First Farts Blog of the year

Well, this email sees the dawning of another season of hockey, and what a good one it will be. The Farts are hoping to continue their strong performance from last year. This year will see some changes, some forced upon us and some welcome ones as well.

Veitchy has left us to move to the shaketown (Chch). He promises to talk to his new team down there and try and organise a bi-annual home and away friendly matches,

Ants may not be joining us as he needs surgery on his knee (well at least that’s what he said, maybe it was a lobotomy?)

Richy Rich will be trying to get back up into a higher team; he always was a glory hound

Enough bad news, the good news is the return of Ropes to the Farts colours, as a player/coach/mentor/strategist and general wisdom almanac of Naenae Hockey.  His strategy was the edge that enabled the young guns to beat us in the final last year, so maybe with our great teamwork, skills and fitness, coupled with his hockey brain we can finish what we started last year. It must be noted that while the Young Guns won the grade, The Farts took out the inaugural Tui trophy after their great northern road trip. That almost qualifies as an international trophy (Napier is a long way when you’re in the back of Richards van)

Hopefully this year will see the return of Moses and Rearend into the regular line up. Also have to mention Gok is returning for another year, his 30^th of Naenae hockey! We probably carried a couple too many reserves last year, so this year we should have a good number with the defections above.

Ains is going to step up and will be the sideline manager for the team, this will include co-ordinating the subs bench, looking after the first aid kit and generally telling Trapper hes playing well.

Can all those that are playing this year please confirm via email so i can advise the club of the team make up.

I’ve been working on some sponsorship, and am in the process of putting together a package that will provide a small reward for the player of the day (unless its me of course) and maybe something a bit more substantial for the end of year MVP.  Any other offers or suggestions of sponsorship would be appreciated.

Other club news

Club open day is set for Saturday 19th February from 4pm until 6pm. This is purely a social day where there will be organised 6 a-side friendly, mixed (genders and grade levels) games being played on the turf.  There will also be registration for the 2011 season (for both open grade and juniors). We will have a free BBQ running to keep you fuelled up for the games. Nuts this is a good opportunity for you to bulk up for the season!

At registration, we are again requiring the deposit. For open grade players this is set at $100, for junior players this is set at $85 (the full fee for the season). This can be paid in cash (we will have receipts available) and we are hopeful to have wireless to enable payment via internet banking.  I will confirm this option closer to the date.
The full fee payments this year are set at: Open grade: $385. The club is again offering the early bird discount for open grade players. If fees are paid in full by 31st March, you fee is reduced to $360.
AP forms will be available at registration for those of you who wish to pay via the AP system this year.
St Pats College in Silverstream are looking for coaches for some school hockey teams.  If you are interested in taking up this opportunity, please let me know.  Remember that having club members involved in coaching secondary schools can really help in recruiting school leavers into the club for future seasons.