Awards and eggs at End-of-Season Dinner

A good time was had by all at the End of Season Dinner held at the Alma in Wandsworth.

Dodie Khurshid was presented with the Roger Loveland Award for his remarkable efforts for the club on and off the field over almost two decades, not least this season when he had been sidelined by the horrendous injury picked up playing for the 2nd XI. His two career goals helped seal the award.

Duncan and Vikki Mottram won the Club Captain’s Award for their huge contribution to the success of the club in recent years.

That aside, there were the usual vile drinks - mainly courtesy of Jock Vickers and the ladies – and an unwise pint-and-egg challenge (his second we are told) by Rory Alexander to David Knapp. Older members looked on with amusement at the naivety of Alexander who matched the club captain on the beer but was then humiliated when Knapp downed the raw egg, shell and all, in two seconds. Man against boy.

End-of-Season Dinner on May 14

The annual End-of-Season Dinner will take place at The Alma in Wandsworth Town on Friday, May 14. Tickets cost £35, including a generous slurp of wine, and as numbers are limited to around 60 it will be strictly first come, first served.

The OC Cricket Club held their dinner there last month and it really is an excellent place for such a dinner. It is held in a large, self-contained function room above the pub which is ideal and the food is really superb.

It’s also easy to travel to. Wandsworth Town station is opposite the pub and there is plenty of off-street parking in the surrounding roads.

Details of how to apply for tickets will appear here shortly.

Mel Williamson to chair OC Dinner

For the second year running the OC Society Annual Dinner will be hosted by a member of the Old Cranleighan Hockey Club.

Following on from David Knapp, the 2010 chairman will be Melanie Williamson, the founder of the OCHC Ladies section and its first full-time captain. Mel, who is now a governor of Cranleigh School, will take charge of the dinner which will be held at BAFTA (195 Piccadilly) on Saturday, November 6, 2010.

It is hoped that the capacity of 180 will easily be reached on what will be the first occasion since the inaugural event in 1882 a lady has taken the chair.

Full details to follow.

Fancy a night at the races?

On Saturday, December 12, Race Night comes to the TD Clubhouse. Tickets only £5.00 for what will be a great night out.

Includes six horse races, two greyhound races with cash wins up to £60 and Roulette Bingo!!

Racing starts @ 6:30pm (Entrance 6.00pm)

Get your tickets from your team captains, behind the bar or Nick Lewis (07971 907606)

Limited Space So Book Early To Avoid Disappointment

Ladies show how to tour

Last Friday afternoon the OC Ladies hit Dublin. Quite literally. Sarah Mann reports on a weekend which few will forget (actually, which even fewer are likely to remember anything about
Click here for the tour photos

Just as planned we all met at 3.30pm for a few beverages at the airport before the flight. Well... nearly all. Charli doing the classic, arriving last minute, and promptly downing two double G & T’s and a shot of baileys to catch and overtake the other girls. Poor Martin, the Irish gent who didn’t know what he had in store!

Arriving at Dublin slightly later than planned we piled in two taxis with several comments of “What is the time over here?” The accommodation was simple but perfect, especially the plastic covered duvets... "just in case"! Five in each dorm, each with a bathroom and breakfast included, and of course a blue and orange colour scheme! What more do you need?!

After a quick freshening up we headed out in our tour shirts - handcrafted by Snoops (thank you) - to Milanos, the Irish version of Pizza Express and had a lovely meal that hit the spot (and lined the stomach). Stuffed and content, off we went and found ourselves in The George - the biggest gay bar in Dublin, Lots of drink, and a major battle for the dance floor with the dancing queens! We had quite a fan club by the end of the night!

It was clear that this weekend was not going to be cheap; A Smirnoff Ice/or pint over £5 and a Vodka and orange a grand total of £9.10. Oh and be warned prices go up through the night!

On Saturday morning we nursed our hangovers and went for a wander around Dublin. At lunch we headed off to the train station all kitted out and ready to go, not doing a head count though and leaving Nikki at the hostel. Whoops! Lucy was awarded first dick of the day. With an awful hangover all ready for the big game a tactical chunder (or two) was in order followed by the comments “I feel much better”.

At Sutton train station we were met by some of the Irish girls who drove us to the pitch. We borrowed a nutty keeper called Leanne who did some fantastic saves. The game was evenly matched but sorry goalie we were not quite on form. Think we were playing in slow motion in the first half (despite a very good warm up of course!) The Irish ladies took an early lead, followed by a second shortly after from a well-drilled short corner. We definitely showed up for the second half however. A sweet short corner brought us back in the game at 1-2. We held possession well and kept our structure, using the new rules to get a quick ball through to Emma, who finished it off with a brilliant touch to score her first goal for OCs - the first of many I hope. The whistle blew at 2-2. It was a fair result.

Unsurprisingly I became the next dick of the day, and quite rightly for trying to remove one of our players heads on the hockey pitch. Sorry May! And was promptly issued with the Irish boxer shorts and Lepricorn hat.

After the match we were taken to The Bloody Scream in Howth on the sea front, of course the drinking started again as we all started topping up from the night before. The train journey back consisted of several members of the team attempting to poll-dance to the entertainment of the locals including the train security guard who was fully kitted with stab vest and baton. Where had Rosie taken us?

Tired and all needing a sleep we got back to the hostel and made ourselves beautiful. Two bottles of vodka and many games of SPOONS! later we were ready and left the hostel for some music and Irish dancing. Charli made the most of the microphone, many extra hits on the website yet Charli? How do you spell Tantric again?

From there I can’t remember where we went apart from saying it was a club of some variety - an annoying Aussie in tow - we headed off for more dancing, the Conga making an appearance with the whole club joining in, and a bit of dancing on the table after some turbo shandys of course! Unfortunately the story of the night was missed by many and with no photographic evidence ... I think what goes on tour stays on tour with that one!

I have to say well done to May, what a trooper, because even though her face was swollen and she had a cracking headache she battled on and was out into the small hours of the morning and not the first to leave!

On Sunday morning we were an absolute sight, hangovers galore and lost voices - the extra hour had been well used. We packed our bags and left our rooms. A bit of time left for a walk into town for some, who managed to be brought lunch by a very handsome American! The other half of us headed to the Guinness factory - for yes more alcohol!

Caz’s grandad’s uncle sister brother met us for a final pint at the airport, and then onto the flight we went, Charli and May catching the plane by the skin of their teeth. Snoozing for most and arriving on time, it was a great end to the weekend!
All in all a superb weekend, thank you Rosie from all of us. Munich here we come!

Kit, socials, subs and festivals

The following was agreed at a committee meeting of the club held at the OC Club, Thames Ditton on October 7, 2009

Subscriptions
It was agreed that the Club subscription should be maintained at £375 for the 2009-10 season, with a concessionary rate of £175 for students, unemployed and goalkeepers. These rates would be reduced to £275 and £135 respectively, if paid by the end of October 2009. The subscription is inclusive of all match fees and summer league fees. Any member not paying their subscription by the 30 November 2009 will be not allowed to play for the Club until the subscription is paid.

Socials
Nick Lewis proposed that there should be three socials during the season and an end of season dinner. As regards the three socials, it was thought this would consist of a Bonfire Night Fireworks evening on 7 November 2009; a race night on 12 December 2009 and a repeat of the hugely successful curry and quiz night on 6 February 2010. It was noted that the Rugby Club and UCL Academicals should be invited to attend these socials. Tickets for the socials will be on sale individually, but a ticket for all three purchased in advance would be discounted to £20 from a total of £27.50.

Kit
The Club colours are: blue and orange (home) or white (away) shirts, white shorts, blue socks with orange and white rings. Every player is required to play in the Club colours and the new style blue and white shirts in particular.

Kit enquiries are to be addressed to Helen Hawes. Helen advised that there were good stocks of most items available, although she would be ordering more blue shirts. She is also looking into the feasibility of ordering Club tacksuit bottoms.

Matches against the School
Matches against the School would be taking place again this year, it was thought on 9 January 2010.

Mixed Hockey Festival 2010
The committee expressed its thanks to Jon Heard, who has organised a mixed hockey festival which is to take place at TD on the weekend of 2 to 4 July 2010.

Summer Leagues 2010
The Committee also expressed its thanks to Jackie Waite who has kindly agreed to organise the ladies, men’s and mixed summer leagues in 2010.

Insurance
It was agreed in principle that it would be a good idea for the club to be insured, subject to cost considerations. Details to follow.

Discipline
Discipline in general over the last few seasons has been good. This is to be encouraged again this season. The Club will not tolerate bad language or abusive behaviour towards umpires or anyone else. Transgressions will be reported to the Committee, as will any yellow or red cards.

A yellow card for dissent will be punished by a requiring the player to umpire a further game during the season for one of the other sides in the Club. Subsequent yellow cards for dissent will be punished in the same way plus a £10 fine.

As regards the end of season dinner, it was proposed that this should be held at an outside venue of some distinction, in order to attract players and partners from across the Club. Tickets would be subsidised by the Club. The likely date for the dinner is 16 May 2010.

Bar crawl on November 15

On Saturday, November 15 there is a Mixed Team Bar Crawl which, confusingly, is open to everyone and promises to be a night you won't forget

The suggestion at the moment is that we meet at the club house for the last autumn international of the day (Ireland V New Zealand), which starts at 5.15pm, and go from there. If anyone has any great ideas as to where we should crawl or what a theme might be, they should let us know.

Contact Dodie Khurshid or Rosie Marriott for more details or watch this space for updates.