A SIMPLE Kuala Lumpur Div 3 hockey game at Pantai Stadium last night took a bizarre turn when one of the umpires attacked a spectator. The umpire, Alwin Joshen Ganasan, now faces a lengthy suspension. The incident occurred when SMK St Johns were playing Kepong Baru.

The incident forced the game to be interrupted for about 10 minutes before order was restored and a third umpire, Rosli Pilus, replaced Alwin.

The second umpire of the game was Harpervinderjeet Singh. SMK St Johns, who will represent Kuala Lumpur in the Champions Schools tournament next week, play as KL Project in the league.

The spectator, Aleef Kamarulzaman, is a former St Johns pupil and acts as assistant coach. The coach is Kamarulzaman Mohamed, who is also a KLHA umpire.

Aleef was punched by Alwin on the right side of his face which swelled, and there was a slight cut just below his right eye. Aleef was sitting at the spectator stand when Alwin suddenly summoned him to come down to the pitch during the game. There was shoving between the two before Alwin threw the punch.

“How can an umpire behave in such a manner? Look at my eye and look at him. I didn’t even touch him. If I want to, I can even lodge a police report against him because this is not a small matter,” said an enraged Aleef.

Other officials, bystanders and several players from both sides quickly moved in to separate the two.

A player from the opposing team said: “The m 22 September, 2011 acted and got involved in a skirmish with the other party before punching him in the eye.”

Kepong Baru manager Siva Raj said KLHA should take stern measures to ensure such incidents are not repeated.

“This is totally against the umpire’s code of conduct. I have never seen anything like this before. As umpires, they are supposed to lead by example. They cannot act like that, even if there had been provocation,” said Siva.

Another official said umpires are verbally abused all the time and as such should be totally oblivious to the surroundings except for the match proceedings.

“If the other party had been provoking him, the umpire should have brought it to the attention of the technical table. Now the name of umpires has been tarnished,” he said.

Alwin is a Class 3 umpire who is due to be upgraded during next week’s Champions Schools tournament.

It is with a great deal of satisfaction that I can report that the juniors have had another successful season- both on and off the pitch.

Playing wise, 7 of our juniors have made it to County squads with a few others making it to Junior Academy centres. The 7 are Louise Squire, Alice Daymond, Richard Hooper, Max Ansell, Roo Rosenwald, Sam Daymond and Harry Gibson. Both Sam and Harry played at regional level and of course Harry has now played for England.
Congratulations to them all. Jon Hoaen, Abi Lunn, Jack Hampton all made the JACs.

We entered teams at Under 10,12,14 & 16 levels in boys and girls but were unable to fulfil our U 10 boys due to a lack of regular players. The results of our under 14s and 16s have been very encouraging. The under 14 boys winning 10 out of their 12 games in the newly structured Devon Leagues.

There have been some strong performances from the younger age groups as they build on their experience. Work will continue to develop the Core skills at the younger age gr 22 September, 2011 tending coaching courses at Ex Uni to assist them in delivering the EH Single System next season.

At the end of season Presentation evening, the following people received awards.

The season has seen 4 more young coaches obtain Level 1 status. Tom Webber, Rich Short, Russell Phillips and Aimee Pink. The latter 2 receiving  £93.00 bursaries each from Sport England towards the course cost.

That funding together with many more benefits is the result of our successful Accreditation. To achieve this is a great achievement and a relief after a lot of paperwork etc.

The club have entered into agreements with local schools in the Exeter and Mid/east Devon areas. The links have been made with School/ Club sports co-ordinators. Benefits from this have been the reduced cost of the resources vouchers for the Junior leadership course-(more on that later) and resources for the E H Quicksticks course. This will open up opportunities for hockey to be taken into primary schools by the Primary Link Teachers with support from our coaches where possible.

The Juniors have again benefited from grant funding from Mid Devon District Council- £250.00. This will arrive after May so a good start for new season.
Exeter College have also been generous and have paid fully for a new set of shirts for the under 14/16 boys. These have been supplied ready for next season.

Back to the Junior Leadership Course. For the first time in the Clubs history, we have run a course and 20 of our youngsters are being put through their paces. They have all taken to this with great enthusiasm and energy. Most are already qualified as Foundation Umpires and some are keen to build on their experience. The Course also has also contained sessions on Leadership and Management. Later in the summer there will be more opportunities for the delegates to try their hands at coaching and team management as well as organising tournaments. All exciting times and with these youngsters showing great promise to move into coaching at a later stage.

The junior section is also supporting Aimee Pink in her “Step into Sport” program and Louisa Squire & Ruby Leach in their Duke of Edinburgh awards.

Financially, the juniors continue to be self-sufficient and have shown a small profit again. A turnover of over £5000 gives some idea of the size of the junior section. 117 paid members. 25 have played Senior hockey.

So, what next for the juniors. Much more of the same is on the menu.
As a club we are building an excellent reputation for enthusiasm and commitment from the players and coaches. Personally I am looking to offer more individual guidance to promising players, and coaches.
The delivery of the Single System will help this aim.

Financially, we await the outcome of a grant application for £4,500.00 over 3 years from Grassroots Community funding. This will assist us in our plans to provide chances for coaches to qualify, more juniors to attend Leadership courses, and to purchase more training and playing equipment.

We welcome 2 new coaches Alex Newman and Chloe Pick and say goodbye to Jess Woolley and Scott Struthers- off to Uni and then Jane Adcock in Jan as she travels.  Several of the Young leaders are keen to start coaching and will be given opportunities to work with the junior coaches from September.

We will be running a summer camp in August and this will finish with a mini tournament for under 12 boys and girls from local clubs. 5th to 8th August. Gerry and I will be managing the Mid Devon Hockey Teams at the Devon Youth Games to Inspire. Many of our young leaders will be helping at both of these events.

Finally, huge thanks have to go to all of the hard working and reliable coaches we have. We can openly boast to  rival clubs that we  have a bigger pool of youth coaches and young leaders than they do. Thanks also to parents who have helped with transport, catering and lots lots more. Thanks also of course to the youngsters who week in week out provide us coaches with challenges and yet keep coming back for more hockey as their desire to improve continues.

The youngsters are the clubs future and with them the future looks bright and exciting.  Please support them where you can.

Following further assessment at camps over the weekend of 21-23 November the following players have been selected to join the National Age Group U16/U18 Programme for the 2008-09 season.

The 2008-09 U16 programme involves warm weather training in Gibraltar, training sessions and camps in the UK, the Easter Four Nations tournaments, Test matches against International opposition and the U16 Home Nations event.

The U18 programme includes training sessions and camps in the UK, the Easter Four Nations tournaments, Test matches against International opposition, the EuroHockey Youth Nations Championships and the UK School Games.

Further details, including key dates, can be found on the new National Age Group Squads programme pages in the International section of the England Hockey website.

Under 16 Boys 2008-09
Head Coach: Charlie Bannister

The U16 boys and girls squads will take part in further assessment camp activity at Bisham Abbey over the weekend of 21-23 November 2008.  The U18 boys and girls’ assessment camps will be held at HMS Temeraire in Portsmouth on the same dates.

The squad announcements come after the England Hockey Futures Cup at Cannock HC, the new format competition replacing the old boys’ and girls’ U16 and U18 regional tournaments, and following the completion of a High Performance Assessment Camp (HiPAC) for U15s and U17s. 

England Hockey’s National Age Group coaches and managers were present at the Futures Cup to watch the players represent their JRPC clusters as the Pennine Pumas, Mercia Lynx, Saxon Tigers and Wessex Leopards.

The final National Age Group squads for 2009 will be selected from the November assessment camps.

Harry Gibson is the only Devon based player to make the England Training Squad in either sex/age group.

The 16 squads for the EH Futures Cup at Cannock Hockey Club have now been confirmed.

The teams, playing under the names of Pennine Pumas, Mercia Lynx, Saxon Tigers and Wessex Leopards, have been selected from the 12 Junior Regional Performance Centres (JRPCs) that will form a key part of England Hockey's new Single System.

The Pennine Pumas athletes come from the JRPCs at Newcastle, Leeds and North Manchester.  The Mercia Lynx players all hail from the JRPCs at Nottingham/Loughborough, North Birmingham and Oxford while the Saxon Tigers consist of players from Bury St Edmunds, St Albans and Oxted/Tonbridge JRPCs.  The JRPCs at Bristol, Exeter and Winchester have come together to form the Wessex Leopards.

The players were all selected for their respective squads after the 'Tier 1' JRPC activity which involved the Junior Regional Performance Centres in each area playing against each other.

Teams will play at Under 16 and Under 18 in both boys and girls competitions at the tournament, which acts as a selection ground for England's National Age Group Squads as well as providing good quality competition for the athletes.

Wessex Leopards

(Blue ~ Blue ~ Blue)

ON a diet of horseburgers and snails, and pedalling a bicycle with gears that didn't work, a Cullompton man somehow managed to complete a 500-mile charity bike ride across France.

Scott Struthers was part of a four-man team who tackled the Velo Vosges Challenge, which involved cycling 500 miles in three days.

A total of 70 teams took part in the event, pedalling in relay from close to the Belgian border over the formidable Vosges mountains to the fairytale village of Riquewihr.

Scott said: "The weather on the first day was awful, and within the first 10 minutes the team captain got hit by a car. He was fine, thank God, but the only good bike we had was damaged.

"We went to all the cycle shops but it was beyond repair, so we had to use a £40 bike we had bought from an internet auction website which was meant to be our reserve."

Scott said: "Riquewihr is a small village with two breweries, so there was lots of beer and wine consumed to celebrate getting to the finish.

"Only one person was cycling at a time, so the others piled into the support vehicles and offered encouragement and picked up baguettes and chocolates along the way."

The chance for a taste of France was also one of the reasons Scott was so keen to take part.

"One night I had snails and stingray and the next night I had a horseburger, which was actually really nice. The meat was very tender but it didn't taste like anything I had tried before."

Scott explained that he only became part of the team at the last minute, when someone else dropped out. He said: "I play hockey with Ben Jones and Ben's brother had originally been intending to come on the trip, but when he couldn't make it, Ben asked if I wanted to come. The other three did quite a bit of training and my legs were killing me afterwards."

The cyclists set off from Arras, near Calais, on October 3, and stopped in Reims and Nancy on the next two nights before finishing in Riquewihr on October 5.

Scott has lived in Cullompton for seven years, and is a former student of East Devon College in Tiverton. He said he had relished taking part in the epic ride — to the point where he hopes to put together his own team for a future cross-Channel cycling challenge.

All the team want to say a "very big thank you" to Devon Shirts for providing team T-shirts, complete with the challenge logo. The ride was in aid of Cancer Research and the Wessex Heart Foundation. Donations can still be made at the Cherry Tree in Cullompton, where Scott works