Dear Member,
As another season comes to an end and we are well underway with summer league, we wanted to look back on the season, as well as sharing exciting plans and updates for next season. Whilst this is a rather long newsletter, please do take the time to read it and find out more about what is to come for the 23/24 season!
2023/2023 Season Summary – Adults
After last years promotions for our Mens 1s, Mens 2s, Mens 3s, Mens 4s, and Ladies 4s a tough year followed for our teams against new competition. It has been lovely to see new faces around the club and continuously large turnouts across all training sessions. Masters teams have flourished and we look forward to building on this next season. Thank you to our fixture secretaries, all coaches, captains and everyone who makes hockey happen!
| Mens 1s Yorkshire & North East Men’s Premier Division League position: 5th Won: 12 Drawn: 2 Lost: 8 | Mens 2s Yorkshire & North East Men’s Division 1 League position: 12th Won: 5 Drawn: 3 Lost: 14 | Mens 3s YNE Yorkshire Men’s Division 2 League position: 9th Won: 7 Drawn: 4 Lost: 11 |
| Mens 4s YNE Yorkshire Men’s Division 3 League position: 9th Won: 5 Drawn: 6 Lost: 11 | Mens 5s YNE Moor & Dale Men’s Division 1 League position: 5th Won: 12 Drawn: 2 Lost: 8 | Mens 6s YNE Moor Men’s Division 1 League position: 5th Won: 8 Drawn: 4 Lost: 6 |
| Ladies 1s Yorkshire & North East Women’s Division 1 League position: 10th Won: 4 Drawn: 5 Lost: 13 | Ladies 2s YNE Yorkshire Women’s Division 1 League position: 12th Won: 4 Drawn: 1 Lost: 17 | Ladies 3s YNE Yorkshire Women’s Division 3 League position: 6th Won: 10 Drawn: 2 Lost: 10 |
| Ladies 4s YNE Moor & Dale Women’s Division 2 League position: 10th Won: 4 Drawn: 3 Lost: 13 | Ladies 5s YNE Moor Women’s Division 1 League position: 10th Won: 2 Drawn: 2 Lost: 16 |
2023/2023 Season Summary – Juniors
U10s
We started September 2022 with 22 children at training and finished the season with 35+ regularly training with 50 children on our register! Our youngest players were 6, coming through from Hockey Heroes and as younger siblings of our current U10s members. We finished the season with 3 girls teams and enough interest for 2 boys teams, although we didn’t quite manage to get two out! At the England Hockey In2Hockey Plate Finals our boys team finished 3rd place, with our girls A team taking the title to become England Hockey In2Hockey Plate winners. More success followed the week after at Yorkshire Youth League Finals, with our boys finishing 7th and our girls A team finishing 2nd. Our girls B team also completed in league 2 with a mixture of our B and C teams they really held their own against players much taller and older than they were, big things to come from this group next season! Thanks to our fab coaching team: Rich P, Helen S, Steven S, Jim R, Pam and MJ, as well as our junior helpers: Alice W, Ben T, Hem B, Dylan H, Hannah G.
U12s
The girls started the season with two teams, one in top league and one in the bottom. The A team struggled initially and dropped down a couple of leagues but managed to fight their way back up and finished 7= overall in the end of season playoffs, following a very exciting penalty shuffle after a draw at full time. After 6 shuffles we were still drawing 0-0 so decided to share 7th place. (Well above Leeds!) Not bad considering the GK was an U10 who saved all 6 of the shuffles. We have managed to get three teams out for the latter half of the season with the B team in a middle league and C team in the bottom. The C team were only not promoted as we were using an overage GK each time which meant conceding the matches! The boys have struggled on a few occasions to get out a full team due to morning games and several of them playing football or rugby. Good news is we have found a very keen GK at this age and numbers are slowly increasing. We have a good turnout of players at training sessions and increasing number of parents helping, many thanks to all of them.
U14 Boys
The U14 boys had a very dedicated core of players throughout the season, but unfortunately struggled to get a team out at the start of the year due to a shortage of players. In the games they did play (by borrowing some of the opposition’s players) they played some energetic, spirited hockey and everyone seemed to enjoy the games, scoring some memorable goals in the process! Many of the team were new to hockey this year, but have improved every week. With the new players moving up from the U12s, the team is well placed to have some great results next season.
U16 Boys
The U16 boys team had several very experienced players, so were well placed to have a good season. They did win several games, but struggled sometimes against a high standard of opposition. Their attacking play was often very stylish, dominated by the players who also play for the senior sides at Adel, which has inspired many of the newer players to join the senior sides. It was great to see some of the players complete their careers in the junior section at Adel starting in the U10s and now ageing out of the U16s and they will now hopefully carry on in the senior section. Next season, the younger members of the side will be able to call on the experience of this season to help the newer players joining from the U14s, hopefully to have another successful season!
U14 and U16 Girls
The training session for the girls started off light with about 6 players, however we managed to field teams sharing players from U12s! This is what make the club great, everyone is happy to get on board! Unfortunately, we had to concede the U16 team due to low numbers. However, throughout the season we have gradually increased numbers so hopefully next season will see a strong return or our U16s girls team. The girls haven’t had many games this season due to teams dropping out and even though we have had a mixed set of results the girls remained enthusiastic and ready to train. As training has developed, they have put this in games which has paid off with some well earned wins! A highlight of the season is when the footballers, who train after us, cried off because of the rain but our girls trained and were happy to be in the rain.
Skills Day
On 22nd April we hosted our first junior skills session. Inspired by her experience of earning certificates for her skills as a junior, Jane designed the day to give all our juniors the opportunity to demonstrate their skills via a set of 6 different stations, building up points towards their Stik Skills levels. Assisted by members of the committee, the day was a huge sixes with over 30 of our junior members attending and working towards the various Stik Skills levels. We look forward to seeing how our junior progress in the years to come.
International Hockey: Northop Hall Hockey Club travel to Adel
On 21st May, we were joined by Welsh team Northrop Hall at Adel to play in a friendly tournament. It was fantastic to see so many juniors and parents come down to support and enjoy the sunshine at the pitch. The day consisted of the U10s and U12s joining forces to take on the Northop Hall teams. Overall, there were some great games played and some great sportsmanship! Our three teams came 3rd, 4th and 5th. The U14 and U16s joined forces to take on Northop Hall and create a mixed Adel/Northop side. Some great skills were on show and it was fantastic to see everyone working together as a team. Adel finished joint 2nd with the mixed team! All in all it was a great day and a lot of hockey was played and everyone had a fab time! Thank you to everyone who came to help/support and umpire.
2022/2023 Season Awards
We rounded up both our senior and junior seasons nicely with a junior celebration day and our senior club dinner. Congratulations to all of our award winners!
| Junior Service Award (Pam Hardaker) – Stuart Boomer Chairman’s respect award – Jim Robinson | Club umpire of the year – John Holden Club team of the year – Ladies 3s |
| U10s Coaches player – Samaira U10 boys most improved – Conall U10 girls A most improved – Nivedita U10 girls B most improved – Charlotte U10 girls C most improved – Isabelle | U12s U12 girls coaches player – Florence U12 girls A most improved – Mia U12 girls B most improved – Kirsten U12 boys coaches player – Matt U12 boys most improved – Nayan |
| U14s U14 girls coaches player – Sophia U14 girls most improved – Hannah U14 boys coaches player – Angus U14 boys most improved – Digby | U16s U14 girls coaches player – Lorna U14 girls most improved – Maddie U14 boys coaches player – Guy U14 boys most improved – Joe |
| Men’s most improved – Lucas Simioni Men’s good service (Mike Potts) – Mark Powley Men’s long service (Morris Crossfield) – John Holden Men’s team of the year – Men’s 6s | Ladies most improved – Alannah Fawbert Ladies good service (Eileen Clark) – Alice Bowler Ladies long service – Catherine Henry Ladies team of the year – Ladies 4s |
| Men’s top goal scorer – Matt Wallace Men’s 1s player – James Stroomer Men’s 2s player – Matt Aldred Men’s 3s player – Adam Kendall Men’s 4s Player – Luke Warwick Men’s 5s player – James Lee Men’s 6s Player – Joseph Cromwell Men’s youth player – Toby Rooke Men’s GK – Andy Miles | Ladies top goal scorer – Alice Winn Ladies 1s player – Sophie Powley Ladies 2s player – Zoe Mather Ladies 3s player – Sophie Hutchinson Ladies 4s Player – Zoe Schofield Ladies 5s player – Esther Cotterill Ladies youth player – Hannah Greer Ladies GK – Emma Truffert |
Summer League 2023
We are thrilled to welcome plenty of Adel and external teams to this years summer leagues across women, mens and mixed!!
Ladies summer league ran from 24th April for 7 weeks. We had over 30 teams playing over 4 nights! Our mens summer leagues started on 12th June, with 13 teams, and 42 games to be played over 7 weeks on Monday and Tuesday evenings at the pitch! Mixed summer league started on 14th June, running alongside our mens summer league, on Wednesday and Thursday evenings! With 14 teams, and 49 games to be played, the pitch is going to be busy!
Be sure to follow our instagram for regular updates regarding mens and mixed summer league!
Huge thank you to Charlotte for organising our summer league!
Volunteer Week and Club Volunteer Vacancies
1st -7th June was Volunteer Week and we enjoyed taking the opportunity to celebrate just a few of our fab members who give their time to our club. We are so grateful to everyone who gives time to our club, no matter how small!
We have a number of club vacancies, please visit the website to read more about each role. Interested in helping our club? Please get in touch via mail@leedsadelhc.co.uk
Summer Activities at AWMA
Horsfield Hockey Camps @ Leeds Adel Hockey Club
Monday 17th July – Performance Camp
10am – 4pm
Open to county A team players, talent academy & juniors playing regional adult hockey. Ages 13 to 18 years.
Wednesday 2nd August – GK Masterclass
Monday 7th & Tuesday 8th August – Leeds Camp
2023/2024 Season
Pre-season
Adult pre-season training will begin in mid/late August. Information will be sent via captains and club captains once a schedule is confirmed. On 26th August our Men’s 1s have a pre-season tournament at Ben Rhydding and other friendlies will be arranged for the weekends of 2nd and 9th of September for other teams.
23/24 Season start dates
Juniors – We will run a start of season junior tournament on Sunday 3rd September, more information will follow from Jane. Training will start the following week (7th/8th September 2023). If you are interested in your child joining our junior section, or know of others interested, please get in touch with Jane via juniors@leedadelhc.co.uk
Adults – The adult season league games will start on 16th September. The league slip dates (i.e. no scheduled games unless a game gets cancelled/rearranged) are as follows:
Saturdays – 28th October, 16th December, 6th January, and 17th February
Sundays – 19th November, 4th February, 3rd March, 24th March, and 7th April.
Socials for next season
Dates and times for socials TBC but Matt and Cian, your social secretaries, are looking forward to running the below socials for you over the season:
Welcome drinks 🍸 🍹🍻
SNL – Saturday Night Lights
ADD(el) – Adel Does Darts [NEW 👀]
Christmas Social with theme (tbc)
Beer Pong🍺
Bongos Bingo
Tour
End of Season Dinner 🥂🍾
New Public Facebook Page
We have launched our new public Facebook page, allowing the community to keep up-to-date with everything we have going on! The private group will still be used for member updates and match reports, so make sure you like our new page and are part of the members group!
AWMA Decking Replacement
Starting on July 3rd, we will be replacing the decking outside the bar at Adel. This work is expected to last at least two weeks, and will cause serious disruption, particularly in the car park.
We need to close off some parking areas to provide space for materials and a waste skip, and ensure a safe working environment for the workmen. This may mean we have to relocate the disabled parking areas temporarily, and will affect the ease of flow around the car park generally. Unfortunately, we cannot be certain at present of exactly what closures and changes will be necessary until we have met with the contractor to finalise details. As soon as we know, we will send out another bulletin, though this may not be until the last minute.
Car park capacity will inevitably be restricted. A few common sense measures will help everyone:
- If you can, leave your car at home and walk to the club (much healthier – and you can have a drink!)
- Please car-share where you can
- Remember to use the overflow car park when possible
- If you are involved with teams or matches, please could you advise the “opposition” of the restrictions, and ask them to share their transport
- Allow more time for getting to Adel in case all car parking is full, and you have to park elsewhere.
Remember that, despite the reduction in capacity, parking restrictions on Church Lane remain in place.
This work is being supported by Leeds City Council and Heineken. Our deepest thanks to them. This is proof that we are considered a valued part of the community, and we hope the improvements will enhance this.
If you have made it this far, well done! Thank you for reading, we look forward to bringing you more exciting information soon! Interested in finding out more about our club? Look around our website or get in touch via mail@leedsadelhc.co.uk.
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