Wirral Schools and Youth Hockey Association
Annual Report 2007/8
1. Development Activities
The Primary Schools Initiative has continued to progress this season, with ongoing support from the Wirral Hockey Development Group. The finals of the competition were held on 21 May, the winners being Kingsmead and Pensby.
The Emerging Schools League, involving secondary Schools at year 7, was coordinated from Oldershaw School.
A key objective achieved this year has been to establish the U13 County squad, building on last year’s development activities. The U13’s have participated in County tournaments at Penrith on 30 March and Calday on 13 April successfully competing in matches against 6 other Counties.
The Association supported Schools who wished to participate in the Euronations Legacy Championships held at Belle Vue in August last year, particularly through the provision of coaching. Calday and Birkenhead Schools represented Wirral in the Merseyside qualifying competition, with Birkenhead going on to participate in Manchester.
2. Competitions
There was a full entry for the Wirral Schools Competition, which was completed in accordance with the agreed schedule. The Finals took place at Oxton HC on 13 January 2008, with the following results:
U14 Calday Grange GS 2 Neston HS 3
U16 Calday Grange GS 8 Neston HS 0
U18 Calday Grange GS 3 St Anselm’s College 2
The Neston U14 and Calday U16 teams made it through to the North West Finals, which were once again organised by Wirral on behalf of the NWSYHA at Oxton HC on 20 January 2008. The results were:
U14 Kings Chester 2 Neston HS 1
U16 Calday Grange GS 2 Kings Chester 3
U18 Birkenhead School 1 Merchant Taylors School 1 (Merchant Taylors won on penalty strokes).
The winners of the Wirral Schools League Competition were Calday at U16 and U18, and Neston at U14.
In the North County Championship, Wirral again fielded teams at U14, U15 and U17 age groups. All three squads were very ably managed and coached and were fully prepared through numerous training sessions as well as friendly games against other counties including Shropshire and North Wales and local Clubs. The Managers and Coaches were:
Managers: Kev Smith (U17), Peter McDougall (U15), and Roy Parry (U14).
Coaches: Pete McInulty and Chris Flynn (U17), Richard James (U15), and Laurence McKneight, Steve Cookson and Nic Heyes (U14). In addition, John Ride is the U13 Manager, with coaches Leigh Kelly, Jules Armstrong and Nic Heyes.
All concerned must be congratulated on their sterling work in bringing together and developing their squads.
The U14 Competition was played at Halifax on 14 October and 18 November 2007. Wirral finished a very creditable 3rd, including a notable victory over Lancashire. The U15 and U17 Competition was played over three rounds at Belle Vue, Manchester on 16 December, 10 February and 2 March. The U17’s finished fifth once again (winning against Cumbria and drawing with Durham), with the U15’s being fourth (winning against Lancashire and drawing against Cumbria). Next season will be the last in the County format for these age Groups due to the Single System developments.
3. Honours
Representative North West Honours achieved this season were Will Green and Tom Smith (U15), and Alex Lamb, Joe Hillyer, Calum McDougall and Tom McCurdie (U14). The Wirral Player of the Year trophies for each age group were awarded at the Annual Awards Dinner at Oxton on 7 March to Arthur Bush (U14), Tom McCurdie (U15), and Andy Knight (U17).
4. Administration
The business of the Association is conducted mainly through its Committee of six plus the four Team Managers. We have met as a full Committee on 6 occasions this year. In addition a great deal of business is conducted in other meetings and in liaison with other bodies such as EH, NWSYHA, Merseyside Hockey Development Group, County Associations, North West Hockey League, Local Authorities and Schools. We have spent a great deal of time this year in considering the LTAD and Single System, and the way forward for Wirral. I am pleased to say that there will be a Wirral based JAC and we have seen good progress in developing the future arrangements, although more remains to be done to settle the position with West Cheshire Girls hockey. We are grateful for the support and direction provided by the HDO’s Natalie Wray (more recently Charlotte McNeela) and Melinda James on these issues.
As Chairman I would like to pay tribute once again to the huge amount of voluntary and discretionary effort which the whole Committee, and all of the Managers and Coaches put in to these activities to enrich and develop the participation of young people in Hockey. In particular on behalf of the Committee (and its predecessors!) I would like to thank most sincerely Roy Parry, a founder Member of the Association, who is stepping down this year after 24 years’ committed service. Roy has given hugely to the development of Junior hockey in the North, and I am sure that Wirral hockey would have been much the poorer without his outstanding contribution. May I also thank Kev Smith and John Ride for their excellent contribution as team managers, as both are standing down at the end of the season.
5. Finance
The draft accounts of the Association for 2007/8 were presented to the AGM on 8 May. We have addressed last year’s financial challenges due in the main to high fixed costs such as entry fees, pitch hire and transport. We continue to charge players for both coaching and matches, but there is little scope to raise more from this as we intend to remain a fully inclusive organisation. We have however ceased to provide coach transport to away fixtures and competitions, relying now on parental cars. We have also been greatly helped by parents’ willingness to provide playing kit. The grants from Cheshire CHA and Wirral MBC are recognised as a vital source of income without which we would still face significant difficulty.
6. Social Activities
We continue to promote the social as well as the playing side of hockey, and have organised events in the year to enable players, their families, schools and officials to meet together and network away from the pitch. The annual Player Awards in March, to which all players and their parents from the four age groups are invited is now an established event in our calendar.
We were pleased to host lunches for participants in both the Wirral and North West Schools Finals.
The Association will celebrate its Silver Jubilee next year and a special Dinner will be held on 15 May 2009 to celebrate this achievement.
7. Conclusion
Once more this year the Association has launched some important new initiatives, and faced an expansion of both playing and development activities, with the usual challenges on the financial front to make it all happen. However we are seeing ever more young people becoming involved at an earlier age and succeeding in the sport of hockey, which at the end of the day is our primary objective. We see our role very much in partnership with schools and local authorities, and the Merseyside Hockey Development Group.
Mike Flynn
Chairman
Wirral Schools and Youth Hockey Association
8 May 2008