Memories of Season 2009

Posted 7 months, 3 weeks ago at 2:22 pm. 0 comments

RAAJ always represents the end of the summer period of rest. Once the festival is over then attention starts to turn towards the new season. Of course there are plenty of highlights to come in the Summer of Fun although the Jenjer Farewell part of it grows ever more prominent. It’s time to start the long slow hike back towards hockey fitness (although according to Johnny D this week I look better out of season!). I still don’t know at this point if I will be playing for Reading Ladies 1s next season partly becaus:

a) I still don’t know how I feel about playing for another season in the top squad with all the commitment and stresses and strains on the body that entails. It may be a good time to step down and go on to new challenges with the 1As. I still haven’t made up my mind 100% but I’m leaning towards the 1As at this point especially as I still feed tired and because of that have let my fitness degrade too much this summer

b) It is an unknown factor how many top quality players the club will recruit as a result of our successful campaign last season when we were successfully promoted to the English Hockey League premier division (the highest tier of domestic league hockey) and reached the Cup final. The makeup of our Ladies 1s squad is likely to be very different from the group Rhys Joyce developed over the last two seasons – it may not even be a decision I get to make but may be made for me by the new management team in selection.

Last season was the best I’ve enjoyed in my career. it was long (50 weeks from start of conditioning to the cup final), but it was demanding, exciting and successfuly and was shared with a great group of players. One of our number, Emily Malden, works in television and she has compiled the video below as a record of the last great day of that season: the Reading double cup final day. It is a reminder of some great memories and good times and whatever next season brings, last season will be held very dear.

Reading HC Cup Finals Video from Emily Malden on Vimeo.

Reading Real Ale and Jazz Festival 2009

Posted 7 months, 3 weeks ago at 2:08 pm. 0 comments

It was hard work (as usual) but a lot of fun (as usual) and now it’s over for another year. Just finished working for the last 9 days at the Reading Real Ale and Jazz Festival and am now recovering. This annual event is a fundraiser for Reading Hockey Club that is entirely organised and staffed by hockey club members to raise fund for our new pitch. It’s also a firm fixture on the Reading summer social calendar. We had three great nights despite the weather doing us no favours again, and hopefully you can get a flavour of it below.

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Reading Real Ale and Jazz Festival

Posted 7 months, 4 weeks ago at 11:56 pm. 0 comments

I’m working at the Reading Real Ale and Jazz Festival all week.  This annual event is a firm fixture in the Reading summer social calendar and is the main fundraiser for Reading Hockey Club.  It’s great fun and I’m really looking forward to later tonight when we have two great Swing bands – The Jive Aces and the Dr Teeth Big Band.  These played on different nights laast year and bot hreally get the crowd going, so having them on the same night should be fantastic.  Saturday should be interesting too – we’ve added a third slot and extended our hours, so will be good to see how that experiment goes.  It’s also a brand new line up of bands with none of them featuring at the festival before in my memory, so it will be really good to find out what they’ve got in store for us.