With the ladies section in the midst of an injury crisis, opportunities for the Kobras girls to step up a level are coming thick and fast. This week's 2nds game against Stirling University saw another two debutantes in the shape of Lucy Smith and Pollyanna Smith, who both put in fiery performances and were unlucky to come out on the losing side.
Many congratulations to both!
Another week, another story of success for the Kobras. This time it's Lucy Smith and Hannah Marchant, who have been picked for this year's Scottish Midlands squad. Well done girls.
Neil Wilson writes:
Very quick note to confirm Total Warrior all completed. A lot of fun with lot of climbing, barbed wire, fire, nets, tunnels, water, electrical shock thingys, mud, mud, mud etc - you get the picture. You would all have been physically able to do it.
I think it was 13 in the group who did it. Four males - only me associated with the club. Of the females, prob half were not associated with the club, so very much appreciated that they undertook this to help fund the new pitch. Thanks to all who have sponsored so far.
If you do want to donate, that would be appreciated. Remember, you are not sponsoring me - or the group per se - you are helping to fund 'your' new pitch. The link below will be open, I think, for another week.
http://www.gofundme.com/c9335xm4
Pic attached as evidence.
I know the bandana thing is not a good look - it was mandatory so organisers could ID you when up to neck in mud. (Young Alex thought better of his photobombing when he was pelted with mud immediately after this....) This was half way round, so it got a lot muddier than this as you can imagine, but all got round uninjured and for some of the less sporty participants, it was a great achievement.
First game of the season for the Ladies' 2s and a debut for Georgia White who began her career at adult level with a barnstorming performance on the right side of the attack. Well done Georgia!
We have just had word that there is a vacancy for someone to join the Kinross Hockey Club Total Warrior team this weekend! The place is for a female - someone from the ladies section or a Kobras mum. So if you are interested in running through muddy puddles, wading through swamps, leaping through flames and that sort of stuff, don't be shy - pass your name to Kirsty Dunn as soon as possible.
And if you are not going to take part, do please put some money in the fundraising pot! It's for the pitch fund, so you will benefit yourself.
Go to it everyone!
While the rest of us were fighting our way through the club day and struggling to move again in the days afterwards, two Kinross HC members were battling for international glory at the 2015 European Masters competition.
Club president Gail Nelson was taking part in the Ladies over-40s event, which took place at Old Loughtonians HC in the glamorous surroundings of Chigwell in North London.
Meanwhile men's 1s player (and ladies' coach) Gurdi Duhre was in the Men's over-55s event in St Albans.
And blow me if he didn't come back with a medal - a bronze one! I think it's fair to say that the number of occasions on which a Scottish team has made it to the podium at an international tournament is not large, so huge congratulations to Gurdi. Here is a picture of him with his medal. Fair to say the hockey was more successful than his attempt at nonchalance. ;-)
More congratulations due, this time to David McIntyre and Cameron Banks, who have been selected for the Scottish Midlands U18 squad and to Alex Wilson, who has made it into the U16 squad. They are going to be competing in Interdistrict Competitions at the end of the month.
Congratulations to Hannah Marchant, who has just begun the transition from the Kobras to the Ladies section. Hannah made her Ladies debut in a friendly against Stirling Wanderers tonight
Kinross Hockey Club is about to launch a new social hockey venture called Kinross Korinthians. It's a new casual hockey club aimed at adults and older teenagers who want to get together for a fun game of hockey, but who want to play at a slower tempo and with the emphasis on fun rather than on skills and tactics.
There's a new webpage about it here.
Pass the word on to anyone who might be interested!
Congratulations are due to our Pitch In campaign patron Eilidh Child, who came back from disappointment in the 400m hurdles to win a bronze medal in the 400m relay at the World Athletics Championship in Beijing.
Minutes of Kinross HC's 4th management committee meeting are now available at the Governance page. Subjects discussed included:
...as well as all the usual issues like fundraising and pitch replacement.
The weather gods were smiling on us on Saturday as we took to the pitch for Kinross Hockey Club's first ever club day. With four hours of hockey to play it was just as well.
The Kobras opened the day's events with a penalty shootout competition, first with running penalties and then penalty strokes. This gave our two goalies - Doug Lester and Kara Shields - a good work out to set them up for the games ahead, although it was touch and go as to whether heat exhaustion would set in by the end of the competition. You could almost sense the despair as the competition ended in a tie between Campbell Shields and Ollie Wilson and we headed for a tiebreak. Mercifully the end was then quick, with Ollie taking the honours.
This was followed by two closely fought matches between two Kobras teams, which had the coaches purring with delight at the skills on display. This was particularly true of the defensive skills, which proved to be well up to the task of keeping the fancy-dan players under control. The accolade of "top gun" for the day was shared between Ollie Wilson and David Leslie.
It was a tribute to the enthusiasm of club members that we managed to put out no fewer than four full teams for the adult competition - some youth leavened with experience, some experience leavened with youth and some hoping just to out-experience the others before the legs gave out. Not that this mattered a jot, because there was some awesome hockey on display and I think it's fair to say that everyone had a good time. For the record, the winners were Team White and the top gun for the day was David McIntyre, who seemed to enjoy being cut loose from his accustomed defensive duties.
While all this was going the fundraising was proceeding apace, with the backstage crew doing a roaring trade on the tombola, the raffle and the home baking.
By mid-afternoon, and just before it began to rain, we all headed into the clubhouse for food and beer and a little more fundraising - a coin-tossing competition for a bottle of vodka proved very popular, particularly among some of the younger members of the club who were egged on by their parents. Named persons have been informed.
Bob Getley makes one final bid to win his father the vodka
In total we made £680 pounds, and that's after taking off £115 for the pitch hire. Huge thanks must go to Vicki for organising the day's events and to everybody who helped out, whether umpiring, running the technical table, baking, cooking, supplying prizes, collecting money, selling raffle tickets and all of the thousand tasks, little and large, that went into making the day such a success.
Believe me, this is going to be a regular feature of the Kinross Hockey Club year.
Here are some pictures of the action...
