Witham Junior's page.

HA All England Boys Under 18 Knockout Cup - 1st Round.

Bury St Edmund's  2   v   Witham 1
 
Witham entered the U.18's boys Cup competition for the first time in many years and inspite of the appalling weather conditions they started brightly, and had a fairly even open game, with Bury looking the stronger as the game wore on.  Bury eventually broke through the resolute Witham defence with a good passage of link up play resulting in a easy tap in at the far post to make it 1-0 after 20mins. Jack Tyson turned in a superb player of the match performance in defence and Josh Maleary matured into the captains role as the game went on. With the weather starting to effect the game, Witham went 2-0 down to a well executed short corner drag flick into top corner. This remained the score till half time. The 2nd half started well and the game opened up with Witham getting more and more possession and gaining in confidence, this resulted in some good pressure and chances in the opposition D. More pressure from Witham with the team pressing forward resulted in the ball falling to John Taylor for him to flick past the advancing keeper to make the score 2-1 with 10 minutes to play. Witham pressed to get the equaliser which allowed Bury space to seal the game but Withams defence and superb keeping by James Suett kept them at bay. The game finished 2-1 at the end of a very enjoyable, good game of hockey where everyone gave their all despite the appalling weather conditions.
Witham Club Coach Roger Brown said ' We all thought it was an outstanding performance from the whole team, the boys all tried hard and played their very best, particularly as they had not trained or played together before today's game, and they are all showing real promise for the future'.
Witham Under 18's now go into the Plate competition, where they hope to improve on this first outing together.

New Hockey season - Registration etc. 

Hi everyone,
As we move towards another new season I hope you are still looking forward to playing hockey again.
Registration.
Attached is a Registration form which I would ask you to complete and return to Jo Maleary - I know most of you have done one before but we do need to update them each season for our records - mobile phone numbers especially important and any new medical issues so we can reach parents in an emergency. Registration form for season 2008-09 - here.
 
Sorry we didn't have any hockey taster sessions this summer holiday but we have been busy working with a coach who is coaching our coaches which is quite exciting as he is a National League 1st team coach. He has kindly offered to provide this service free of charge to us, as and when he can fit it in around his current commitments, as he lives locally and wants to help our Junior set up.
I am also hoping to have the services of a goalkeeper coach for at least one session during the season.
Start.
We are starting juniors a little later than planned in the hope that all our coaches are working to the same format when we start on 21st Sept. we also are hosting the white knights league tournament early this year - 5th October.
I have included all junior fixtures in the club fixture card but that has been delayed due to me having to wait for all the fixtures to be confirmed. On 21st Sept I shall hand out a paper list with all the dates on (including when we are at Maldon for training). we have agreed with them we will go there the week before each league fixture so the kids get the chance of one session playing in the same teams before our games.
I think we are in for a really good season - do please try and make the opening session on 21st - it may be a bit special
Costs.
As to costs as I advised at the club day at the end of the season this year we will have to raise the training/match fee to £2 and there will be an annual subscription of £5 per child payable by the end of October. Family membership is available now and a second child is £2.50 and any further children are free.
The cost of the astro is expensive and we have used up nearly all of last years funds, so we must try and at least break even. We are very fortunate in that all our coaches and helpers give up their time for free; and thanks to all of you who collected the Tesco vouchers we have enough balls this year - well done all. We have enough sticks for those without their own and newcomers, and goalies kits are okay for now.
I will ensure that everything is posted on the club website www.witham-hc.org  so that you can check that if you do not have email.
I think that's all for now - see you all soon - any queries contact me or Jo.

Kind regards
 Bob