End of Season Roundup 2022-23

A roundup of all the achievements in the 2022 - 2023 season, on and off the pitch!

Mens 1s

Finished in 3rd in league

(narrowly missed out on promotion in Div 3 West!)

Mens 2s

Finished 3rd in Div 6 North West

(and achieved their aim of a top 3)

Mens 3s

Finished champions in Div 9 North West

(and achieved their goal of promotion!)

Mens 4s

Won 7 games and drew 2 what a fabulous achievement

(previously the Badgers team and now Division 10!)

Ladies 1s

Finished mid table in Div 2 South

(achieving aim)

Ladies 2s

Finished mid table in Division 3 North West

(improvement on last year!)

Ladies 3s

Finished mid table in Division 5 moorlands

(very credible position against dominant teams)

Ladies 4s

Final game a 7-1 win

(huge growth in this developmental team)

Now approx. 110 members

(huge increase)

Activities throughout the season:

Saturday morning training from 3 year old upwards • Tuesday night badgers training • Saturdays league games • Sundays junior county festivals; around the county for U8s, U10s, U12s, U14s, u16s at least once a month • Sundays Midland Tier 2 boys competition U12s Performance Hockey at Staffordshire County for U13 boys and girls and U15 boys and girls 

(special thanks to 2 key stalwarts of our junior section, Alex Hill & Stephanie Oates)

A huge thank you to umpires this season, we are growing in numbers as a club and so we need to continue to increase umpire numbers if our club is to grow. Its been great to see some members take up a whistle for the first time, and also to see the juniors starting to umpire too! 

Coaching in Schools

Alex Hill successfully started the school coaching last season and and this season Leanne Brittle has taken on the baton and each Thursday, on her days off, with a roadshow of 4 week sessions in various local primary schools. With a programme in place to the end of this school year we anticipate that more kids will be joining our junior ranks for our 6 week summer course. Thank you Leanne. 

Kit Sponsorship

We are very lucky to be able to start next season with new tops thanks to Martin Oates for obtaining sponsorship from Elite Aluminium Systems, Leamore Windows and Surespan. It’s a huge kudos for our club to look so smart on the pitch!  

We have also received sponsorship by Fosters Windows & Door controls thanks to Bob & Straz, and our annual sponsorship from the Trade Centre for junior kit, and Gooldes Estates for junior equipment, was again secured by Stephanie Oates.

Welfare

Thanks to our Welfare team of Julie Kempson and Leanne Adams for ensuring the safety of all our members, which as a growing club means this job gets greater. A big thank you also to Julie Kempson for getting our trophies sorted for this evening. 

Socials 

We have managed to arrange monthly socials from curry night at the beginning of the season to a Presentation at the end of the season. 

Website/Social Media 

What is most certainly the talk of the county, we have a huge presence and following on our social media making sure that Bloxwich Hockey Club is well and truly on the map!

Lead by Alex Hill, with support from Kiera Langley, Hayley Scott, Stephanie Oates and Zoe Foster. Our success story has been communicated countrywide and our social media has been promoted as an example to use by England Hockey! Well done!! 

Committee  

Notable thanks to Minch who has become the GMS guru and Stephanie Oates for managing the finances of the club. 

A special mention also to Eva Lunn, who through her food bank donations initiative we supported our local community and showed we care, thank you Eva!