Wishing all the clubs’ players, parents, volunteers, coaches, kit-washers, umpires, officials and supporters a very merry Christmas and a happy and hockey-filled 2024!!

Reflections on the Junior Section Culture

As part of our Talent Centre accreditation application last season, we spent time defining our junior section culture and we have been gently embedding it this season. Hopefully you have seen the document that sets out our culture – if not it is here.

The themes of the culture may seem self-evident, but unless they are explicitly stated it is easy to miss the bigger picture in the myriad of detail that we are involved in at each training session and match day. Because we have a statement of culture, we can gauge how successful we are in our objectives.

Now that we are half way through the season, it is an opportune time to assess progress, see what we are doing and where we still need to make progress. Over the last few months, we have seen some fabulous examples of the culture brought to life in many different areas of the club, some of which are listed below:

Participation opportunities for all

All of our groups have run training sessions for players of all abilities and motivations; most groups run enough teams for everyone who wants to play to get game time; for the first time we have been running a “introductory group” for beginners that are new to the club; our professional outreach coach has run some wonderful 6-week blocks at local primary schools.

Some of our groups don’t have a critical mass of players to be able to run 2 teams, which means less experienced players have missed out on playing opportunities.

Stretch motivated players

Our Talent Development Group is now fully embedded in the junior section programme and is thriving with many motivated players getting an extra, quality training session each week. This is contributing to an ever-improving quality of hockey across all age groups, in particular in the girl’s section with U12s, U14s and U16s all highly competitive in tier 1 leagues. We have many juniors representing the senior teams all the way up to 1st XI levels.

We have lost a small number of talented players who believe that other clubs will provide a greater challenge. It is our target to limit this as much as possible.

Positive, encouraging environments

We have seen many examples of great environments created by the coaches and managers of the various age groups, and also the senior teams in which our juniors play.

Competitive, but respectful

We have seen celebration of tight matches won with last minute goals and disappointments of matches lost unexpectedly with late goals conceded, or controversial umpiring decisions. We have seen friend against friend battles in training. Always we have seen acceptance of the outcomes with respect for others involved.

Continual improvement

It’s impossible to notice in real time, but every now and then we look back and realise how much progress our players have made. This is as true for the ones that are not naturals, but show up week in week out and steadily improve, as it is for the superstars that get the limelight. Across the junior section, we are providing opportunities that are facilitating continual improvement in all our young players.

Children will be children! Sometimes it is frustrating that players don’t focus in every minute of every training session, but maybe the social side of meeting friends is just as important to the children.

Quality coaching

We have the best coaching set up across the junior section that we can remember, with motivated, experienced coaches in all of our age groups. The senior sections have professional, experienced coaches across different levels. We have an England Hockey facilitated “juniors in senior hockey” workshop arranged to improve management of our players in senior teams.

Our coaches can always improve. We will arrange internal CPD and encourage coaches to continue training, reflecting and learning from each other.

These are just the observations of a small group of people, and we would welcome your views on our culture. The attached form will take a short time to complete, but your answers will be invaluable in helping us to shape the junior section over the remainder of the season and in years to come.

You can access the junior section culture review here.

U18 Girls

It has been great to see most of last season’s U18 players continuing and being joined by players moving up from last year’s U16s, with most of the squad also playing for one of the ladies’ teams as well. Congratulations to Tilly, Zara and Mima for being selected for the Hampshire County squad and to Esther for selection to the South Coast TA.

A slightly frustrating season in the league so far with one win and three narrow losses; all 2-1 in the last few minutes of the match and one on the last short corner ball of the game! We have three remaining league matches so hopefully a chance to improve.

The first EH cup match was a hard-fought game against Woking ending 2-2 and going to penalty flicks. which we unfortunately lost. This saw us move into the plate competition and we are now in the last 16 remaining teams with a match against Havant scheduled for February.

U16 Christmas Celebration

A big thanks to the U16 coaches and volunteers for organising a fun, mixed session for the last training session before Christmas followed by pizza and doughnuts at Ganger Farm!

U16 Boys Review

Outdoor: vs Marlow - 1-4

Scorer: Tom N

outdoor: vs Trojans - 4 - 0

Indoor: vs Trojans 5-3, vs Reading 6-3, vs Marlow 3-6

Scorers: Eddie (6), Bertie (5), Tom N (3)

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same …

I’m sure Kipling had more important things in mind than hockey when he wrote his famous poem, but oh my, the last few weeks for the U16 boys have tested the players’ ability to celebrate with humility and cope with disappointment.

A fabulous unbeaten start to the outdoor season in September and October was brought to an unexpected end with a defeat to Wallingford, leaving qualification for the post-Christmas supra league in the balance. The key game was against Marlow, and despite utterly dominating possession and controlling the play for large parts, Winchester just couldn’t put the ball in the net. As the chances came and went, there was a nervousness that Marlow would capitalise on this unexpected opportunity, and so it proved with a series of devastating counter attacks and short corners early in the second half. By the time Tom took matters into his own hands, beating four defenders about four times each before calming slotting passed the keeper, as only Tom can, it was all too late. Next up was a very strong Trojans side. The boys competed for large periods of the game, but again it was the ability to take the chances that was the difference – Trojans took all theirs and Winchester didn’t. Unless results go our way in the last few matches of this phase of the league, it looks like the Supra League Plate competition will be the next target for the boys.

As we prepared for the indoor season, there was a quiet confidence amongst the players and the coaches, after a warm up night saw a battling performance against a very strong Southampton University and the prize scalp of local rivals, Trojans. Only a friendly, but encouraging nonetheless ahead of the EH Regional tournament. At the tournament, first up was Trojans, and what a performance! From 3-1 down, the boys suddenly upped the pace of their game and took such control that a 5-3 victory could have been so much more if the final whistle hadn’t put Trojans out of their misery. A young Reading team was comfortably dispatched 6-3 and the boys were on fire, with Eddie and Bertie banging in the goals up front, Tom weaving his magic in the middle, Rory, Will, James & Matt snuffing out most dangers at the back and Finn solid in goal when called upon. Trojans bounced back from their disappointment with a tight victory against Marlow and a thumping of Reading, which crucially gave them a superior goal difference. So, Winchester needed a draw or a win in the final game to win the tournament and progress to the national finals. Sadly, this was to be the one game in which the standard of their play dipped, and to be fair, Marlow played some great hockey to take the game and give Trojans the tournament on goal difference. Deeply disappointed, and in the face of some overzealous celebration from the beneficiaries of our mishap, this was now a classic character-building moment.

In the long run, this was a winning moment. As a team, we all agreed, it was not the umpires’ fault, it was not any individuals’ fault, and it was not the end of the world! We had a great experience, played some great hockey, but just came up short at the end. It took a while for that to sink in, but by the time the disco started and the tuck boxes were opened in the car on the way home, the healing process was well and truly complete.

U16 Girls

The U16 girls have had a very positive start to the season, showing amazing development over the first half of the season. In tier 1 they have had some very close games against some top pedigree opposition, registering two wins, and two losses; the two wins coming against old Georgians and Havant, two great scalps, and the two losses being very close games against Trojans and Woking. The tier 3 team have also had some great results with two wins, one draw and three losses.

The girls have shown great engagement, character and perseverance with amazing turnouts to training sessions come wind, rain or shine, which is shown in their development an overall improvement. We are very lucky that the girls treat hockey as a social network and lot of them have made great friendships through hockey.

This showed when they welcomed the U16 boys to their Christmas social last night. We had 49 girls and boys on the pitch taking part in fun challenges and then inside for pizza, chips, soft drinks, donuts and cookies (see above!). The girls also organised a secret Santa so they could exchange gifts. Many thanks to Charlie’s Cafe Romsey for providing the catering!

Looking forward to the second half of the season and the continued growth and development of these amazing girls. Thanks for your commitment.

U14 Girls

vs Haslemere A - 4-1

In a thrilling match Winchester u14 girls beat Haslemere 4-1. It started with no side scoring a goal in the first half. However in the second half Violet scored a goal in the top corner and then goals kept coming by Thea, Emma and Violet again. There was also good defence, with Winchester only conceding one goal. We also effectively spread the ball wide and high and a special well done to Ally and Venne who were players of the matches. A great game and we look forward to the next one.

Season Round-up

Wow what a first half of the season for the U14 Girls, it’s been fantastic to see all the girls being so committed, training hard and playing matches with such passion.

We’ve enjoyed working with the girls across the whole of the U14s to agree and sign up to their own player principles and it’s great to be seeing them exhibiting these weekly on and off the pitch. As the coaching team, it’s great to see the girls developing, improving, and gelling so well together whether they are playing A’s, B’s or friendlies. We’ve had some fabulous results.

The B’s are still in the National T2 Plate competition; having beaten Woking GU14 Whirlwinds a few weeks ago, they are now in round 3 and will play Cirencester away on 4th February.

Across friendly, league and cup games the B’s have played 11 games since the start of the season, with mixed results winning four, drawing two and losing five. They have scored 30 goals and conceded 28.

The A’s are through to the quarter-finals of the National T1 Cup competition following are a very exciting and nerve racking penalty shuffles shoot -out in the last round against Trojans. We are yet to find out who we will be playing at the end of February.

Across friendly, league and cup games the A’s have played nine games; they have won five, drawn two and lost two. In the league they have been really successful, having won the play-off against Amersham and Chalfont to now progress in to the South Supraleague division after Christmas, so we can feel a few road trips coming on as we travel further afield to play some much stronger teams. They’ve scored 24 goals and conceded 14.

And as we head into the second half of the season U14 girls are excitedly preparing for a tour at Easter to Holland, when 24 girls plus coaches and a few parents will be heading for Eindhoven for a Dutch hockey experience!

Boys U14

The first half of the season has seen some great progress made by the boys, some of whom are very experienced and some just picking up the sport.

Given early high availability, we entered a second team into the league to get game time for as many boys as possible. However drop-off of numbers in recent months has meant, frustratingly, we haven't been able to field a full second team. A plea to parents to please do make your son available for the weekend fixtures as much as possible.

We are doing well in the league for the more experienced players and still in the cup run as well, with people stepping up to the mark with confidence when asked to do so. We will face tougher competition as the season progresses so we are hoping for no more injuries (which have mainly been from other sports!).

The boys are doing really well and I'm hoping along with this is their confidence in themselves. It's great that a number of the team are also representing Hampshire at county hockey level so congratulations to them.

Have a great Christmas and looking forward to the second half of the season.

Winchester U12 Girls

Our U12 girls’ squad has had a great start to the season. Led by Head Coach Nick Tout, the team of volunteer coaches, parents and club juniors have been impressed by the ability, but more importantly the progress that the girls have made during this first four months. Committing to a Sunday and a Tuesday session for games and training is a lot at this age, yet enthusiasm and enjoyment have been present in spades.

Our focus for hockey is to play hard and have fun. These girls have certainly done that and while they have been split into three teams in three challenging leagues, we have seen a consistent approach to this fun element across the board.

The results speak for themselves. All three teams - Yellows, Purples and Blacks - sit comfortably within their leagues. Playing against old rivals and new foes, the girls have excelled. Putting training ground practice into match activity, defending well and scoring goals (sometimes bucketloads!).

There have been some challenging games, some heads down, but all the teams have shown resilience in the face of adversity. Really well done to all involved.

Game stats:

Blacks - W4, L2, D2, F25, A12, League position, division 1, 3rd 🥉

Yellows - W5, L0, D1, F25, A7, League position, division 2 (north), 1st 🥇

Purples - W7, L1, D0, F29, A9, League position, division 2 (west), 2nd 🥈

Mini Under 8s

It has been an absolute pleasure to take over as the Under 8s manager, helping to capture the enthusiasm of a growing group of over 20 regular players on Sunday mornings at Kings’. We have been working on passing and moving into space with the help of lots of games and interactive sessions and we have travelled away to two tournaments in Salisbury and the New Forest, where the children managed an unbeaten day in Lyndhurst! We also successfully hosted Bournemouth and Trojans, which saw a total of eight teams take to the pitch including three from Winchester.

Thank you to all of amazing helpers who help make every session as fun as possible!

Pete Coleman