With a big squad, we travelled to Trojans for our last friendly before the league starts next week. The game started at quite a pace, with both sides passing the ball around quickly and crisply. It’s hard for me to decide who had more pressure in the first part of the game, but I’d probably go with Trojans, who seemed very dangerous on the counter attack, and were probably unlucky
First things first. I was handed the skipper’s armband before we’d even left our club to travel to Romsey…..oh woe is me! I’m far too old and unfit to be captaining any side, and it’s hard enough concentrate on my own game, let alone everyone else’s. Anyway, off we went…..usual magical mystery tour. On arrival, we duly changed into our away strip……black. Good job it wasn’t sunny and really, really hot…………oh…that’s right,
Great night last had by all the Cude clan at the village hall in Spetisbury, listening to the wonderful band Backbeat, fundraising for Julia’s House. Mark Cheesley (Haunchers’ prestigious captain….that’s him on the left) singing his heart out and strumming on any number of guitars throughout the performance. Great night, great music, great people, great charity! Anyone looking to book and band in the Dorset, South Hampshire, South Wiltshire area…..I
Not quite sure I’m going to do this ever ytime I play, but here’s a little about yesterday’s match vs Hamble. Our team (Salisbury), turned up with a large squad of 15, many of which were juniors, and it became apparent quite quickly that we would be up against it. Hamble were compact, fit, strong and well drilled as a team. They also play a higher standard of hockey than we
About a month ago, one afternoon, while researching some details about one of my blogs on the internet, I stumbled across a website. Unusually, it was one I’d not seen or heard of before, something of a surprise given all the information about hockey clubs and hockey related websites I’ve collected and collated on my own website over the past year. This website was for the National Hockey Museum http://www.hockeyarchives.co.uk/Default.aspx and from
The first thing I have to do is say a big thank you to GB. No, not the Great Britain team, but one of my best friends in the world, Gary Butt, without whom my trip to the Olympics simply wouldn’t have been possible. I had an absolutely wonderful day, probably the best I could have had without my wife and kids. The journey to the Olympic park was nothing
If you had asked me at the start of the year how I felt about this summer’s Olympics, I probably would have told you that I wasn’t all that bothered. With the exception of the hockey, I wouldn’t have thought I would have taken a look at much else. But…..how things have changed. Even before the games started, the interest in the Cude household had almost reached fever pitch. From
When I first started playing club hockey at the ripe old age of 13 (old by today’s standards, but pretty young then), I constantly heard about an ex-Salisbury player who’d moved on, but was talent personified and destined for greater things in the hockey world. His name was John Shaw. He went on to represent Great Britain, and I can remember vividly watching him play on TV in both the
What seems like a very long time ago, when Havant were widely regarded as the best men’s hockey side in the country, Salisbury 1st XI were drawn against them in the cup. Of all the teams we could have drawn……WOW! There was much excitement in the build up and quite a few of the club’s men and ladies who weren’t playing in the game travelled down to Havant to support
Sean Kerly, Ian Taylor, Imran Sherwani, David Faulkner, Richard Dodds, John Shaw, Rob Hill and Russell Garcia are all names that conjure up powerful emotions and memories for me. The Los Angeles Olympic Games in 1984 were the first to really capture my imagination, despite the fact that I’d been playing hockey for many, many years by then. Whether it was the prominence of the hockey in my life (probably!!),