Teddington complete Summer League double

The OC Summer Leagues finished this week with Teddington securing a double, beating OCs 4-2 to win the men’s title a week after their ladies side had won their competition (click here for the Ladies Summer League final table).

Nick Lewis reports on the final: “A frustrating game, where we failed to repeat some of the good hockey that has been played in the last couple of matches leading up to the final. In fairness the better team won on the night 4-2 but some encouraging signs to be taken into next season. The younger guys of Paddy and the two Ropers came in and stood firm combining well with the skills of Wiseman and JJ and a “perfectly” executed short-corner routine allowed Pies to bury in the bottom left-hand corner half way through the first half. Unfortunately this only enabled us to draw level before Teddington scored a quick fire brace which allowed them to take a half time lead of 3-1. Second half we came out stronger and dominated for the first 20 mins but only managed to claw one goal back from a hatful of chances before Teddington finished the evening off by grabbing their fourth.

“All in all a very enjoyable Summer league again, giving an opportunity to put the new rules into practice. Good luck to everyone in their respective leagues next season and a big thank you to the many players, captains, organisers and umpires – who without them we would not have a game. Cheesy I know but I nicked that from Rugby League!”

Earlier, in the third-place play off our A team came from 2-0 down to beat Walton & Weybridge 3-2. Eds Copleston writes: “We started poorly, handing W&W two goals when players got caught on the ball. Rory Alexander scored a brace as we dominated the second half and began to move the ball at pace down the flanks, 3-2 a fair reflection and good luck to W&W next season. Thanks must go to the organisers of the summer league- David Knapp and all those who ran the teams for their respective clubs. A very enjoyable summer’s hockey played in good spirits all round.”

Summer League results

With almost all the results from the three summer leagues now filed, we can report that Teddington triumphed in the Ladies and Mixed leagues, while OCs won the Men's league.

Many thanks to all who organised the various sides as well as umpires and players, and those within the OCs who took time out to help get the three leagues up and running. We will be repeating what were - hopefully - enjoyable competitions in 2009.

Summer leagues kick off

The season may be over but after a month off it’s now time to turn thoughts to the summer leagues.

As has been the case in previous years, we will be running a men’s (Tuesdays) and women’s (Mondays) leagues, but we will also be operating a mixed league on Thursdays, thanks largely to the hard work of Dodie Khurshid. Fixtures can be found by downloading this document - we kick-off on May 15 against Battersea (7.30pm).

There is also a veterans league, played weekly at Surbiton. The dates and times of the six Wednesday evening matches are;- 14th May 7.30pm, 21st May 7.30pm, 11th June 8.00pm, 25th June 8.00 pm, 2nd July 8.00 pm, 9th July 7.30pm.

Contact details to follow.

Don't ask Oxbrough for directions

There have been some poor excuses for lateness over the years - Jasper Ahern's "I got stuck behind an elephant in Esher High Street" is a market leader - but Mark Oxbrough has managed to incorporate lameness with modern technology as the following email to hbis captain the day after a no-show in the Summer League indicates:

"I was cycling from central London to TD. When I got to just outside Kingston I turned on the TOMTOM on my phone to take me to the Portsmouth Rd. I ended up on a small residential rd in Roehampton 10km later."

Summer Leagues

A message from the Club Captain: Once again we will be running the summer leagues. The starting date will be slightly later than usual starting the first week in June once the new astro has been laid. As in previous years, the leagues will run midweek in the evenings and we will be running two leagues for the men. We plan to run a ladies equivalent too this year. Invites to the other clubs will be going out this week and we'll give you an update at the AGM. One final matter is that I'm looking for volunteers to skipper the two men's sides as well as the ladies side that we will be entering - please let me know if you fancy the challenge.