This coming Sunday we are playing our first Pre-Season Friendly of the Summer on the grass pitch at the Southgate Hockey Centre.
It is a 10.30.a.m. Kick-Off against Inter Trac from the North London Sunday League and we need everybody there by 10.00.a.m. at the latest.

The squad of 16 at the moment is as follows (subject to availability):
Simon Jackson (GK)
Terry Moore
Alan Barnard
Danny Hagan
Tony King
Lee King
Dean Assiamah
Lexton Harrison
Vernon 'Kizza' Nxumalo
Steve Cokell
Ben Keating
Ricky Kyagaba
Martin Cruickshank
Daniel Cascoe
Colin Bester
John Scouller
However, John might be late due to family commitments and may not be able to give people a lift, which could therefore rule out Ben, Ricky & Lee from playing unless somebody else is prepared to drive up to Waltham Cross to pick them up, while somebody (probably Terry Moore ?) will have to give Dean & Martin Cruickshank a lift from Edmonton Green.
We would therefore need some of the McKenzie Rangers players who want to join us to play, or (as Loveday suggested to me tonight), we get them to play anyway and if we end up with a squad of 22, we field eleven different players in both halves like Larsens did against us in a Pre-Season Friendly last year.
There is also Tem Adil (if he is not injured) and Daniel Daley (if he is not really on holiday).

Definitely unavailable though are Martin Loveday & Martin Worthington (Both Injured), while Rob Brown, Terry Brown, Danny Smith & Yianni Kyriacou are all on holiday. Rob is injured anyway.

I'm fine to play.

All good for me

Fine

Everybody in the 16 has now confirmed their availability except for Ben & Ricky (who we will be seeing tomorrow night) and Martin Cruickshank, who Lee King will be asking to come along. (Nobody else has Martin's number and Lee gets back from holiday on Saturday...I think ?).
I was told last Thursday night that all three players would be playing though.

Cascoe said he will try and contact Daley to see if he is about/has calmed down after his sending-off yet.
If Tem wants to play, it's up to him to get in touch.

As for the McKenzie Rangers players, we have a 7-a-side match on Monday night, and I would suggest that we play some of them in that, together with anybody who doesn't play (or get much of a game) on Sunday. Up to Loveday though, but ideally we need to pick a squad after tomorrow night's match rather than leaving it until Sunday afternoon ?

As per Monday.....

I cannot make it Monday as i am working away all weekend and do not get back to London until 10pm Monday night.

It is a 7.30 kick off so Lexton and Kizza may struggle to make this time

The squad should consist of the regular Monday night players though, How can we pick the McKenzie players when nobody has their names or contact numbers?????

I think the issue with Kizza is that whenever he drives there's a hold-up in the Blackwall Tunnel and whenever he gets a tube someone throws themself under a train or whatever.
I don't think it's anything to do with working late.

I have two points of contact for the McKenzies players. Nev (the Secretary) is on holiday last I heard. The other one is Manish, who should be over there tomorrow night, so I'll try and have a word with him before their game kicks off at 9.00.p.m.
If he is not there I will phone him on Friday night.
Obviously they can't do anything with us on a Thursday night as they are in the 7-a-side League themselves. It's just unfortunate so far that on each occasion we have asked them to play or come training, neither Nev or Manish have been available. I don't know any of the others personally.

I agree that if we have 8 of our current/regular players wanting to play on Monday night even if they play on Sunday, then priority will be given to them and the McKenzies players will just have to wait until we are short before we put them in. (Same applies to the Sunday Pre-Season Friendlies).
However, if Lexton, Barney & Danny Hagan (for example) want to play 7-a-side both nights next week, I don't think that's right if it denies us the chance to look at a couple of McKenzies' players.

So...we could say that at the moment the squad for Monday will be Olie or Tim (GK); Terry Moore, Colin, Cokell, Kizza, Tony King, Tem, Lexton (Sub), then if any of them drop out on Sunday afternoon because of blisters or whatever, we use McKenzies players to cover for them instead of Barney or Hagan.
The squad for next Thursday would then be Jacko (GK), Barney, Hagan, Lee, Ben, Ricky, Dean & John.

It appears that Cascoe is training with Wormley Rovers Saturday side on Thursday nights instead of playing 7-a-side for us, but that's probably not a bad idea as we are only in the Plate League, the opposition is not great and we can give other players (like Ricky) a game anyway.

Just to confirm that the squad (of 16) for this Sunday is still exactly that which is listed at the start of this thread.

However, Dean didn't turn up for 7-a-side tonight so I'm not sure what's going on there .
If Dean and Daley both turn up on Sunday we will have a squad of 17, but everybody will get at least 45 minutes.
We definitely don't want any more than 17 though, so at this stage we will not be asking any of the ex-McKenzie Rangers players (apart from Cascoe & Daley) to play this Sunday as it's unfair on those who have been about recently.

On Sunday morning I could do with a couple of volunteers turning up at 9.30.a.m. to make sure we get the best of the two pitches over there...and more importantly the only set of goals that are on wheels and have nets attached ! The last time I looked, a goal had been nicked and the other one was all rusted with the wheels and net missing ! If the SHC have hired out both pitches on Sunday morning (like they did last Summer), then it is presumably going to be a free-for-all as to which pitch gets the goals ?!
Obviously if they haven't got that sorted out by Sunday though, then we would ask for our money back if we had to use corner flags as goalposts, but our opponents wouldn't be best pleased !

i'm back now. see u on sunday.