Hockey Newsletter No. 5
16 April 2008

Great news from the Mens’ U21 Tournament is that four Hilton Old Boys have been named in the SA U21 teams. In the team to play against the Pakistan U21 side in Durban from 20-26 April are Dominique Scott and Matt Fairweather, while Ben Mbana and Tim Drummond join them in the team for the Mens’ IPT from 4-10 May in Potchefstroom. Tim was severely concussed during the past U21 Tournament and as such was not considered for the Pakistan series. Matt Coombes, who has been coaching at Hilton for the past three seasons, is also included in the SA U21 team to play Pakistan. This is a great achievement by our players and a tremendous accolade for the Hilton Hockey Club and Hilton College.

On the school front, Courtney Allen, Louis Taylor, Ross Chaplin, Nick Spooner and Eddie Taylor have been invited to the Midlands U18 Training Camp ahead of the Trials next month. This is in recognition of their fine play at the KES Festival.

This weekend sees the first series of matches against Northwood and we are expecting a series of tough encounters against a very good set of hockey teams. As always the First Team match will take centre stage at the tea-time slot of 10h15.

If you are a new hockey parent, please take the opportunity to introduce yourself to your son’s coach (Mike Mill and Andy Lewis at U14 level) and feel welcome to make your presence felt amongst the veterans and their cooler boxes on the embankments. The veterans are on the bank closest to the car park and changing rooms. I forget whether this is because the cooler boxes are too heavy to carry any further or because the veterans are too weak to drag them back at the end of the day.

All the best!

Gavin