Our first 7-a-side League match of the Summer at the Southgate Hockey Centre is this coming Thursday night against Latymer Old Boys. (8.00.p.m. Kick-Off).
Full details regarding the 7-a-Side League are now here on the Club Website and all players who intend playing MUST read through that page before they do so, especially those who have not played in the 7-a-side League for us before.
Further details of this actual match can be found on the Forthcoming Fixtures page.

The squad of 8 for this first match is as follows:
Simon Jackson (GK)
Alan Barnard
Yianni Kyriacou
Danny Hagan
Lee King
Dean Assiamah
John Scouller
Martin Cruickshank

Lee and Dean both owe over £25.00 in subs at the moment. Normally we would not pick players who owe over that limit, but we are giving them a chance to turn up and pay as much as they can afford in order to get below that £25.00 limit. If they know they cannot afford to pay this Thursday night, then they should drop out and let somebody else have a game. If they turn up on the night without any (or enough) money, then they will not be picked for the following Thursday night's match.
Martin Cruickshank is Lee's mate from St. Mary's who wants to join us. He came training with us during the Winter and is a good player (and a right-back I think ?). If good new players who definitely want to join us next season are available for 7-a-side, then we will be putting them in the squad straight away ahead of others so that they can get to know the rest of our players, but we will not put any more than two new players in at any one time.

All 8 players listed above will be e-mailed, Facebook-messaged and texted by Tuesday evening informing them that they are in the squad (just in case they do not check this Forum). If they do not reply back either here on this Forum, by e-mail, Facebook or text to confirm their availability by 10.00.p.m. on Wednesday evening, then we will call up other players to replace them. This coming Thursday we have numerous other good/regular players all wanting to play, including Terry Brown, Lexton Harrison, Danny Smith, Kizza, Rob Brown & Martin Worthington, although Rob & Martin may still be injured after the Turnford Geese match, which is why we have left them out for this one.

Please note the new rule we have imposed for this Summer whereby subs for playing 7-a-side are now £6.00 per match and that anybody who drops out on the day of the match leaving us with a bare seven players or less will still have to pay £6.00 (as a fine). We cannot afford to make a loss on 7-a-side matches, which we will do if we field a squad of less than 8.

For details on who else is in the Thursday Night League and the rest of our Qualifying Group fixtures for the next 11 weeks, see here on our Club Website where you will find an embedded link to the Southgate Hockey Centre's 'Fixtures Live' site. This should work on a similar basis to this page where we get a feed from the Full-Time site for our Waltham Sunday League Tables, Results & Fixtures.
If you are not sure on how to use that Fixtures Live table, just let me know and I will try to guide you. (I am still experimenting with the HTML code...Barney please note ! )

I have just been e-mailed the rules & regulations from the Southgate Hockey Centre for the 7-a-side League this year and there are a couple of changes/reminders that need mentioning.

Firstly, the BLUE CARD (instead of a yellow). Players shown a blue card mean they go in a sin-bin for 5 minutes.
The 'sin-bin' is on the half-way line though, and all teams' Managers, subs and spectators now have to stand behind the goal they are defending...something which we have never done (unlike every other team).
It appears that they have new Referees this year (according to Wildgoose, who I think has been given the boot !? ), so they may well make sure we don't stand on the half-way line like we normally do.

Players receiving two blue cards during a match will be sent off and suspended for 7 days and there are much harsher punishments for players shown a straight red card (depending on the nature of the offence).
If a Referee has to abandon a match, the offending team will be thrown out of the League without appeal. We therefore do not want new players brought along who are a loose cannon and likely to start a punch-up !

I'm in....

Yan is not available as he is working, so Danny Smith can therefore replace him in the squad as he is apparently desperate for a game !

Barney has got Delhi belly (by the sound of it) after his return from India, so I texted Martin Worthington to see if he has recovered from his ankle injury yet and he hasn't, so at the moment we have no defenders (as usual).

I have heard nothing yet from Danny Hagan, Lee, Dean, John Scouller or Martin Cruickshank.
Also, Smithy doesn't know he is in the squad yet.

Danny Smith has just confirmed to me by text.

Just spoken to John Scouller. He is definately available and will try to contact Lee and Dean tomorrow. If one of them is not available he has another triallist who can play.

Danny Hagan has texted to confirm he is available.

John Scouller phoned me. He has spoken to Dean who is playing but Dean and Martin need a lift from Edmonton. John is giving Lee a lift from Cheshunt.

I am unclear whether another defender is going to replace Barney. John has a triallist who is available but he is another midfielder.

Terry Moore is now playing tonight (as our one defender !).
He can play on Monday as well, then we'll put Barney in instead of him next Thursday so that he is only playing one game that week.

Either myself or Terry will pick up Dean & Martin C.

Just in case anybody is wondering...there are still no fixtures for the Monday Night League on the Southgate Hockey Centre website and I haven't been e-mailed anything either.
The last thing it said on there was that they were still looking for teams to join, so I hope they haven't given up and scrapped the League !?

If no fixtures are announced until Saturday, then it's going to be very difficult to organise a squad for this coming Monday night in time, although at least I am not out filming anything this Saturday.

Martin Cruickshank has dropped out as he is working, but a mate of John Scouller's (who wants to join us) is playing instead.
His name is Ben Kingsley ...unless John is winding me up ?
...but then we already have a Leeking, so you never know !