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Index Banbury Youth Forum
FAMILY SKATE @ BRACKLEY - SUNDAY 15TH APRIL We are having a family fun skate at Brackley Sports Centre on Sunday 15th April 2007 from 1:30 - 2:30. All are welcome. Please bring your friends and family along with you. Price to be arranged on the day. BRACKLEY - CHANGE OF TRAINING DAY AND TIME Due to the local elections being on Thursday 3rd May we have changed our training day and time as follows: Training will now be on - WEDNESDAY 2ND MAY 2007 FROM 7:30 - 8:30 PM HOLIDAY DATES 2007 Holiday dates are now on the website and will also be on the Newsletters throughout the year as a reminder to all. YELLOW MOON CATALOGUE The new catalogue is now available. Last year we raised £9.17 through orders placed. COVENTRY BLAZE MATCH Ian has again organised a trip to Coventry Blaze on Sunday 18th March 2007 against Basingstoke Bison. Anyone interested please get in touch with Ian so that he can organise the tickets. PLAYERS ON LOAN FOR 2007 SEASON This year we have a few players on loan to other clubs within the Southern Area. ASH AVALANCHE PEE WEE - George Wise (NM) OXFORD STORM PEE WEE - Ricci Capel OXFORD BLUES CYCLONE - Hayley Cross and Leomi Cross (NM) FRIENDLY MATCHES We are awaiting a date from the London Street Warriors for a friendly match at Banbury. YOUTH AND SENIOR LEAGUE TEAMS Unfortunately the Youth and Senior Teams have had to pull out of the SASH League 2007 due to lack of eligible players. SENIOR FRIENDLY v HEATHROW REAPERS The Senior Team played a friendly match against Heathrow Reapers on Saturday. They have met on many occasions during the League Season and used this a a pre-season warm up. The final score was 18 - 5 to the Heathrow Reapers. FUN SESSION AND AWARDS EVENING Saturday 2nd December 2006 is our annual Fun Session and Awards Evening. Decorate your kit with a "Christmas" theme. There will be a prize for the best decorated kit. The Awards Evening will be held upstairs in the bar at Spiceball from 7:30 pm. Could everyone bring some food for the buffet and also anything for the raffle. Awards will be given by the Chairman - Wilf Iliffe. Please support your Club and help raise some money for new equipment. Everyone is welcome.
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE LEAGUE PLAYERS Congratulations to all the League Players from the Club for a good season at Farnborough. The Pee Wee players, Ricci and Joshua, were part of the winning Oxford Storm team who have qualified for the Nationals in Torbay in November. Good luck to them and the rest of the team. The Youth Team and Senior Team both came 6th in their respective leagues this year. This has been our best season to date. Congratulations to the players who were nominated for the SASH Dream Team: Ricci Capel (PW), Steven Ellis (Snr), Alexis Hamilton (Snr) and Eduard Mifkovic (Snr) Steven Ellis was voted for the Senior Dream Team - well done Congratulations also to: Steve Hickman for being voted best Pee Wee and Youth Coach Darren Capel for being voted best Senior Coach TESCO SPORTS VOUCHERS We are now collecting Tesco Sports Vouchers at the Club. Please bring them to training sessions and put in the big green collection box. Last year we managed to order some training equipment, bibs and cones. This year we would like to try and get some walkie talkies and some coaching equipment. Please help the club as much as possible - tell all your friends to send in their vouchers too. Between the 3rd and 5th November you can earn double vouchers. Cake Stall at Farnborough A big thank you to everyone who baked some cakes for us to sell on our stall at Farnborough on Sunday and to everyone who helped on the day. We made a total of £36.01 from the sale. We are hoping to have another stall during the last day of the season at Farnborough to tie in with the Presentation Day. Roller Disco CLUB KIT BOX AND CUPBOARD The Club also has a book to note which members are borrowing kit for training before buying their own. Please see the Secretary if you have any Club kit that you are borrowing so that a note can be made in the book. When you have bought your own kit please let the Secretary know so that the kit can be signed back in to the club box. CAKE
STALL AT FARNBOROUGH - 10TH SEPTEMBER Anyone wishing to make small cakes, big cakes, biscuits etc please let the Secretary know. If you would like to help but cannot make it to Farnborough please bring your items to the Saturday training and someone will take them down for you. HOCKEY BRING & BUY DAY We made £17.25 for the Club funds. There will be another sale later in the year. SENIOR TRAINING SASH FIXTURES Please check the dates and times of your matches and let your Managers know as soon as possible if you are unable to make any of them. MATCH DATES Please see the fixtures table page for updates. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________ Brackley Leisure Centre discounts Our Thursday training venue for the league squad, the recently refurbished Brackley Leisure Centre, can now be enjoyed at discounted rates by all Banbury Bulldogs members on production of their membership cards. In order to secure training at Brackley Leisure Centre, the club has taken out corporate membership of the Serco Leisure group of sports centres, covering Brackley Leisure Centre, Brackley swimming pool and Towcester swimming pool. The benefit of this to our members is that they can take out membership for themselves or their families at 40% off the nornmal price. This makes the price of 12 months family membership £28.50 instead of £48.50. As members of Brackley Leisure Centres you enjoy a number of benefits when making bookings and using the facilities. If you do not want to join but are looking for something to do on a Thursday night, you can use the Leisure Centre facilities at the club discounted rate, so there's no excuse for not visiting the gym while your team member is at their coaching session!
The pee wee side was less successful in their last outing and have been knocked off the top of their league. The youth team have had more games and are beginning to benefit from the experience, though they are still looking for their first win. The youth squad are, at least getting in to the goal scoring habit, putting two past the Wheatley Piranhas and four past the Gosford Convicts. Unfortunately they are still letting goals in at the back and have leaked 75 in four games. They have a month break before a double-header against Gosford and Wheatley on April 27th, so we'll be working on a few things in training. The pee wees have an even longer break, not back in action until May 18th, when they take on Skatezone Pythons and the youth team take on Skatezone King Cobras.
The pee wee team got off to the best possible start to their 2003 league campaign by beating the Northcroft Knights 12-8 in a thrilling opener to the season. Despite going a goal behind at the start the team kept their determination and rapidly took the lead with Joe and Adam on scoring form and Charlie making a series of saves in his first ever time in goal, standing in for an injured Dale. The size of the lead varied, with Northcroft fighting back but in the end we triumphed to register our first win in the SASH league. Two weeks later, in the return match, we drew 8-all with Northcroft and top the league on goal difference from Northcroft, who have played one more game with Oxford Storm and Reading Rhinos in third and fourth. On Sunday 16th we play Shene Young Bloods in their first game of the season.
Youth Team Suffers from Inexperience The Youth team got a baptism of fire in their first league game, going down 0-21 to the Reading Rhinos. The team took a long time to get into their stride and were beaten before the half time whistle but rallied in the second half, holding the defensive line and starting to press in on the Rhino's goal. We got the ball in the net with a couple of minutes to go but the goal was disallowed for an infringement. The first league game is never an easy experience. Many of the players had no experience of Farnborough nor of the league environment so took time to settle. In addition, we have a number of players who are playing up from the pee wees, who were at the opposite end of the size range from the majority of the Rhino team.
Looking Forward to the New Season The new SASH league season gets under way in less than a week's time and both the Banbury Bulldogs squads will be in action on day one. Most of the pee wee team has had a season's experince. Looking at the way the team improved over the course of last season, there is avery reason to be optimistic for their chances of notching up their first win in the near future. Once they achieve that, the confidence boost could see an significant rise in performance. They will also benefit from the extra experience of players who will be playing up into the youth team this season. As well as the players doubling up from the pee wee team, the youth team has been built from a mixture of pee wees moving up to the older age group and a number of players who have spent the last season or so playing in the senior training session. If we can maintian a regular squad through the season, we should see some good results from them as they gain experience at this level of competition. The Bulldogs full league programme is now on our Fixtures page.
Unfortunately for those of us who live over 90 minutes from Farnborough, attempts to use Wheatley sports centre as an alternate location to stage league games among the teams who are based at the northern outpost of the SASH area, fell through. Wheatley sports centre were unable to offer sufficient time on Sundays to allow a full league programme to run on the days we needed to play. This means that the league will continue to be played at Farnborough sports centre for the 2003 season.
League Squad training starts in Brackley From 6th February, 2003, we will start training sessions for the pee wee and youth league players at Brackley Sports Centre. For some time it has been apparent that there is not enough opportunity for the league squads to practice together. This problem is most acute for the youth squad, who play with the seniors on Saturday mornings. Ideally, we would like to get more time at Spiceball but with the pressure on the sports centre and the obligations they say they are placed under to offer time to all members of the Banbury community, they are unwilling to extend the Saturday session. From February we will be running mid-week sessions at Brackley, purely for the players in the league squads. We have secured a one-hour session, from 7 to 8 pm on Thursday evenings. Playing fee will be £2, which will cover the cost of the hall so the session will be self-funding.
Bulldogs
seeking new members.
Inline Hockey Skills AwardWe will be starting to implement the Inline Hockey Skills Awards Scheme in the near future. This programme, put together by Inline Hockey Associates, provides us with a carefully planned and structured skills development, covering skating skills and stick handling. The Inline Hockey Skill Award Scheme was originally designed to help coaches and managers quickly evaluate young players and grade them in accordance with their ability. Once we know where you are, the coaches can work on your skills in order to improve them in a stepwise manner. The scheme is aimed at youngsters from 6 to 14 years old. It comprises ten levels, each of which covers ten skills. The skills build in difficulty through the course to help you to raise your game as you progress. For example, ball handling at level one is tested while the player is standing still while in level seven the player performs ball handling in a drill. Dennis, our Pee Wee coach, will take players through the hockey skills, while Wilf, who is an IISA-qualified skate instructor, will trian the skating skills. There is no charge to enter the scheme but we you will have to pay £2 to take the exam at each level. This nominal fee covers the badge and certificate you receive when you pass.
SASH Fixtures 2002The Banbury Bulldogs pee wee squad begin their league campaign on Sunday 10th February with a match against local rivals the Gosford Stingers, from Kidlington. Since one of the pee wee's goalies and a couple of other players decided to change alliegance to the Stingers in the closed season, it should add an extra edge to the game. There are twelve games for our pee wees in total. Matches are spread out, mostly in groups of three, with four or five weeks between. Matches last for two 20-minute periods with a brief rest between. Players have to report for kit check 30 minutes before their face-off time and be fully kitted up at that point. All league matches for 2002 are played at Farnborough Sports Centre in Hampshire. This is between 90 and 110 minutes drive from Banbury, depending on traffic and route. The playing area is larger then the Newbury facility, just a little bigger than the Bulldogs home rink at Spiceball and there are good spectator facilities along the side of the rink. As Farnborough has walls on three sides, the refs will be particularly strict on the checking.
Awards for All grant Bulldogs £5,000The Awards for All organisation has granted the Banbury Bulldogs £5,000 to improve the equipment and qualifications within the club. Under the conditions of the award, it must be spent on safety equipment and formal training. Look out for future announcements about what we have on the way. High on the list will be sets of goal keeper equipment for the pee wees, as some of Hayley's kit is borrowed from Kidlington at the moment and we need good quality equipment in order to enter the league. In addition, we shall be looking to have enough safety gear to ensure any new players can join in safely, right from the start. All kit will have to be fully safety marked, where appropriate. We also have a proportion of the award earmarked to send two people on refereeing courses and three people on first aid courses. This will raise the level of safety on the pitch by making sure games are fully and properly controlled and ensure we have cover at the league in case first aid is required. If you are a regular attendee at the Bulldogs and would like to become either a referee of a qualified first aider, please apply in writing to the committee.
Pee wees to play in SASH league 2002The Banbury Bulldogs pee wee team will be competing in the Southern Area Skater Hockey (SASH) league from the start of the 2002 season. Subject to confirmation, the SASH league has found a new home for the new season. The games will be played in Farnborough, Hants, instead of Newbury. League matches will continue to be played on Sundays and the team managers (Matt and Jamie) will issue the full fixture list as soon as it is available. For those of you in the squad (well - your parents, probably), there will be some paper work to fill in and some fees to pay to register you for the league. There is never much time between the issue of the registration forms and the start of the league program, so please make sure you return the completed form as soon as possible. The other thing would-be league players need is a complete set of kit. League rules insist that all players under senior level wear all of the following:
If you do not have a Bulldogs shirt, let Matt know. We will be ordering a batch from Rhino in the very near future. If you want one with your name or nickname on, let us know as soon as possible. We'll let you know the cost before we order. Knee-shin guards must be fully covered either by socks or long trousers, so make sure you have them, too. Trousers cost from £50 upwards, while socks are £15 a pair. Both will get ripped to shreds over the course of a few games.
Bulldogs introduce membership feesIt has been decided by the committee to introduce an annual membership fee of £6, to move the membership of the club to a more formal footing. For the last two years the Bulldogs have operated an informal membership system, defining a member as anyone who plays regularly. The committee has decided that it is time to introduce a more formal process from the start of 2002, charging a membership fee to all playing members. This has been kept to a minimum - £6 is only two week's rink fees - but allows us to ensure we have a measure of commitment from our players. This becomes especially important for the league squad, as all league players must have club membership. In addition, we are keen to make sure that those who benefit from the equipment and training we will receive from the Awards for All grant are committed members of the club and are not just freeloading. There will be a number of benefits to paid up members. The list below is just the start:
The money raised from the fees will, of course, go towards the club's needs. Remember, we have other expenses which cannot be covered by the Awards for All grant, for example; league registration, spare shirts and sticks, to name but a few.
Pee Wee Special Training DayMany thanks to Andrew 'Smilee' Silitoe, who spent a morning taking our minnows and pee wees through a rigorous training session. The squad has never looked so attentive! The feedback was excellent and the juniors gained a lot of new skills. Andrew ran through a number of drills aimed at improving the positional sense of the players, particularly in trying to gain width across the rink. He worked on passing, positioning, skating and fitness in the three hour session. He also left the coaches, Dennis and Kevin, with a program to help the team to progress towards SASH membership in 2002. Andrew was very complimentary about the quality of the team given the stage in our development. What we need most, he said, is match play. Check out Andrew's web site at Black Biscuit.
New Committee elected at AGMThe new committee was elected at the Annual General Meeting on August 15th. Chairperson - Darren Capel Vice-Chair - Wilf Iliffe Secretary - Jamie Cochran Treasurer - Graham Walker Competitions and Events Liason Officer - Sharon Morgan Sponsorship and Puplicity Officer - Nicky Hillier Committee Member - Chris Hodgkins Coaching - Dennis and Kevin Pee Wee managers - Matt and Jamie Feel free to make contact with any of the committee if you want to make your views heard. We welcome all constructive feedback from members. Remember - if we don't know it's broken, we can't fix it.
Bulldogs Shirt Design
More TimeWe now have an extra 30 minutes on Saturday mornings, which should allow us time to drill the seniors and improve our technique. We must be clear of the rink be 11.30 as Spiceball book it out for 5-a-side soccer at that time. We are looking into the possibility of moving to Saturday evenings later in the year but we are aware that this could cause conflicts for some people. Let's face it - Saturday night is party night for a lot of people! We need your feedback on this one - email Wilf and let him know your views. The other question is: would you pay more to play for longer? Let us have your views on this as well. If we are going to move from an off-peak time to a peak time, Spiceball will charge more per hour for the rink. How much more can (or would) you be prepared to pay?
May Committee MeetingTopics at the committee meeting held on 20th May included:
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