Cracking win in our opening game against Lydney yesterday. We played the better hockey throughout the game and thoroughly deserved the win, even though we went 1-0 down and scored our 3 goals in the last 10 minutes.

I was particularly pleased with the way the team has shown the progression we were hoping to see. Having lost our older boys to adult hockey it was great to see our new generation of "oldies" step up and take responsibility. The new youngsters fitted in really well and I look forward to seeing them develop week on week.

Man of the match goes to Michael Hollingshead, although special mention should be made of Dan Baker, Rich Owen, Tom Mitchener and of course Alex Diesel. Alex scored 2 goals on debut for the badgers AND they had their first team keep in goal. He has already scored more goals than his older brother scored in 3 years of badgers!!!

After all the difficulty I experienced last week getting mails out I think I have just about cracked it now. I have, however, formed a Yahoo Group called "cjhcbadgers" which I will be using this year to manage the team arrangements. You should have received an invitation to join this group, so please do so. I am sure you will find the Yahoo Group solution more informative and easy to use.

-- Stuart

There are a number of summer hockey camps being run locally during the school holidays.

Read about the camp Cheltenham Hockey Club will be running from 24th to 28th August here.

Gloucestershire Hockey Association are running two camps. Read about the camp being held at the University of Gloucestershire from 10th to 14th August here. They are also running a camp at Cheltenham Ladies College from 3rd to 7th August. Read about that one here.

The latest CJHA newsletter can be viewed here.

The rules of hockey are changing. From the 1st September (for most of us) players will be allowed to take free hits to themselves, and attackers won't be allowed to play the ball directly into the circle from a free hit inside the 23m line.

To see a summary of the changes click here.

To see guidance to umpires click here.

Please click on the calendar link to see the dates of the training nights for next season. If you are not currently a member but would like to join click on the "contact us" link.

Write up to follow. Click the "read more" link following the pictures to see the rest of the photos.

Out annual presentation evening took place at the Brickhampton Golf Club on the 19th April. Well attended, some 300 awards were presented.  These ranged from umpiring achievments, stix awards, young leaders awards, the best and most improved hockey players in all age groups, plus goal keeper awards and two special awards at the end.

We were delighted that Harriet Pearce, our Junior Olympic Gold Medalist, was able to return from her GB super league game, to present the awards. The final two were the prestigious Alice Glenister Trophy which this year goes to George Ratcliffe for his sterling efforts.  There was also a Chairman's Special Award which was presented to Vanessa Burton. Vanessa has given years of exemplary service and is now off to University and we wish her all the luck and best wishes with her endevours.

Some 40 adults beaver away in the background doing many things to ensure our children enjoy their hockey and prosper and their efforts are acknowledged and greatly appreciated.

The Cheltenham Badgers fielded a young side and came up against a strong Gloucester side.  After a low key start and absorbing quite a bit of pressure, it took a Gloucester goal to fire the Cheltenham side into action. Some good play on left saw a fine first time pass from Sam Steele to Benjy Grew who went round the keeper to score on his debut.  This gave the whole side confidence and they followed this up with well taken goal from the team's top scorer - Dan Baker.  Sadly the team couldn't keep the pace going and early in the second half conceded several goals.  However they kept battling away and were rewarded with a late goal from George Wilshaw.  Final Score 6 - 3.

-- Mike Woods

This game ended with a disappointing result. We lost 4-0, despite playing much better hockey than them - and that is an observation shared by them as well as us. It was quite incredible, we passed around the midfield, won the 50/50's but seriously lacked strength and conviction up front. Every time they came down they scored. We made a rod for our own back by overcomplicating things and trying to be too clever. My recommendation, sack the gaffer!

-- Stuart

And that was before we knew he left the first aid kit behind!

-- Shaun

The Cheltenham Badgers put in an assured performance to defeat a young Stroud side by 6 – 0.  George Wilshaw opened the scoring with his first goal for the club and this was soon followed up by a well taken goal from Dan Baker.  The boys put together some good attacks and increased the pressure in the second half against a weakened Stroud team.  Three further goals from Dan Baker and another from George Wilshaw completed the scoring though many of the other forwards and midfielders  could have got on the score sheet.  However, it was not all one sided and Stephen Pashley made three or four good saves to keep a clean sheet.

-- Mike Woods