Club updates: November 2025

With the season now in full swing, the ELHC Executive Committee met in October and November to review progress and keep plans moving forward across the club.

The committee is delighted to welcome two new members!

Annie Hall is the new Women’s Club Captain. Annie brings a wealth of experience, energy and commitment to the role and will be working closely with team captains and the wider committee to support players across all sections of the club. We’re thrilled to have her on board and look forward to the positive impact she’ll make this season. We’d like to again place on record our thanks to Chili for her efforts whilst in the role earlier this season.

Amrit Lotay has also joined the committee as our new Youth Development Officer. Amrit brings extensive experience working with the youth section and is a qualified youth coach. Having supported junior hockey at ELHC for many years, Amrit is dedicated to developing our youth section. We’re excited to see the positive impact he will make as we continue to grow and strengthen our youth programme. We’d also like to thank Toby for his hard work and commitment to the club in this role for many years, and we wish him all the best in South Africa.

Work on player registration is now complete. Thank you to both Annie Brown and Lara for your hard work on this. The club is also finalising its CASC submission - an important step in maintaining ELHC’s commitment to being an accessible, community-focused organisation. Most of the work is complete with submission expected this week.

Thanks to the generous backing of a new sponsor, the youth section will see a welcome boost this season. Thank you to Cleo for working hard to source this funding. Alongside this, a grant application is being prepared to further support junior development. Together, these initiatives will help ensure we continue to offer high-quality coaching and playing opportunities for young players at an affordable cost to families.

With the season in full swing, our Deputy Hockey Development Officer will be looking into coaching, mentoring and workshops for coaches, strengthening development across the section. Likewise, on umpiring, the desire for more coaching and game management support was highlighted. A strategy is being developed to allow for more umpire assessments to take place and a focus on supporting and developing umpires across the club.

Plans for the End-of-Season Dinner are also taking shape. Following further discussions with the Social team, we can confirm that the End of Season Dinner will take place on Saturday, 18th April at The Fox. Watch this space for further information on how to buy your tickets.

Captains are encouraged to share match reports on social media to celebrate team successes and keep everyone up to date. The re-launch of match reports will be shared with captains, who will be encouraged to post highlights and updates from the weekend’s games.

Looking ahead, preparations are underway for ELHC’s 35th anniversary celebrations, including early plans for an ‘All-Star game’ featuring a special President’s XI led by Roger against a Chair’s XI led by Alex to mark this special milestone. The game is scheduled for a Sunday in March, with dates to be confirmed shortly.

Indoor hockey entries for both men’s and women’s teams have also been submitted. We are now awaiting confirmation on details from England Hockey. The open/men’s tournament will take place on Saturday, 13th December, and the women’s tournament will take place on Sunday, 14th December at Whitgrift School, Croydon. Watch this space for more information!

The club is committed to regularly reviewing and updating its policies to ensure they remain current, relevant, and responsive to the needs and feedback of players, captains, and committee members. In response to survey feedback, Annie Hall and Andy Fox are drafting a Club Selection Policy to ensure all selection decisions are fair, transparent and consistent across the club. Lara will also liaise with the Kit Secretary to complete an audit of the club kit and develop a Kit Policy.

Finally, managing fixtures across multiple pitches is a key challenge for ELHC, so we’re appointing an additional Fixtures Secretary to help coordinate the second half of the season. If you are interested in applying for this role, please contact elhcsec@gmail.com .

The next Exec Committee meeting will take place in early January. As we approach the end of the first half of the season, on behalf of the Committee, we would like to express our thanks to all those who have volunteered their time to ensure the effective and smooth running of the club.