Raising pitch funds at the Kinross Show

A team from Kinross Hockey Club were at the Kinross Show yesterday, promoting the club and the pitch fund. There was a tombola, a bake sale and a keepy uppy competition and it looks as though we raised another £200 or so towards the pitch. Perhaps more importantly, some useful contacts were made.

Well done to everyone who took part, particularly to Libby Simpson for organising it all and to Richard Savage who pushed us all into doing it in the first place. 

(And to whoever baked the hockey stick cakes (see below), you should know that they have gone viral on Twitter, having been retweeted by Scottish Ladies coach Gordon Shepherd, Scottish Hockey and...Bahrain Hockey. I kid you not.)

Stirling Wanderers tournament report

Summer mixed is drawing to a close and a new season beckons. To put everyone in the mood for the rigours of the winter Stirling Wanderers laid on a mixed tournament this weekend, with three of their own teams, one from Carnegie and a group of (mainly hoary old) warriors from Kinross. Unfortunately we were unable to rustle up any ladies and so we had been promised some help from Stirling, but on arrival they sized us up and decided we'd be better off with an all-male team.

How right they were.

Dan was already crook, having strained his back at mixed last week, so he sat on the sidelines for the first game. The rest of the team - Gordon, Andy and David Mac, Stuart and Sam Smith and Monty - started brightly enough and were two goals up in fairly short order, but Andy had started to feel the strain in his back too and with Andy Marsh playing goalie for the opposition, we were pulled back to 2-2. Then Andy Marsh had to pop into work and we were another player down.

Still, with Dan and Andy Mc playing through the pain we clocked up a win and two draws, losing only against Carnegie, who had turned up with a very strong team. Then, with eighty minutes of hockey clocked up, your correspondent was looking forward to a well-earned beer, at which point he was informed that the tournament involved playing everyone twice. Another eighty minutes of game time beckoned! 

We started to understand why the organisers were so relaxed about our having an all-male team, as the legs of the old folk stopped doing what they were told and sticks were put into action as makeshift walking sticks. Teams we had beaten in the first set of games started to put goals past us with much more ease, and although we managed a good win against one of the Stirling teams it was all very hard going.

To round it off, the last game, against Carnegie, involved our conceding a hatful of goals in a torrential downpour. This was not a happy experience and hopefully was not an omen for the season ahead.

But despite the pasting at the end of the day, it was a good fun day, played in an excellent spirit and we were mightily pleased to end up placed third.

Total warriors

A bunch of KHC members (and one Kobras parent too I think) are taking part in the Total Warrior event in Edinburgh in September. This will involve a lot of mud, leaping over stuff, flames and general mayhem, and it's all in aid of the pitch fund.

I hope everyone can support the team by putting some money in the sponsorship pot here at Justgiving.com. Every little bit counts! And big bits are even better.

July management committee minutes

Minutes of the KHC management committee meeting for July are now available. Issues discussed include:

• conversion to registered charity
• insurance for casual players
• proposal to take on a paid coach and/or player
• future plans for club logo and kit.

Read them here.

Ladies Circle cheque presentation

Representatives of the Ladies Circle were at the KGV last night to hand over the first tranche of their donation to the pitch fund. Gail Nelson accepted a cheque for £750 on behalf of the club and another £750 has been promised.

Thanks to everyone at Ladies Circle for their generosity.

Another £500 for the pitch fund

On Sunday morning a doughty team of club members were up at the crack of dawn (well, before most teenagers anyway) and down at Sainsbury's Kinross for a stint at bagpacking. We had been worried that we weren't going to get enough people to have this go ahead, but in the event we almost had too many at times.

The total raised was £506.91.

Huge thanks to everyone who took part, and particularly to Morven Clark for organising it all.

Management committee minutes for June

The management committee minutes for June are available.  These covers things like:

• formation of a fundraising committee
• casual player insurance
• coaches for adult sections for next year
• pitch committee work
• possible conversion to registered charity
• club logo

Read them here.

Men's fixtures 2015-16 released

The fixtures for the 2015-16 men's season have now been released and can be seen at Fixtures Live. Dan gives us the lowdown:

For the 1st team, there are 12 teams in total. Stirling Wanderers 1sts and CALA Edinburgh Colts have replaced Dunfermline City and Carnegie. Unfortunately, the last game of the season is away at Fidra (02/04/16)! First 3 games are away! Starting at Stirling Wanderers (19/09/15). Another interesting point is Erskine Stewart Melville have ditched their 3rd team and have replaced it with their 2s team! They played the likes of Stirling Uni 1s and Perthshire 1s last year so will be very tough indeed! 

For the 2s team, the league only consists of 8 teams. This does not mean you will play 14 games (once home and away). There are an additional 7 games (yes this does include an additional trip to Fidra!) that seem to have been chosen at random. First game is away to Peebles on 12/09/15 and the final game is at home against Peebles on the 02/04/16. Again some tough teams like Eskvale 1s but overall seems to be not too bad.

Ladies Circle pitch in

Some more good news on the pitch fund front. Kinross Ladies Circle have offered a £1500 donation, taking the fund to over £4000.

“Ladies Circle is open to anyone aged 18-45 who like to mix fundraising and socialising. We have fun outings including comedy nights, dances, craft making, theatre trips, lots of meals and drinks out.”

For those that haven't come across the Ladies Circle before, it acts as a way for women to combine two useful activities, namely socialising and fundraising.

On the fundraising front they are involved in the catering arrangements for the annual St Andrews to Edinburgh cycle ride and they organise an annual comedy night.

As far a social activities go, recent activities include necklace making, fly fishing, ceroc dancing, pottery painting, theatre trips, girly shopping weekends and so on. Their website also mentions champagne and chocolate. They also have a  Facebook page here. If you are interested in getting involved, I'm sure they'd be pleased to hear from you.

Huge thanks from everyone at the club to everyone at the Ladies Circle.

Cheque presentation

The Young Farmers came down to the KGV last night to present their £1000 donation towards the pitch fund. The cheque was accepted by KHC president Gail Nelson on behalf of the club.

International Wilson

Congratulations are also due to Alex Wilson, who had his debut for Scotland U16s against Ulster at the Glasgow National Hockey Centre last weekend.

There's an action shot here.

Top guy

Congratulations are due to Struan Hepburn, ex-Kobra and current midfield dynamo for the men's 2nds, who will be head boy at Kinross High next year.

Hope it's not going to interfere with your hockey Struan!