal-line save from Lawrence Tsang, Warwick couldn’t keep Notts out, and only 2 minutes from time the equaliser came.

Warwick then held on for the remaining minutes, and it was 2-2 at the end of normal time. This took the tie to ‘silver goal’ extra-time. A tense 14 minutes of additional play saw no goals scored, leaving the game to be decided by penalty flicks.

After losing the toss, Nottingham flicked first but were denied by the outstretched left leg of Jons Mottram between the posts. The rowdy Nottingham crowd were then temporarily silenced as Pete Johnston calmly slotted Warwick’s first attempt into the backboard. The Notts misery was then further compounded by one of the finest saves ever seen in a Warwick University match. As the second Nottingham flicker sent his attempt to the left side of the goal with good pace, Mottram dived athletically to his right and got his stick to the ball to tip it round the post. Harry Wilson also scored for Warwick, and under intense pressure after seeing his two team-mates previous efforts saved, Nottingham’s third flicker sent the ball wide. Tom Lambert’s narrow miss gave the Notts team a glimmer of hope, especially when their next flicker finally managed to get them on the score board. However, Tim Young’s calm and confident conversion gave the Magnificent Men the win, silencing the crowd one last time, and sending Warwick through to a final against Cambridge 1s on the 21st March.

This week saw the UWMHC 1s and 2s take on their counterparts from Coventry University in their annual Varsity competition.

With the hockey club returning full points for the Varsity cause in recent years, the pressure was on to do so once again.

On Monday 5th the 1s battled it out under the Westwood lights in front of a healthy crowd of support from both universities. Warwick got off to a great start, shocking their opponents with some early goals. Though Cov had their moments, the win was never in doubt and the Mag Men won 5-0, though in reality it should have been more.

This win was backed up by a fantastic performance from a 2s team that included many finalists from the 3s and 4s, and who all contributed to deal out an 8-0 hammering to secure the full points for the Warwick cause.

Congratulations all involved.

Congratulations to the UWMHC 1s who, despite slipping up away against an unusually strong Birmingham 4s side, won their BUCS league (Midlands 2B) this Wednesday 29th February, to take themselves back where they belong in the top-flight of Midlands hockey.

The team now looks forward to their Varsity fixture against Coventry 1s tomorrow, and their BUCS Conference Cup semi-final against Nottingham 2s on Wednesday 7th.

Thursday 23rd of February saw the UWMHC AGM take place in Leamington. With lots of competition for the top spots, it was a lengthy affair, eventually clocking in at around 7 hours and 15 minutes. The nature of the competition unfortunately means that we must commiserate with some strong candidates who did not obtain their desired positions, but also congratulate those who did:

President – Alex Goddard

Vice-President – Sam Willmott

Treasurer – Lawrence Tsang

Club Captain – Ben Askins

Second XI Captain – TBC

Third XI Captain – Robbie Newport

Fourth XI Captain – Joe Underwood

Social Secretaries – Joey Dwonzcyk and Tom Kight

Tour Secretary – Tom Duncan

Charity Secretary – Richard Smith

Communications and Publicity (Internal and External) Officer – Tim Young

Fixtures Secretary – Gabrielle Warwick

Umpires Secretary – Patrick Davies

Good luck to the UWMHC Exec 2012/2013!

With the weather finally warming, reading week saw a number of fixtures laid on for the Magnificent Men, including double-headers for the whole club this weekend.

First up, however, was a full card of BUCS fixtures on Wednesday 15th, which saw the 1s fly the flag for the club on an unusually disappointing Wednesday for the uni. A joint trip to Oxford Brookes for the 1s and 2s began with an unfortunate reversal of events for the 2s. Having beaten Brookes 8-1 in their previous game two weeks earlier, a depleted side (mostly thanks to flakey freshers dropping out at very late notice) struggled to flow with none of its normal front line, and tired with only 11 players. This was compounded when an injury to midfield maestro Charlie Baker forced Warwick to play out the rest of the game with 10 men. Despite still playing the better hockey by far, they were eventually sunk 2-0 in a very disappointing result. They still sit top of the table, but now have Nottingham Trent breathing down their necks.

Next up the 1s looked to avenge this damage. A strange game that saw the Magnificent Men completely control the game with countless scoring opportunities, the result was finally settled by only two goals to nil thanks to Tom Trower and Harry Wilson, who also missed a penalty flick to make it three. The 1s now need only 2 points from their final 2 games to seal the title, though will undoubtedly be looking to take all 6 and complete an unbeaten BUCS season. They currently sit on 7 wins and 1 draw from their 8 games.

The 3s, meanwhile, travelled to runaway league leaders UC Birmingham 1s, again with a depleted squad, and unfortunately fell 7-2 to leave them 3rd in the league, but a comfortable 6 points clear of their nearest rivals: Aston Uni 1s. The 4s also fell to high quality opposition in the form of Nottingham Trent 4s, but were really up against it having had many players called up to higher teams, including their captain Alex Goddard. Joe Underwood did an admiral job captaining in his place.

On to the weekend’s MRHA fixtures and the 1s were extremely disappointed to lose to the awful hockey exhibited by Chesterfield on a bleak day up North. The students started brightly playing good hockey on a slow pitch, and Chesterfield did not once look like creating anything for the whole game. A few individual errors and slices of luck allowed them to score 2, but the students rebounded strongly to level it up with 15 minutes to go with goals from Tom Trower and Harry Wilson. Unfortunately the umpire then decided to gift Chesterfield a highly dubious short corner which they converted in disappointing fashion to give them a 3-2 win. Another classic 1s performance on the Sunday saw the Mag Men comprehensively dominate a Kings Heath Pickwick side who sat 3rd in the league. Liquid hockey saw Warwick make a mockery of KHP, but once again couldn’t convert chances into goals, leaving the score line, incredibly, at 0-0.

The 2s, meanwhile, continued their strong MRHA season, dishing out a punishing 7-0 win over Chesterfield 2s at Fortress Westwood. This leaves them 3rd in the league, only 2 points behind second-placed Lichfield but with a game in hand. Promotion still on the cards. Incredibly their game against Bourneville, having been rearranged for the third time, was AGAIN called off by the opposition. Frozen pitch apparently – slightly surprising on a bright sunny day with temperatures well above zero, and every other fixture in the league being played…

In a relegation battle, the 3s fought hard against Warwick HC but couldn’t seal the win. The game ended 1-1, with Charlie Player scoring for the Magnificent Men, whilst on the Sunday they were overpowered, despite a David Dougall goal, to lose 4-1. Things now look tough in the Midlands Premier for the boys.

In stark contrast, the 4s rebounded from their midweek disappointment to secure two good victories for the weekend – firstly beating fourth-placed Warwick 4-2, and then winning 2-1 against Edgbaston. These great results see the 4s pull comfortably away from the relegation places and consolidate their mid-table position.

Despite the recent cold weather causing a number of games to be called off in recent weeks, UWMHC have battled hard in their sporadic encounters over the period, with more BUCS fixtures seeming to be more freeze-resistant than their MRHA equivalents.

As such, the past couple of weeks have seen the 1s react well to their week off from BUCS after a 4-0 victory against Coventry on January 25th to beat their main title rivals, Oxford University 2s, on a bone dry Iffley Road water-based astroturf in sub-zero temperatures. In a largely scrappy game, the boys held on well to do the business despite injuries. Goals came from Joe Davis with a cracking penalty corner strike, and 2 from Harry Wilson including a very prawny reverse-flick over the keeper which was inadvertently helped on its way by a desperate defender, and a confident penalty flick after the walking wounded Jonathan Absolon was again denied a goal after he had put the ball in the net. A convicing 5-1 win away against UC Birmingham 1s in the cup, with a depleted squad, showed the strength in depth of the 1s/2s pool of players, with Captain Bridger leading from the front to score 2, Pete Johnston converting from the penalty spot, a wonder goal from Lewis Tutssel and a goal for club grandfather Tom Lambert on his long-awaited return to 1st team action.

The 2s meanwhile, orchestrated a fabulous 8-1 victory away against Oxford Brookes 3s on 1st February in the BUCS cup to set up a mouthwatering encounter against their colleagues in the first team at 4pm on 22nd February in the quarter finals.

It has been a tough time for the 3s since their fantastic 4-3 away victory against Aston on the 25th January, having been given two extremely tough fixtures. First they encountered a strong Nottingham 2s side in the BUCS cup, and fell victim to a number of fine drag flicks, coming away on the wrong end of a 10-0 scoreline. Notts 2s now await the winners of the clash between Warwick 1s and 2s next week in the semi-finals. This Wednesday, meanwhile, saw them travel to UC Birmingham 1s, the runaway leaders of their division, and unfortunately fall 7-2 to leave them 3rd in the league, but a comfortable 6 points clear of their nearest rivals Aston Uni 1s.

The 4th team, on the other hand, secured a result away to Leicester 3s on the 1st February, winning 2-1 thanks to goals from Ben Cowling and Joe Underwood. This was still a good result, despite a slightly underwhelming performance, with the Leicester pitch being highly unconducive to Warwick’s brand of liquid hockey. Cuddles managed to claim MoM, whilst all strikers were awarded DoDs thanks to their profligacy in front of goal amidst numerous chances. The team now sit a fairly comfortable 5th place, 2 points behind Lincoln 2s.

With the weather looking to warm up, we can look forward to the return of double-headers this weekend!

Another packed fixture card confronted the magnificent men at the start of Week 17, with a second consecutive weekend of double headers for 3 of the club’s teams.

The 1s started their 3 fixtures of the week very positively by continuing their fine BUCS form and coming away with a 4-0 win at Fortress Westwood agains Coventry Polytechnic. In reality they should have scored more, but nevertheless the 3 points were convincingly won thanks to a Harry Wilson hat-trick and a single goal for Joe Davis. They could not, however, propel this momentum into the weekend’s big games against Barton and Stone, despite strong performances on both days. Dominating play, particularly against Stone, the 1s came away feeling hard done by with 2-0 and 2-1 losses respectively – Joe Davis again providing the goal for the students.

In stark contrast, the 2s, who had been dominating their BUCS league in a similar fashion to the 1st team, experienced an unexpected slip-up at the hands of Bedford (Uni?) and lost 3-2. Coming into the weekend’s fixtures, the Chirpsters looked to be under pressure again after going 3-0 down to Loughborough town on Saturday. Perhaps we can attribute this early sluggishness to the failure of any kind of transport to turn up for the boys that morning. Whatever the reason, it was short lived, and the students had reduced the gap to a single goal by half time through George Cloake and Andy King. The resurgence continued in the second half, and they took the lead after a short corner goal from Tom Trower followed by a penalty flick from Captain Tim Young. The 4-3 victory was secured with a heroic final whistle short corner save from the captain.

The 3s, meanwhile, also had a double header to contend with, but only after they had pulled off a victory against Aston University with another 4-3 scoreline on the Wednesday. Like the 1s, however, they could not carry this form into the weekend, and lost out 2-4 to Harborne at Westwood on the Saturday. And neither could they rebound from this defeat on the Sunday, though they came close. Again at home, the 3s put in a good performance, but failed to convert chances, eventually losing out 1-2 to Bournville.

With no game on the Wednesday, the 4s were afforded the luxury of a free Wednesday, and license to hit training hard on both Monday and Friday. This seemed to pay off, and understandably riled by the previous Sunday’s result, the team looked to bounce back. And that they did, bagging a 2-1 win against Sutton Coldfield 5s. Goals came from captain Alex Goddard and fresher Ali scoring his first goal for the club. A good performance that warranted more goals saw MoM votes shared between a number of players, but eventually fell to GK Harri Banerjee.

Frozen pitches and the resulting cancellations presented the UWMHC with a (nearly) full two days of fixtures for the weekend of Week 16, whilst they were still looking to find their feet again after a indulgent Christmas period. A couple of training sessions had also fallen to the weather, and the added strain of a lack of minibuses meant that the boys were in for a hectic week. As the cold finally abated, a hastily organised practice match between the 1s and 2s on Wednesday looked to be well justified, as the 1s in particular struggled to find their rhythm. However, the frustrating match seemed to serve as the shock that was required, and a very positive training session on the Friday night looked to set all teams up well for the big weekend.

The 1s made the long jouney to Newcastle-under-Lyme to play second in the league North Staffs. A high quality first half saw the teams very evenly matched, and after taking the lead through a Harry Wilson drag flick, the students were pulled back to parity shortly before half time through a scrappy North Staffs goal. The rest of the game, however, was characterised by some strange umpiring decisions resulting in Warwick being yellow carded no less than 3 times, and therefore effectively playing the remainder of the game with 10 men. A great defensive effort was finally broken, and with NS leading 2-1, the strain of playing with 10 finally told, and with the mag men dead on their feet yet pushing for an equaliser, NS hit back hard and slotted 3 quick goals in the final 5 minutes to give them a very flattering 5-1 scoreline. Positive signs for the boys though.

The 2s continued their fine form on the Saturday, banging in more goals, a dominant Matt Williams slotting his third hat-trick of the season, and by all accounts an outrageous goal from the ever mysterious Rich Smith. Flair player. The 3s, meanwhile, were presented with the tough task of entertaining 3rd-placed Birmingham Uni 3s at Westwood, and came away on the wrong end of a 6-2 scoreline, though a positive couple of goals from Robbie Newport and Dave Dougall.

The Sunday saw most of the magnificent men emerge slightly bleary-eyed after the previous evening’s fine festivities, which saw many an old boy return for one of the most successful School Dayz efforts in recent memory. Some freshers even turned up. Good work chaps. The 1s managed to blow off any lingering cobwebs, however, with a solid warm-up under the leadership of Peter Gow; club captain Mark Bridger cruelly struck out of the contest with a knee injury that had been exacerbated by his exertions the day before. Undeterred, the boys bounced back from Saturday’s defeat exceptionally well, with slick, calm passing and movement to display possibly their best hockey of the season. When things could have begun to fall apart as Wolves pulled level at 1-1, the 1s kept their calm and hit back with some liquide moves, eventually coming away 3-1 winners against the third ranked team in the league. Cue jubilation.

In a very tough weekend of fixtures, the 2s travelled away to top placed Loughborough Students, and despite an early start after the night before, turned in a very good performance against the runaway league-leaders, narrowly losing 5-3. The 3s welcomed Stourport to Fortress Westwood, and in a very tight game produced some excellent play. They left very unfortunate to lose 2-1, a JT smash providing the goal. Frustratingly the team had other chances, notably in the first half when Robbie Newport did everything right to skillfully round the keeper, but subsequently failed to provide the finish.

The 4s also kicked into action on the Sunday, and provided a great display against an unusually strong Worcester side; this was a team that had only mustered one point before Sunday’s encounter. Despite this sudden and substantial (and suspicious?) improvement in ability from their opposition, the 4s played very well to restrict them for most of the match, but eventually came away 5-0 losers in unfortunate circumstances.

Week 10 brought the familiar end-of-term absences and injuries, but our 4 captains nonetheless scrounged out 4 teams in preparation for the Saturday fixtures. Strains on numbers were alleviated somewhat, however, by the cancellation of both Warwick home games due to frozen pitches. As such, the 2s and 4s were left without games.

The 1s continued to journey up to Wolverhampton though, having drafted in Tim Young for the game which pitted the Mag Men against one of the league’s highest placed teams. A gritty performance saw the students manage to stay in the game and compete for the first half, defending well and looking to counter-attack whenever possible, without ever finding that clinical edge. The second half, however, saw Wolverhampton score with two fine strikes, after Jons Mottram had heroically kept them at bay until that point. Warwick did not give up however, and pulled one back through Harry Wilson, though they squandered another chance to take themselves level. A close result though, and one indicative of what the 1s can achieve this term if they can continue to compete with teams much higher than them. As such the Mag Men went into the winter break 3rd from bottom, but showing signs of resurgence and quality, as exemplified by their unbeaten form in BUCS, where they sit top of their league with 4 wins and a draw.

In the other game that survived the freezing conditions, the 3s travelled to Stourport, and were bitterly disappointed to come away on the wrong side of a 4-1 scoreline against a team who had been only 1 place above them in the league. The 3 points allowed Stourport to climb out of the relegation places, and compounded the 3s position within them. However, in a very tough league and with a very stretched squad for this game in particular – a number of key players not available including the dominant Charlie Baker – the boys should not be disheartened, with half a season to turn things around in a league where 4 teams will be relegated. What is more, strong performances in BUCS competition sees them sitting level on points in second place with Stoke.

Whilst the 2s and 4s did not play in Week 10, they both emerge from their Christmas slumber in healthy league positions (although possibly not healthy fitness condition). The 2s have had a successful first-half of the season in Midlands 1, and currently sit in 5th place, but are only 2 points behind 2nd with a game in hand. Strong. They have the skill to overcome the external barriers that saw the Chirpsters squander their equally strong start last season. They also join the 1s in being unbeaten in BUCS so far, winning 5 and drawing 1, and helped the 1s send the two Brookes teams that paid us a visit on one particular Wednesday back to Oxford on the wrong end of a 13-0 aggregate scoreline.

The 4s meanwhile continue to post strong results under the leadership of Justin Bieber, with some freshers stepping up to give great performances. They too are 5th in MRHA with a game in hand, in another league where 4 will go down this season. They are also currently 5th in their BUCS league, but will be certainly looking to improve upon that in the second half of the year.

With lots to look forward to on the field; relegation battles, promotion campaigns, not to mention cup glory to be sought, there are also plenty of “extra-curricular” activities to be enjoyed. Circle Week 1 promises to be a big one, with School Dayz and the annual Hockey Ball also being lined up this term, to name only a few. Bon Chance to all teams this term, Happy New Year, eat it or wear it. We also gather that Ian Tutssel has finally managed to get in some UWMHC gilets. Ling mate.