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Summer 7-a-side League at the Southgate Hockey Centre

As far as I know, the Southgate Hockey Centre will still be running their Monday & Thursday night 7-a-side Football Leagues between May and the end of August this Summer, although I have not received any details just yet.

We normally enter a team in each League, but my personal opinion is that we should just enter one team this year and on Mondays only.
That's because we had massive problems fielding a team on Thursdays last year because of numerous 7.00.p.m. Kick-Offs, players getting 'stuck at work', and the League dragging on well into September. Most of it was caused by the Astroturf re-laying being delayed by weeks of torrential rain, but even so, I just don't think we are going to have enough players this year to be able to play twice a week. Players not being able to get there because they don't drive is a massive problem and so are Saturday team training sessions on Thursday nights in July & August.

I know that Riaz & Jack will probably be playing for Pat's Boys again on Mondays, but I think Monday is a better night because there are fewer matches due to Bank Holidays and it doesn't normally drag on into September. The only weeks we might have a problem are in August when we start playing Pre-Season Friendlies on Sundays, but hopefully we will have enough players interested in joining us by then that we will be able to comfortably field teams on both a Sunday morning and a Monday night.

Can I have some feedback on this please ?
Text or e-mail me if you don't want to post on here.

Re: Summer 7-a-side League at the Southgate Hockey Centre

Happy to play either night, but if Monday is easier then I'm fine with that. Should be available more weeks than not (same as previous seasons really).

Cheers
Barney

Re: Summer 7-a-side League at the Southgate Hockey Centre

I would always be more inclined to enter a team on both nights for fitness and the fact that we may have new players and maybe it would be a struggle fitting everyone in for just one night a week? But I'll go with whatever you think is best.

Re: Summer 7-a-side League at the Southgate Hockey Centre

Hagan
I would always be more inclined to enter a team on both nights for fitness and the fact that we may have new players and maybe it would be a struggle fitting everyone in for just one night a week? But I'll go with whatever you think is best.
What normally happens with the 7-a-side League is that they are short of one or two teams in the Thursday Night League (or somebody drops out) just as it starts, so there is the possibility of us putting another team in the Thursday Night League at short notice if we have too many wanting to play on Mondays.

The problem I had personally last year was that I ended up running the team for both nights all throughout last Summer because other Management Committee members were not available. That means picking the squad, chasing up players and washing the kit twice a week. I got too far behind on my work and I am not going to do that this year. It's one night per week only for me this Summer.

Re: Summer 7-a-side League at the Southgate Hockey Centre

The Summer 7-a-side Leagues and Fixtures have now finally appeared on the Southgate Hockey Centre website.

There are 10 teams in the Monday Night League including ourselves and our first match next Monday (13th May) is an 8.00.p.m. Kick-Off against K & M Old Boys.
It says the League will be in two stages, so it's back to the old 'Champions League' for the top five and 'Nearly Champions League' for the bottom five after everybody has played each other once.
I notice that Broomfield's First XI are in it, so we will be playing against Frazer John rather than him playing for us ? Is that correct, Mr. Scouller ?
No sign of Pat's Boys (unless they have changed their name), but Jack says he will be playing for us anyway. Don't know about Riaz though.

Interestingly, there are only 6 teams in the Thursday Night League at the moment, so in theory we could put a team in at short notice to make up the numbers, especially as it starts this coming Thursday (9th May) with an even number of teams. We would then be the odd team out this week and start next Thursday (16th) instead.
However, I am not going to make that decision myself. It needs to be debated here first. In addition to whether we have got enough players, it would also involve using old jade kit and somebody else keeping it and washing it. I will bring the new Adidas shirts for Monday Night matches.