Loveland Bowl snowed off

Unfortunately the second staging of the Loveland Bowl match between the OCHC and the School was cancelled after snow which fell earlier in the week failed to clear in freezing temperatures.

The news was a particular disappointment to the spectators who braved the weather to support the side. "Eds Copleston decided on a lie-in and forgot to let anyone other than the players know," said one unnamed OC who went home after an aborted snowball fight. "We'll make sure he pays in full at the OCCC Dinner this Friday."

That's it for 2009

The club’s last game of 2009 fell victim to the weather as the 4th XI match at Oxted was called off on Thursday after overnight snow and a wretched forecast, which proved accurate.

After a two-week break we return to action on Saturday, January 2 when the Veterans take on all comers at Thames Ditton. Andy Eve has all the details. On Sunday, January 3 we take on the School for the Roger Loveland Vase.

Westcott astro opens at Prep School

Olympians turned up by the truck-load as Cranleigh Prep School opened their new artificial Westcott Pitch on April 17. There were 10 in all - including Dave Faulkner, Richard Mantell and Richard Leman - plus six national players to form an invitational side to take on the school's finest (past and present) in a special match.

Mike Wilson, head of Cranleigh Prep, said: "It's an important day for the school and it only seems, bearing in mind the long-standing association we have with the sport – having produced several national and Olympic players over the years - that the new pitch should be opened by such an illustrious line-up of figures in the world of international hockey."

The facility has been named after David Westcott, a former pupil at the prep and senior schools and who is currently a governor. He captained Great Britain at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, guiding them to a bronze medal. Five years earlier he had led Oxford University in a record Varsity win against Cambridge, scoring a hat-trick at Lord's in the days when the match was played on grass at cricket's headquarters.

The match also gave an opportunity for Steve Batchelor - gold medallist in Seoul in 1988 as well as the bronze four years earlier - to take on son Tom, a pupil at the senior school and who has just been selected for the England U16 squad.

Excellent facilities are synonymous with the school and the Westcott Pitch represents an inaugural project for the Cranleigh Foundation in enhancing them.

An OC side featuring, among others, David Knapp, Rob Merry, Helen Merry

School win inaugural Loveland Bowl

A huge day for the club on the 3rd January with the 1st XI playing against Reigate Priory - high up in the league above - being a forerunner for the long awaited school v the young OCs match that followed.

The school came along early and were in the stand to watch our performance which turned out to the best of the season by a long chalk. The performance was especially pleasing with our blooding the Wood brothers and there being a perceptible increase in the levels of fitness in some key areas. Indeed, the conclusion is that there are now going to be some tough but welcome selection decisions for the next three months.

1st XI 5-1 Reigate Priory
Reigate Priory are sitting third in the league above ( and could go into second should they win their game in hand on those above ) and although they themselves were four or five players short nothing should be taken away from us as we outplayed RP for the first 25 minutes and were three goals to the good, courtesy of two superb finishes from a rejuvenated and fitter Gavin and a classy finish from Nick. Rippers in the middle had his best game of the season and although we did fail to find him during a 20-minute spell when we lost the initiative his influence was key. Our three goals came from swift incisive moves down the right flank and hitting the back line. Similar moves down the left also created problems for RP and Rory was unlucky not to score his first goal for the first team when his deflection hit the bar in the dying minutes of the half. RP pressed for the last 10 of the first period with our being a little naive when tired and continuing to press rather than looking at the phase of the game and playing a more conservative game. During this time Trickster stood firm with Cato - as always - putting in a huge amount of work and capably dealing with the scraps. Nick and James Wood gave us the solidity at centre back and left midfield that frustrated the opposition.

The second half saw us on top again and a glorious sweeping move from the left across the pitch to the right byline resulted in Rory popping home the final pass to in essence wrap up the game. At this point RP woke up and stepped up their game and slotted home a good goal after a period of concerted pressure but it had to be a good strike to beat Trickster who earned his corn with his best performance of the year.

The final 10 minutes were ours and there was time for Chris Valentine to score our final goal at his second attempt to wrap an excellent victory.

The game taught us a great deal. Our fitness is still lacking in certain areas so we need to take 13 to every game and utilise the subs properly and effectively. There is also a need to recognise that at certain times of the game we need to rein in our enthusiasm. A 3 - 1 half time score would probably have put a completely different complexion on the game and to this end we did our best to throw away possession and give RP a lifeline back into the game but we stood firm.

All in all a great start to 2009 and hopefully we will have a game next week to consolidate what we learnt this week.

School 2-0 OCs 2007-8
After much gnashing of teeth and wailing the school fixture has reappeared in the calendar after a break of over a decade and on a cold but dry evening at TD the game played by both sides was worthy of the occasion to commemorate the late Roger Loveland. Fittingly Roger's widow Betty was present to make the presentation of the Loveland bowl to the school's skipper after a very exciting and entertaining game. A number of familiar faces were present in the crowd and with the parents and friends of a number of the players also in attendance the game was very well supported.

In essence the OC side will wonder how they did not run out winners due to the chances and number of short corners that came their way but they came up against Ross in the school goal who had a truly outstanding game making a series of top draw saves that kept us at bay. As the match wore on we became frustrated and the school's belief grew and 15 minutes from the end the school slotted home their second short of the game and took the lead. Although upping their game, our lack of team work counted against us with Ross again picking off anything thrown at him.

Three minutes from the end and against a stretched OC side the school nipped in to score their second and make the game safe.

The trophy was presented to the beaming school captain with the OCs pledging to win the trophy back in 2010.

I would like to thank the four umpires who helped out today in both games to save the teams taking part from having to provide unqualified umpiring and also to the school and Paddy Harman for organising the 2 teams. However the greatest thanks go to Betty Loveland and Roger's brother Tony and his wife for coming along and continuing the great Loveland service to Cranleigh and OC hockey for braving the cold and in Betty's case in presenting the trophy.

We all look forward to the 2010 fixture. David Knapp

OCHC to play School on January 3

After several years of trying, we are delighted to announce that the annual fixture against the School, which was first played in 1921, seven years before the official founding of the OCHC, will resume on January 3 when the School XI play an OC side mainly made up of leavers from the last two years. The game will start at 2.30pm at Thames Ditton.

"I appreciate the efforts of all concerned to ensure this game occurs which will be played for the Roger Loveland vase and will I hope become an annual event," said David Knapp.