Wapping Hockey Wapping Hockey

It’s all up from here 

Huge congratulations to the mighty Men’s 2s, Dockers and Women’s 5s who have smashed their seasons and secured league wins with 2 games to go! All three teams have dominated their respective leagues and should be incredibly proud of the performances they’ve put in this season, so let’s get celebrating and get ready for a big one!

This weekend marks the beginning of end of season festivities so head on down to the Moretown Belle for a packed evening full of fun and prizes at the 1’s club fundraiser. A note (because someone asked me this week) that the annual 1s fundraiser is an event organised by our 1s as thanks for the club’s support and all funds raised benefit the whole club (not just the 1s 😅)

Roll up, roll up!

Our Men’s and Women’s 1s have outdone themselves this year having organised quite possibly the most exciting raffle in the history of the club including THREE getaways and heaps of amazing other prizes, so make sure you’ve got your event ticket, raffle tickets, and submitted your bid for the silent auction.

❤️ MASSIVE thanks to all the very generous donors for their support ❤️

Here’s just a taste of what you could win... 👀 🎟️

🍾 Drinks & Spirits 🍾

  • 🍸 Tickets to Hayman’s Gin Distillery Tour & a bottle Portobello Gin

  • 🥃 Bottles of Grey Goose Vodka, Suntory Yamazaki Plum Whisky Blend, Jack Daniels, Famous Grouse, Taylor’s Port and a bottle of Pommery Champagne! 

  • 🍹 £500 worth of Feeney’s bar / Moretown Belle vouchers 

  • 🍻For those less enticed by the finer spirits –> a Mix Crate of Brewdog Beers

🏃🏻 Sports & Fitness 🏃🏾

  • 🏑 Hockey Stick + 2x Gloves donated by our own Matt Bowen from his up and coming brand (watch this space 👀)

  • 🏑 Blaze Hockey Stick

  • 🤩 Women’s Team GB Paris 2024 Olympics shirt signed by the ENTIRE team 

  • 🎽 Tess Howard signed England shirt & vest

  • 🇬🇧 GB Training Top & LFC Training Top

  • 🏋️ Eastside Fitness: 2x 10 class passes+ £50 voucher to spend in store!

  • 🧖‍♀️ Hackney Rooftop Sauna Session for 4

  • 🙆‍♀️ Physio session w/ Bethany Sharp

🎁 Luxury & Lifestyle 🎁

  • 💎 Beautiful Simon Wright Diamond Earrings 

  • 🏔️ 2-Day Getaway in the Peak District 

  • 🔪 Bespoke Chopping Board from Borg Woodwork Designs

  • 🏩 Stay at Moretown Belle Hotel 

  • 🍰 Afternoon Tea at Luton Hoo Spa 

🥳 Extras & Goodies 🥳

  • 🥦 Hello Fresh (4 free boxes + shipping)

  • 🍩 Urban Legend Doughnut Easter Hamper 

  • 🍯 Farmshop Hamper from Birchden Farm

  • 🧼 Wild Products: Body Wash & Deodorant Bundle

✨🌿Luxury Week in the Lake District? 🌿✨

Have you ever dreamed of escaping to a breathtaking Lake District retreat? Now’s your chance! As well as the many great raffle prizes, the 1s are hosting a Silent Auction for an unforgettable 7-night stay at Lowfield House – a stunning luxury holiday home in Little Langdale, complete with five ensuite bedrooms, panoramic views, and a private hot tub.

Whether you want to take your family, or pool together as a team to get a week of team bonding during your slip week, or just fancy a touch of luxury in the heart of Cumbria's UNESCO World Heritage Site to yourself, this stay can guarantee an unforgettable week for up to 10 people - with 2 Super King Room, 1 King Room and 2 Twin Rooms equipped with Queen Sized Beds each with their own high spec ensuite. 

If this hasn't convinced you to enter, take a look at the website to take a look at what’s on the table yourself!

This incredible getaway is open to everyone – you don’t need to be a Wapping Hockey Club member to enter, so spread the word! 🎉

How to Enter:

  • 📩 For online entries, email your bid to wappingfundraiser@gmail.com before 6 PM on March 29th

  •  🎟️ If you are attending the fundraiser event on Saturday, March 29th there is a chance to bid in person.

Key Details:

  • 📅 Your stay will be between Nov 1, 2025 – Mar 30, 2026 (excluding school holidays)

  •  🏡 Luxury accommodation for up to 10 guests

  •  💆‍♂️ Unwind in the hot tub, explore scenic trails, and experience world-class dining & wildlife

  • This is an exclusive opportunity to experience the Lake District like never before. Bid high, bid early, and make this dream stay yours! 🌟

Tell your family & friends – Spread the word - anyone can enter!

U14 and U12 boys doing us proud! 🏆

Sunday the 16th saw a huge day at Lee Valley for our U14 boys - a team which included a number of our U12s - who took part in the Tier 3 London Hockey Cup final, winning 3-2 against Old Cranleighans in a truly exciting game. We’re so proud of you all and are currently organising where we can display the trophy 👀

Thank you as always to Grant for his dedication to our juniors, coaching on Fridays and providing matchday support. 

Last Sunday, our U12 boys took part in the Tier 1 London Cup competition at Southgate against the strongest teams in London. A fabulous team performance saw them topping their group after beating Wayfarers and Hampstead & Westminster en route. The semi final play off took them against Blackheath, where the final score was 1-1 and, after some debate, proceeded to penalty shuffles, where Wapping lost out 2-1. The eventual winners of the competition were Wayfarers, who Wapping beat 3-1 in the group stages. The performance of this young team shows just how much talent we have at Wapping.

Umpires

Congratulations to Women’s 1 skipper, Izzy Montgomery, who passed her Level 1 umpiring assessment shortly before leading her team to a juicy victory against East London in the National League.

Eoin Robinson of M1 fame was also successful in passing his Level 1 assessment before locking in a 3-1 victory for M1 against Teddington.

It’s great to see members taking on umpiring, a reminder that we always need more umpires - the more we have, the less that individuals need to do. Please consider signing up here. 

End of season drinks

We had a stormer at The Northcote celebrating the W1s brilliant derby victory and M2’s promotion. Our friends at The Northcote are throwing us a bash on April 5th to celebrate the end of the season, grab your teams and head down! 

Dates for the diary 

This week’s fixtures

Last week’s results

Member discounts:

Check out our Members' area (Password: whc1989) which has all of our available offers, including:

  • 5% discount and 5% club kick back at the Moretown Belle

  • A free Psycle session

  • Grubby: 50% off + free delivery on 1st box, plus 30% off for the rest of the month

  • Balling: All members = 15% off, W1 and M1 = 25% off. We also get 25% off OTE sports (sports nutrition bars, etc)

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Wapping Hockey Wapping Hockey

Big Derby Saturday

Happy Friday! The end of season is in sight and there’s fun to be had every week until then. We’ve got a bunch of teams on the edge of promotion and another set fighting relegation, so set aside your Saturdays, get yourself pitch-side, and get your support on. Read on for all the important dates, end of season admin, how to sign up for CAWHL and a round up of our amazing Kidds tournaments.

Dates for the diary 

  • 15th March - W1 vs East London derby match (LV @ 18:00)

  • 29th March - 1s club fundraiser (Moretown Belle)

  • 5th April - Last game drinks (The Northcote)

  • 12th April - End of Season Dinner (Underglobe)

  • 19th April - 25/26 season early registration deadline

  • 22nd April - AGM (online)

  • 28th April - CAWHL starts

  • 9th August - Club Day

East London derby 

On Saturday night, the W1 take on East London at 6pm (Lee Valley) in one of their biggest games of the season. With East circling the relegation zone and the W1s going from strength to strength, but just 3 points above, it’s bound to be a juicy game, so let’s get in the stands and bring the winning sideline vibes.

Round off a day of wins with a shindig at The Northcote where there’ll be a live band and a raucous time 🎶🥁🎸

Last game drinks

Our friends at the Northcote are also kindly throwing us a bash on April 5th to celebrate the last games of the season. Hopefully the sun is shining and we can sit in their beautiful beer garden - make sure to head down after your games and celebrate all the promotions!

End of season admin

This is your last chance to vote for the EOSD awards - deadline Monday. A perfect chance to shout out that teammate who’s finally mastered an ariel, or at the very least learnt to turn up to matches in the right socks. There’s also the highly coveted top goal scorer award to be won at EOSD, if you want to be considered for this, your captain needs to have entered your goals in the team spreadsheet - please pester them if this isn’t done so you can be suitably applauded. 

End of Season Dinner will take place on April 12th at Underglobe in Southbank, grab your tickets here.

Wapping Fundraiser

Join the 1s at our clubhouse, The Moretown Belle, on the 29th March for a night packed with fun and laughter, all for a great cause!

You can buy quiz tickets and raffle books on the website now!

AGM

The annual Wapping AGM will take place on April 22nd, online at 7pm. This is a chance to hear a rundown of everything that happened this year, an overview of finances, and our plans for the future. We need 10% of members to attend to be quorate so please pop this in the diary. 

CAWHL is coming!

Everyone’s favourite summer league kicks off on April 28th. Sign up to a team here. We’re still looking for helpers and team captains, please consider stepping in to help the tournament run smoothly. 

Eastern City BID Community Fund

We’re absolutely thrilled to announce that Wapping Kidds has been awarded £6,400 from the Eastern City BID Community Fund! 

This funding will help cover our Saturday morning Kidds' pitch & coaching costs, plus some much-needed hockey balls, helping us continue our mission of making sports accessible to all kids, no matter their background. 

A huge THANK YOU to our amazing sponsorship secretaries, Steph Greenslade and Estelle Carrington for their tireless work in applying for countless grants, and to the Eastern City BID Community Fund for believing in what we do. 

DC Umpiring National League

Congratulations to Dan Carter⁩ for being the first Wapping Umpire to umpire a National League Division 1 match last weekend between Wimbledon W2 & Guildford W1s. We are very lucky to have Dan as our Umpire Development Officer, helping newer umpires to learn the ropes - please do utilise his wisdom. 

Social media coordinator

We are looking for a Social Media Coordinator. This person will take the lead on managing the media side of projects like Team Takeovers, Derby Days, Pride month and more. They do not need to be a photoshop wiz but should have a keen interest in social media management. If you know anyone looking to get professional experience for their CV, this is the role. For more info please reach out to James Budgen by mobile 07401227298, message the club instagram or email me at wappinghop@gmail.com

Wapping Kidds In2Hockey tournament

Last weekend was an absolutely fantastic weekend for our junior section who hosted a huge In2Hockey event and whose U12B played their first indoor tournament. Massive thanks to all the coaches, umpires, helpers and organisers who made it happen 🫶

  • U12B topped their pool with 3 great wins (4-1 against Wimbledon), losing to Old Cranleighans in the semi final of the ’London Invitational Indoor Championship’ but winning bronze in the play-off! 🥇

  • U10B had a draw and 2 losses but managed to make it through for another game after a dramatic penalty shootout and finished off with a win against East 💪

  • Wapping U10Gs played an amazing tournamen, going through unbeaten in pool play (3 wins and 2 draws), a 1-0 win in the semi-final v London Wayfarers. Unfortunately the only goal we conceded in the tournament was in the last minute of the final v Brom Becks (who we drew with in pool play). Equally matched teams and could have gone either way. Special thanks to all our amazing supporters and mascots.

The fun doesn’t stop! This weekend is equally as jam-packed:

Sunday 16 March @ Lee Valley

Get to Lee Valley on Sunday to watch Wapping's U14 Boys team take on Old Cranleighans in the London Championship Tier 3 Cup Final. Starting 12.30 on the glory pitch, our U14s will be doing all they can to achieve glory for Wapping Kidds. Half of the Wapping team is made up of the U12 team who last week performed extremely well in their first ever indoor games, losing only in the semi-final to Old Cranleighans in the inaugural London indoor championships. There is a score to be settled.

Sunday 16 March @ John Orwell

JO is host to THREE tournaments, there will be cake, coffee, and a lot of small children wielding hockey sticks. Bound to be fun. Watch your ankles.

  • 10:00-11:30 U8s

  • 11:30-13:00 U10G

  • 13:00-14:30 U12G

U10B are at Blackheath 10am start and U12B are in Mile End also at 10am.

This week’s fixtures

Last week’s results

Member discounts:

Check out our Members' area (Password: whc1989) which has all of our available offers, including:

  • 5% discount and 5% club kick back at the Moretown Belle

  • A free Psycle session

  • Grubby: 50% off + free delivery on 1st box, plus 30% off for the rest of the month

  • Balling: All members = 15% off, W1 and M1 = 25% off. We also get 25% off OTE sports (sports nutrition bars, etc)

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Wapping Hockey Wapping Hockey

Sun’s out, fun’s out

Happy Friday, all! With the 🌞 finally out, and end of season fast approaching, there’s week after week of fun to warm you up for summer so make sure you’ve got everything in the diary. We’ve also been plying you with updates left, right and centre - so thanks for hanging in there! In case you’ve lost track of what’s happening/needs doing, a handy list can be found below 🫶

End of season admin

  • If you’re planning on playing at Wapping next season, please make sure you’ve confirmed this here.

  • It’s time to vote for the EOS awards! This form has both the team player/most improved and the wider club nominations. We’d love to hear from as many people as possible - even if you don’t have a name for each category, just filling in what you can (particularly for your team prizes so that your captains don’t get too much power) is really helpful for us as we look at all the data when awarding prizes. 

    If you won an award last year, you will have been contacted by now to return your trophy, please do so by the deadline of March 15th so that we can get them engraved for their new homes!

  • As detailed last week, End of Season Dinner will take place on April 12th at the Underglobe in Southbank and thanks to Simon Wright you could be in with the chance of winning a stunning gold and silver hockey tie slide 😍
    Grab your tickets
    here
    (scroll down the page to add your raffle tickets before adding to cart).

“As sponsor of Wapping Hockey Club I love having the opportunity to create unique pieces for the fundraisers, so I have made a sterling silver stick and yellow gold ball tie slide for the end of season award night raffle. Well done to everyone for a great season! It would retail for £400 so well worth a punt on a ticket! If you are interested in buying one for yourself or the hockey enthusiast in your life get in touch.” - Simon Wright

Watch your 1s

Wapping W1s have four huge games left in their first ever season in National League. Their next 3 games are all at Lee Valley at 6pm.

On 15th March, Wapping play local rivals East London W1 - a huge derby that our 1s came out on top of before Christmas.  After the game we'll head for club drinks at the beloved Northcote Arms, hopefully victorious in both our hockey and cheerleadering achievements.

Points at the lower half of Conference East league are tight. So while Wapping are currently in 7/10, it means as a club we all need to get behind our fab 1s to give them as much support as possible. Make sure to show them how proud we are by getting down to LV on 15th March, but also this weekend and 22nd March if you can to cheer them on!

The good times keep coming 

Join the 1s at our beloved clubhouse, The Moretown Belle, on the 29th March for a night packed with fun and laughter, all for a great cause! Keep your eyes peeled on their socials for updates on all the amazing prizes you could win 👀

Quiz tickets and raffle books available on the webshop now!

Going out in style

Our Lee Valley hangout, the Northcote, are kindly putting on a bash to celebrate the last game of the season on April 5th. 

More details to come, but get the date in your diary, and start the end of season celebrations (and hopefully a few promotions) early.

Baby Burnie

Our long-serving goalkeeper and dedicated committee member, Stuart Burnside, recently became a proud father — and we couldn’t let the moment pass without a special, hockey-related gift in the form of matching Wapping HC goalkeeper jerseys:

One for our ever-reliable shot-stopper and one for the newest (and possibly cutest) future club legend. Congratulations, Stu - looks like you’ve got some competition for the No. 1 jersey in a few years!

Welcome to the world (of hockey), Margot!

*Shoutout to Hawkinsport for their help in making the baby jersey a reality and another big thank you to all Wapping HC members that donated towards the gift - you all helped make a tired man smile.

U14 Boys on 🔥🔥🔥

After an absolute thriller of a game against Teddington, including goals from Bakkali and Winkelgrund, our U14B storm through to the Tier 3 London Hockey cup final 🏆🥳

Special shout outs to

  • Arthur who, having recently been coached by inspirational junior GK, Mya, had an absolute stormer, including a last gasp save in the dying seconds! 🥅 ⛔️

  • Grant whose die hard dedication to coaching and solid good vibes has supported these boys to be the best they can be 🫶

  • The five U12 boys who formed part of this team and helped smash it out the park.

Dates for the diary 

  • 15th March - W1 vs East London derby match (LV @ 18:00 with afterparty at The Northcote).

  • 29th March - 1s club fundraiser at the Moretown Belle - tickets here

  • 5th April - Last game of the season fun at the Northcote

  • 12th April - End of Season Dinner - tickets here

  • 19th April - 25/26 season early registration deadline - register here

  • 9th August - Club Day - It’s gonna be a big one so get it in the diary now.

This week’s fixtures

Last week’s results

Member discounts:

Check out our Members' area (Password: whc1989) which has all of our available offers, including:

  • 5% discount and 5% club kick back at the Moretown Belle

  • A free Psycle session

  • Grubby: 50% off + free delivery on 1st box, plus 30% off for the rest of the month

  • Balling: All members = 15% off, W1 and M1 = 25% off. We also get 25% off OTE sports (sports nutrition bars, etc)

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Wapping Hockey Wapping Hockey

I know a (South) Bank Where…

We’re back with another bumper edition, featuring important updates regarding next years’ membership and the details for EOSD that we know everyone’s been waiting for.

Membership for next year

We previously communicated that we are running a sign up scheme for next season’s membership. This is crucial for a growing club like ours as without a clear indication of numbers for the upcoming season, we run the risk of having over-subscribed teams or having to drop a team at short notice (both of which we’ve seen this season despite incredible planning from our VCPs and club captains). Ambiguity ultimately costs the club money at a time when we are working tirelessly to constrain costs and to think more carefully about how we can invest our money to make it go further.

So if you plan to play next season, please sign up now before the deadline of April 20th. Pay £20 now and get a £30 discount code to use on your membership in September. It’ll also save your captains the burden of having to chase you to do it 🙏

Reminder to buy socks / merch

We have some very exciting kit updates coming your way regarding next season, and in light of this we are clearing out stock we’ve acquired at sale prices, this includes a set of home & away socks for £15 (£5 off), and a discount on bucket hats.

There are also superb carbon sticks to purchase for a very reasonable price and other bits of stash that we have worked hard to make affordable. All merch we sell is crucial for club fundraising so please do look to treat yourself.

CAWHL volunteers and teams

CAWHL is officially set to return on April 28th, and with this we really need people to help with ad hoc jobs. The league caters to 28 teams and over 700 participants, which can be a lot for a small team to organise alone. Roles include things like noting down scores, ensuring games have umpires and coordinating ringers. Each one doesn’t take long but can relieve significant pressure off the organising team. Please drop a text (+447546354481) to our Secretary or email us if you can help.

I know a (south) bank where the wild Wapping blows…

Break out the black tie and join us on the 12th April for an incredible night celebrating another successful season! Social Secs, Hannah and Marti, have outdone themselves once again, negotiating an absolutely cracking deal at The Underglobe - an amazing central London venue on the South Bank for a night not to be missed. 

For those who remember last year (probs not many of us ngl), we tried a more DIY event in Leyton, with separate after party to keep the ticket price as low as possible but ended up with a logistical nightmare on our hands (no speakers for the disco, a bar running out of drinks and after party dramas) so this year we’ve gone back to the all inclusive option, and thanks to some tough negotiating, at a steal.

This year, EOSD is themed 'A midsummer night’s dream' in a nod to the ethereal venue 🌸 ✨️ 

Details:

  • Date: Saturday 12th April

  • Time: 18:30pm - 1:00am

  • Where: Underglobe

  • Dress code: Black Tie (optional: ethereal twist)

  • Cost £85pp (50% discount if you’ve umpired 10 games)

  • Welcome drink, two course meal and 1/2 bottle of wine included! 

  • Get your ticket here NOW

Hope to see you there! 💃💃

🚀 Exciting Leadership Update from Aaron Fronda 🚀

Amid a season of tirelessly perfecting the art of mid-table mediocrity (avoiding relegation) for the M7s, I am humbled and honored to step into the role of Men’s Club Captain.

This is not just a title. It’s a calling. A chance to inspire, to lead, and, most importantly, to chase down availability to double up on a Saturday.

Working with fellow MCC, Chris Tipple, I will endeavour to strengthen team spirit through the strategic deployment of pints and exhibiting occasional competence on the pitch.

Stepping into this role also means attempting to fill the shoes of the great, and frankly beautiful, Craig Tuaine, who has been massive help to me, other captains and the wider club. 

I look forward to working with everyone at our incredible club to drive Wapping HC forward, both on and off the field.

Here’s to a season of glory, graft, and groin strains.

#Leadership #Hockey #WappingHC #Captaincy #UnpaidInternship

Goalies take note

There will be a club-wide GK training session on Wednesday 5th March, between 8.30pm-10pm, at JO. The session will be taken by Aurora Mears, former Premier League and GB Development Squad GK. All Wapping GK’s welcome.

Please don’t bring your tinnies to LV

Please be reminded that it’s not permitted to bring alcohol from outside into Lee Valley as it’s a breach of their license - we’ve had a few near-misses recently which, if LV had pursued, could have landed teams with fines north of £100. Any fines will need to be paid by the team responsible.

(Also a reminder that our sponsor, Shandy Shack, have shandies available to purchase which are a fruity delight).

Pirates tour to Sonning

We’re now at capacity for the Pirates tour to Sonning, which is fab - it’s no doubt going to be fantastic. There’s normally a couple of drop outs closer to the time, so if you fancy being on a reserve list, please fill out the form:

Date: Friday 4th July - Sunday 6th July 2025 

Location: Sonning Hockey Club

This week’s fixtures

Last week’s results

Dates for the diary 

  • 15th March - W1 vs East London derby match (LV @ 18:00 with afterparty at The Northcote).

  • 29th March - 1s club fundraiser

  • 12th April - End of Season Dinner

  • 19th April - 25/26 season early registration deadline

  • 9th August - Club Day - It’s gonna be a big one so get it in the diary now.

Member discounts:

Check out our Members' area (Password: whc1989) which has all of our available offers, including:

  • 5% discount and 5% club kick back at the Moretown Belle

  • A free Psycle session

  • Grubby: 50% off + free delivery on 1st box, plus 30% off for the rest of the month

  • Balling: All members = 15% off, W1 and M1 = 25% off. We also get 25% off OTE sports (sports nutrition bars, etc)

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Wapping Hockey Wapping Hockey

All systems go

We’ve had a bit of a hiatus from Back Posting these last couple of weeks as there’s been lots going on with the committee meeting, men’s/women’s days, kit supplier negotiations and CIO planning, but we’re back with a number of important updates so please have a thorough read.

Dates for the diary 

The inaugural Men’s Day and Women’s Day 2.0 were resounding successes thanks to a storming social and karaoke at The Northcote and communal teas and drinks at The Moretown Belle. Big thanks to our Club Captains, Tipple and Issy, for organising, and to everyone who took part.

And the good times aren’t over! There’s plenty of fun in store so get the following in your diary:

  • 15th March - W1 vs East London derby match (LV @ 18:00 with afterparty at The Northcote).

    29th March - 1s club fundraiser - Details below!

  • 12th April - End of Season dinner - Details coming soon!

  • 19th April - 25/26 season early registration deadline - More on this below

  • 9th August - Club Day - It’s gonna be a big one so get it in the diary now.

Recruitment and 25/26 season registration 

We’re now in full planning mode for next season and to avoid issues with team registration/oversubscription we’ve set up an early sign up scheme. 

If you intend on playing next season please sign up before the 20th of April so we have a clear idea of returning members. Not only will this save you £10 and help the club with planning for the year ahead, it will also secure your place playing league hockey which we cannot guarantee for those joining later.

We’re also considering our recruitment strategy, across all teams in the club, for next season. 

One of the recruitment angles we are considering is the offering of employment opportunities, both short term and long term. If you either (a) work in recruitment, or (b) are able to provide any sort of employment opportunity, we would be really grateful if you could reach out to Chair, Helen, or stand-in VCP, Warren. Thanks. 

Socks on sale!

With an exciting kit update on the horizon, it’s time for a flash sale of the merch we have in stock, including a fiver off a set of home and away socks so treat yourself to some now!

One of the reasons we’ve been able to leverage such competitive kit offers is because we look so fly on our socials 💅 so please do be repping by wearing official Wapping socks to all your games. 

Merch can be purchased from our webshop and all orders will be fulfilled by our kit sec to either LV/JO as requested.

NB. Kit for the 25/26 season is being colour matched to our current kit, so any socks purchased now will still look peng next season.

R.E.S.P.E.C.T

Wapping has been blessed with a blossoming umpire community thanks to a huge amount of hard work from our ULOs, UDOs, and support from those who umpire. We now have a fantastic Umpiring - Learning & Discussion group where our UDOs share video clips of incidents for discussion so everyone (umpires or not - it’s open to all) can better understand how to interpret the rules in different game play situations. Our sponsorship team have also secured club radios to ensure our umpires are able to discuss decisions on pitch, and our experienced umpires are working closely with those less experienced to ensure as much support as we can possibly give them. But what our umpiring community needs most is respect. 

There is no single greater resource at our club than the volunteers who make it run, and the mental health of those volunteers is something we take incredibly seriously so I implore everyone at the club to hold themselves and others accountable for their behaviour both on and off pitch. 

I would also like to remind everyone that it is not appropriate to be posting content on social media or in club WhatsApp groups that passes comment on umpiring. This undermines our efforts with our umpire community and more importantly, negatively affects the mental health of those who do give up their time to umpire. As Club Chair, if I see anything posted on social media or in club whatsapp groups that could be interpreted as a negative comment on umpiring then your team risks losing their club umpires for the following game and the individuals who posted it may also face a financial penalty/playing ban. 

The Chair of London Hockey has reached out, asking us to raise awareness about expected behaviours and about what to do when misconduct occurs so please do take the time to read the following:

🎉 Get ready for an unforgettable night at the Wapping HC Fundraiser! 🎉

Join us at our beloved clubhouse, The Moretown Belle, on the 29th March for a night packed with fun and laughter, all for a great cause! 🏒💥 

We want to bring together the best of our hockey community to raise funds and celebrate everything we love about our club.

We have brainstormed all ideas under the sun to make this an unforgettable night, and the more participation we get, the more exciting things we can plan! Expect games, raffles, awesome prizes, and plenty of chances to enjoy a drink or two with great company! 🍻🏅

Details are coming soon, but trust us – you won’t want to miss this! Your support will make a huge difference; we can’t wait to see you there. Let’s make this a night to remember! 🙌🎉

Sponsorship

Our sponsorship secretaries have done a brilliant job this season, in what is a very challenging climate. As ever, the best chance of acquiring sponsorship income is via personal contacts. If you think your company might be at all interested, please do reach out to our sponsorship secretaries, Estelle and Steph, who can provide a copy of the sponsorship deck and some pointers about why getting involved with Wapping is a brilliant idea. With the ever-rising costs, this income is crucial in keeping subs down and continuing the invaluable work we do in the community.

Back to Hockey

With CAWHL just around the corner, now is a great time to rally your friends and colleagues to pick up a stick. Kiran has been coaching B2H for a long time now, providing hugely enjoyable sessions that are suitable for even the most complete beginners. A reminder that it runs every other Monday at 7.30pm, with the next session on February 24th. Here’s a link with more details: https://www.wappinghockey.club/back-to-hockey

Insta on 🔥🔥🔥

Following the smashing new club showcase video put together by our Head of Press, Budgen, and tons of top content from our press team, we’ve hit a new social media height with 2,500 followers on Instagram which is excellent news for our club profile, recruitment and sponsorship. Big shout out to the press gang for all their hard work 📸🫶

The culprits of hat-gate have been identified

Pirates Cap(tains) Ollie and Maddie felt personally slighted by the reminder not to wear caps on the playing field. They’ve since gone into hiding - thank you Iain Davidson for creating a poster and offering to fund a reward.

This week’s fixtures

Last week’s results

Member discounts:

Check out our Members' area (Password: whc1989) which has all of our available offers, including:

  • 5% discount and 5% club kick back at the Moretown Belle

  • A free Psycle session

  • Grubby: 50% off + free delivery on 1st box, plus 30% off for the rest of the month

  • Balling: All members = 15% off, W1 and M1 = 25% off. We also get 25% off OTE sports (sports nutrition bars, etc)

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Wapping Hockey Wapping Hockey

Straight back in

What a mighty first week back!! Lots of Saturday wins with the Dockers, M2s, W5s and Pirates furthering their leads at the top of their tables. Big shout out also to the W2s, W6s and W7s who sit in a tidy second spot in their leagues, with W2 competing on goal difference. 

Sunday was equally massive. Our U12 boys romped their tournament, with 4 wins, 2 draws, 14 for, 0 against. Our U10B put out a full team for the first time and did great, ending in a 1-1 draw against Tulse Hill & Dulwich. The U10 girls managed to put out two teams of six! The Sharks crushed it winning all three games 5-0, 3-0, 1-0 and the Whales showed some top form including a few goals which, having a couple of keen U8s playing, was not too shabby!

Men’s Day 

This Saturday, it’s Men’s Day where we see a number of derbies:

  • M3 vs M4 4pm, LV

  • M5 vs M6 12.30pm, JO

  • M8 vs Dockers 11.10am, JO

Also playing at LV are:

  • M1 vs Barnes 14:30

  • M2 vs Spencer 13:00

After the games, its drinks at The Northcote where Wapping have a space from 3pm onwards. There’s even some special entertainment booked for the evening….

Reminder that we’ve got a repeat of Women’s Day down at JO on February 8th with a social to follow. 

Men's Mental Health Matters

While we’ve got the men’s attention, we’d like to shine a spotlight on men’s mental health. Hockey is more than just a sport; it's a community. And like any community, we all have our ups and downs.

It's important to remember that it's okay to not be okay. We celebrated Men's mental health day recently, as a reminder that men’s mental health is often overlooked, but it's just as important as physical health.

If you're struggling, please reach out. Talk to a friend, family member, or a mental health professional. You don't have to face it alone.

Here are some resources that can help:

 Samaritans: 

Useful apps and websites:

You can also reach out to the club’s welfare team on the email below, who are here to offer confidential support to any member that needs it. 

Email: wappinghcwelfare@gmail.com

Let's break the stigma and support each other.

#MensMentalHealth

Coach spotlight: Aurora 

I am an experienced hockey player and specialist coach with over 12 years of National League playing experience at top clubs, including Holcombe, Reading, Wimbledon, and currently Canterbury HC. My journey also includes representing GB EDP for a few years, which fuelled my passion for high-performance hockey.

As a specialist coach for over 15 years, my coaching style has evolved through my playing career. I strive to provide goalkeepers with a deep understanding of the value and importance of their position, emphasizing how dedicated, focused time can enhance their experience and development. My approach is energetic and supportive, focusing on technical and game-specific skills tailored to individual needs, while building robustness through fundamental skills, strength, and conditioning movements to meet the unique demands of goalkeeping.

I have had the privilege of coaching goalkeepers at all levels and experiences, and I love seeing their individual journeys unfold as they grow and develop.

Hats off to you (no, really)

A reminder that it’s against EH rules to play in hard-peaked caps (eg baseball hats), as they can pose a safety risk. We, as a club, extend this rule to mixed games, including Pirates and CAWHL.

This week’s fixtures

Last week’s results

Dates for your diary

  • Jan 25th - Men’s Day

  • Feb 8th - Women’s Day

  • 12th April - End of Season Dinner

Member discounts:

Check out our Members' area (Password: whc1989) which has all of our available offers, including:

  • 5% discount and 5% club kick back at the Moretown Belle

  • 20% off NuSmile dentists

  • A free Psycle session

  • Grubby: 50% off + free delivery on 1st box, plus 30% off for the rest of the month

  • 10% off all beers at Tap East

  • Balling: All members = 15% off, W1 and M1 = 25% off. We also get 25% off OTE sports (sports nutrition bars, etc)

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Wapping Hockey Wapping Hockey

And we back

Welcome back, Wappers! We hope everyone had a restful Christmas, and that you’ve all enjoyed getting back to fitness as training returns. Our first Back Post back contains some meaty pieces, including an important update on the club’s finances, so please have a thorough read.

Club finance update

Following a mid season finance review, scheduled at the beginning of the season due to issues we had booking pitches, I’m afraid to say we are in need of increasing match fees by £3 per person, per game, for the remainder of this season.

What? Why now?

Each year, around Feb/March, the treasurer puts together a budget based on forecasted costs for the following season. This is based on income/expenditure for the current season, requested costs from suppliers for the following year, and any other intel they have. At the AGM in April, the exec shares the previous season’s finance report and advises whether there will be membership/match fee increases based on this. Each year the actual costs vary from the budget somewhat but this year we are facing a significant deficit.

As you may remember, we had an incredibly rocky start to the season where we were unable to book any fixtures, or have confirmation we would have any slots at John Orwell (or indeed know the price of them), until the 13th of September, one week before the season began. For reference, the London Hockey league releases fixtures in early July and all game information has to be uploaded on GMS by the end of August and our fixtures secretaries normally spend many summer weeks administrating.

OK, so what were all the unexpected costs?

At the point that all league fixtures needed to be on GMS, clubs in Tower Hamlets were not even able to request bookings at JO, despite us having chased multiple times during the summer. For those unaware, in Tower Hamlets there are significantly more teams needing pitches than there are pitch slots, with multiple clubs having to play out of borough at places like Redbridge Sports Centre. 

Unsure if we would receive any pitches at JO this season, and due to the limited availability of pitches, we were advised by the league to book pitches elsewhere to ensure games for our 17 teams could go ahead. This had to happen at the same time Tower Hamlets council were reviewing our request for ur regular slots at JO and meant that once our bookings were confirmed on the 13th September, for a significant portion of the season we had multiple pitch bookings. 

You may also remember that just before the season started, we had to drop our men’s 9th XI due to low numbers which left us with even more pitches than required.

In case that wasn’t bad enough, at the end of last season, we were also asked by the council to run junior summer camps again, advised we would receive funding from the council to run them, and their support with promoting them. Despite this, and much chasing, neither the funding nor the support materialised so we ended up financing the pitches ourselves.

It’s normal at the start of the season to have a number of extra pitch slots that our fixtures secretaries work with other clubs and organisations to offload once our fixtures have been assigned, holding onto a few in case of frozen pitches etc. But since this year all clubs were facing the same issues, at the point where we knew how many extra pitches we had, all other clubs had already secured bookings elsewhere. 

Eleanor has done an absolutely incredible job of working with other clubs, the sports centres, universities etc to repurpose as many pitch slots as possible, and use as many as we can for friendly games, additional training sessions etc, but unfortunately we could not offload all of them, and pitches are very expensive.

Without wanting to bore you with even more details… as well as an excess number of pitch slots, the cost of pitches has increased and we were also notified that our long standing free of charge storage room at JO will now cost us £1,300 per year, and despite a massive amount of work by our sponsorship secs, we have continued to see an even more challenging landscape in terms of competition for grants and - decline in CSR funding available from companies.

What does this mean going forward?

At the end of the season we will review our finances again but are confident that costs for next season are unlikely to vary drastically from this season. I have had a face to face meeting with the manager at JO who’s promised to provide us with a full cost schedule based on our fixtures for the entire season.

We’ve also planned a sign up system which will run from the end of this season for players keen to play the next. This will enable us to have a clearer idea of membership numbers on both sides of the club and the number of teams to enter.

As well as the above, we are currently in the midst of some exciting conversations and projects, including kicking off the Kidds CIO registration, which we’re hoping will have a positive impact on our finances and help plug the remaining shortfall not covered by the increase in match fees.

This sounds like a total nightmare. Is there anything I can do to help?

Yes!

  • Make sure you’ve joined Wapping on Easyfundraising and added the browser extension to your devices so you never fail to make a (totally free) donation to the club when shopping online. 

  • If you know anyone with a business or organisation that might want to support the club/a team/Kidds/CAWHL/our school outreach programmes/Back2Hockey/an event please let us know. Additionally, if you’re well versed in applying for grants or are good at getting money out of people interested in a good cause, please shout.

  • And if all the above sounds like the meaty kinda challenge you want to get your teeth into, reach out to someone on the exec or committee about how to get involved. The committee is a super welcoming place full of wonderful people and we’re always incredibly keen to bring new people on board, regardless of experience or hockey knowledge. We will be sharing info on roles shortly as are hoping to start the onboarding process earlier this year to make pre-season smoother.

TOUR is BACK baby!! 🏴‍☠️ 

Following last year’s success, we’re going to be returning to Sonning again this Summer 2025 for more shenanigans, questionable fancy dress and mixed hockey fun!

Sign up using this form but BE QUICK as spaces are limited and we’re expecting an awesome turnout! 

FOMO ain’t fun 😎

🎨 Poster design by the very talented Emiel Occidental⁩ 
📸 Photography by the equally as talented James Budgen


England Hockey’s new Trans and Non-binary Participation policy

Wapping Hockey Club were disheartened to read England Hockey’s new Trans and Non-binary Participation policy which bans transgender women from participating in women’s hockey at all levels, including as women in mixed hockey, from September 2025. We have been in conversation with our D&I team and our friends, London Royals, to put out a statement which can be read here. We truly believe that sport should be an inclusive and welcoming space for all and we stand with all transgender and non-binary people, whether or not they are members of our club or play hockey.

If you would like to reach out to our club about anything regarding this matter please email our welfare team (wappinghcwelfare@gmail.com) who will be able to direct you appropriately.

City and Wharf Hockey League

Everyone’s favourite summer league is just around the corner but it cannot go ahead without a small group of people to lend a helping hand. Especially if you’re not a current committee member, summer league is a great way to give something back over a shorter duration and gives our exec/committee regulars a break from pulling the organisational strings year-round. CAWHL is a well-oiled machine at this point and would benefit from a few people helping with small logistical elements (e.g. replying to emails, tracking scores, managing ringers etc). Email cityandwharfhockeyleague@gmail.com or text our secretary directly on +447546354481 if you can help.

Also, if you think your company might be interested in signing up, feel free to email us for more info.

That was definitely snow, right?

The great return to training and playing was hampered last week as the cold weather took over. While some teams braved the cold, others were unable to play due to the ice. As always, our fabulous fixtures sec is on the case and will let captains know as soon as possible if training or games are not going ahead. Please don’t bombard her with messages!

On the topic of freezing…

It’s fabulous to see all teams bursting with players. We appreciate that sometimes this means that people are sitting out, it’s immensely difficult as a club to always anticipate how many players we’ll have each season and to plan accordingly. We are currently freezing new playing joiners on the women’s side (but are hoping to engage them with summer league/friendlies/mixed games etc and will review requests on a case-by-case basis). If everyone can make sure that they’ve filled in their availability as far into the future as possible, it would greatly help to manage the flow of individuals until the end of the season.

This week’s fixtures

Dates for your diary

  • Jan 18th - Games restart

  • Feb 8th - Women’s Day

  • 12th or 19th April - End of Season Dinner

Member discounts:

Check out our Members' area (Password: whc1989) which has all of our available offers, including:

  • 5% discount and 5% club kick back at the Moretown Belle

  • 20% off NuSmile dentists

  • A free Psycle session

  • Grubby: 50% off + free delivery on 1st box, plus 30% off for the rest of the month

  • 10% off all beers at Tap East

  • Balling: All members = 15% off, W1 and M1 = 25% off. We also get 25% off OTE sports (sports nutrition bars, etc)

Read More
Wapping Hockey Wapping Hockey

Mid season massive

WHAT A SEASON IT’S BEEN, PEOPLE.

Goals galore, epic socials, top volunteering, a blossoming umpire community, excellent availability, wonderful sponsors, an expanding coaching team, Kidds on point, CIC registration, a tidy JO storeroom… Who could ask for more?

Big thanks to everyone who came to the Christmas social and especially to the massive numbers of you who cut short pres and got there early. It was a brilliant night (thanks to fab Social Secs, Hannah and Marti) and a great show of support for our clubhouse.

Here’s a mid season round up. Big thanks for being the best club in town.

Team of the year update

Team of the year (TOTY) is the system by which teams get points for all the wonderful ways they help around the club, like being on the committee, umpiring and coaching the Kidds. Here are the scores on the doors as they stand. 

Well done to W6 who paid their subs first, and M1 who had the best social media this half of the season. M2 and W7 won best dressed at Halloween, and W3 won best dressed at Christmas.

  • W6 - 955 points

  • Dockers - 890 points

  • W4 - 755 points

  • M7 - 670 points

  • M6 - 660

A huge shout out to the following individuals who are leading the TOTY points, many of whom have collected the majority of their teams’ points:

  • Jordan Smith - 375 points

  • Helen Rogers - 360 points

  • Olivia Shears - 350 points

  • Grant Aidoo Nash - 340 points

  • Isabel Ringrose - 340 points

Please note this doesn’t include any goalscorer stats (grr captains, please fill the tab in) or a couple of other metrics that will be calculated at the end of the season. If you’ve umpired the Kidds on a Sunday, or helped others and don’t think it’s been tracked, please let the secretary know and it can be added on.

Thank you to everyone who has done so much to keep the club running this half of the season, we are always grateful to everyone who has stepped up and would encourage as many people to do so next half.

round ups

Women’s

After a huge reshuffle the women's side is smashing it at the halfway point of the season.

W1’s first ever season in the National League has been fantastic to watch so far, and they're currently sitting mid-table.

W2 are on joint points at the top of the table and fighting hard for that promotion, while the W3 sit comfortably in mid-table.

W4 have been battling hard and are ready for some big wins in the new year. 

W5 are flying at the top of their league with a 5 point lead. And W6 are following up in third despite only being promoted this season. 

W7 also sit high and mighty at the top of their league with a huge 46 goal difference. And the W8, who were newly formed this season, with some players totally new to hockey, are now putting in some impressive performances.

Women's Day 2.0 on 8th February will be another day of derbies and fun to celebrate all our fab women.

- Isabel Ringrose, Women’s Club Captain

Men’s

Heading into the midseason break, M1 sits 5th in a league where just 3 points separate 5 of the top 6 teams, promising goals, excitement, and a wide-open race as we go into 2025!

M2 sit second after a strong first half of the season, with the strongest defence in the league and a 4 point cushion to our nearest promotion rivals. We’ll look to continue our 7 game unbeaten run and hopefully wrap up promotion back to Div1 with little fuss

After a ropey start, M3 sit 3 points off promotion with only one defeat since September, including taking 7 points off the top 3. Two chances for retribution against Indian Gymkhana and M4 in January as we fight for promotion back into Div2. Should be in for an exciting second half of the season.

In the words of the illustrious M4 captain Sam van Der man “M4 occasionally play alright hockey”

M5s head into the Christmas break on 14 points and a mid-table position. Following a difficult previous season the 5s have recruited well and are playing a much improved brand of hockey. Momentum has been building with an extremely impressive away win against third placed Wanders to help round off the first half of the season.

M6’s sit 7th in the league 1 point off 5th and with a game in hand against 6th place. The team have been very consistent beating each of the bottom 4 in our league drawing to the teams from 5-8th and losing by a single goal to 3/4 of the teams above us, let’s not talk about the final one… Second half of the season we’ll aim to turn the 1 goal defeats and draws into wins!

Newly-promoted M7 currently sit in 8th place, 3 points above the drop. With a new-look squad and a steep learning curve, there have been some gutsy performances. Remaining in control of their fate with early, key showdowns in the new year against London Accies and old foes THD. The fight for survival will heat up in 2025!

After a dramatic reshuffle (RIP the 9s) and 3 consecutive bye weeks, the M8s initially struggled to get into the groove. A rocky start to the season on 3 points (but beating East). In recent weeks we have faced a number title chasing teams and showed major improvement, with chances created but not taken. We now aim to turn these improvements into wins in 2025, and hopefully score our next P flick.

Dockers head into the New Year top of the league and still unbeaten. The juniors have been the heartbeat of the team improving week on week and the league title is ours to lose. BZ to all who have played for the Dockers in 2024 🤙

- Men’s captains

Kidds

It has been a huge pleasure to see so many children play their first competitive matches this year. Our U8s have exploded both in number and noise, and played in two tournaments. The U10s, U12G and U14B teams have been challenged at times with insufficient numbers but that never deters these determined players. The U12 boys are making themselves known in their league with the highlight being the Krakens’ unforgettable wins against Southgate and Surbiton. The U14 girls continue to chat, laugh and win (nearly) all of their matches and the Kidds closed the season with our U14 mixed team winning an epic 11 game tournament on Saturday.

None of this is possible without the dedicated work of the coaches. Volunteering their time each weekend and encouraging the juniors every step. We thank you all.

- Amy Winklegrund, Kidds’ Chair

Umpiring

As the year wraps up, we’re pleased to report that we’ve fulfilled nearly all our umpire fixtures, often early in the week, which has helped keep things running smoothly. We’ve also continued to support other local teams when in need, ensuring games can go ahead. It’s been great to see regulars like Iain and Budgen continuing their commitment, while new faces such as Flo, Jesse, Annie, and Euan have brought fresh energy to the team.

Thanks to funding from Tesco we now have radios to support our umpires and ensure our officiating is as good as it can be. We also have a blossoming umpiring community complete with brand new ‘Learning and Discussion’ whatspp group, born from the excellent clip sharing and discussion that was happening in the umpire admin chat. This group is open to everyone and is an excellent way to understand more about umpiring, the rules, and interpretation of the rules within game situations, so please do check it out. Big shout out to our UDOs, Phil, DC and James for their continued support and guidance.

Looking ahead to 2025, we want to see even more players from all teams involved—whether by completing the umpire course and officiating league games, or casually umpiring junior tournaments and friendlies. Building a more engaged umpiring community will only make us stronger as a club.

Finally, a huge thanks to Jane, our outstanding Umpire Liaison Officer. She’s managed the setup solo, keeping everything running smoothly and ensuring Smithy didn’t get too much power! Her dedication has been key to our success, and we’re incredibly grateful for her efforts.

- Jordan Smith

​​Chedd, the main money man

Props to Joe Chedd, of M1 and Insta fame, for being unanimously selected by the London Hockey Board as their new Finance Director. As with club roles, London Hockey is run by volunteers and without people like Chedd stepping up hockey simply wouldn’t happen. Go Joe!

Coaching Survey

During the Christmas break, please take a few minutes to reflect on the coaching you have received during the first half of the season and fill in the "Coaching Feedback Form" HERE.  It's really important we regularly feed back to the coaches what they are doing well and maybe not so well!  This is an opportunity to have your say, completely anonymously.

Wapping’s newest recruits

It gives me great pleasure to share news and gorgeous snaps of three of the latest additions to the Wapping family. Wapping alumni Alix Poeton’s daughter (and founder Tim’s granddaughter) Riley Harper; Hon. president Stuart Burnside’s, daughter, Margot; and VCP Lizzie’s daughter Daphne. Looking forward to pitch side cuddles soon!

Women’s London INdoor

On Saturday the women’s 1s trekked down to Croydon to play in the London indoor tournament. Having never played together as a team, the girls began building patterns straight away with a 3-0 win over Harrow.

The girls continued to play great indoor hockey in the group stage with a 5-0 win over Tulse Hill and an unlucky 3-1 loss to Wayfarers.

The girls found themselves in the semi-final against a strong Spencer side. Some great passages of play and resilient defence saw the girls win the game with a great 2-1 win.

Unfortunately the girls then had to go straight into the final with one sub and weary legs against a rested and bench heavy Wayfarers side. The girls held Wayfarers to 0-0 at half time but then sadly conceded 2 in the second half.

A really strong showing of some great indoor hockey from all the girls involved 👏👏 - Izzy Montgomery, W1 captain

Mid season results

Dates for your diary

  • Jan 18th - Games restart

  • Jan 25th - Men’s Day

  • Feb 8th - Women’s Day

  • 12th or 19th April - End of Season Dinner

Member discounts:

Check out our Members' area (Password: whc1989) which has all of our available offers, including:

  • 5% discount and 5% club kick back at the Moretown Belle

  • 20% off NuSmile dentists

  • A free Psycle session

  • Grubby: 50% off + free delivery on 1st box, plus 30% off for the rest of the month

  • 10% off all beers at Tap East

  • Balling: All members = 15% off, W1 and M1 = 25% off. We also get 25% off OTE sports (sports nutrition bars, etc)

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Wapping Hockey Wapping Hockey

Ho ho hope your last game’s a cracker

This Saturday marks the halfway point in the season - it’s sped by! We want to extend our thanks to everyone who has helped make this first half of the season so impactful, we are grateful to everyone on the committee, all the coaches, umpires and volunteers. This weekend we let our hair down in true Wapping fashion at the Christmas social, there’s still time to get a ticket from your team’s social sec!

Passing the baton on 

As we’re reaching the halfway point of this season, we are starting to plan for next and are really keen to ensure a smooth transition to the new committee, including more of a handover between roles. If there’s anything you have your eye on for next season, now is a great time to reach out to the secretary or to the person in the role to discuss a slow learning of the ropes. Find a list of positions here.

🎄Christmas Social🎄

It’s finally time for the Christmas social, a highlight of the social calendar. This time we’re taking over our favourite clubhouse and turning it into a disco 💃🏾🪩🕺🏼so get ready to party and grab your tickets from your team social sec now! 

This social has a slightly earlier finishing time so please do try to get there as close to 8 as possible to seize the night! 

When?: Sat 7 December, 20:00-1:00
Where?: The Moretown Belle 🔔✨
Tickets?: £10 - bites will be provided
Why?: 🍻🍷🎄☃️
Dress code:
Fancy Dress

Again, there will be prices for the best dressed teams! (judging method TBC 😛)🪩

Wapping Hockey Club No Tolerance Drugs Policy

With socials comes much merriment and fun but please remember to look out for yourself and your pals, and respect the clubhouse and their team who go above and beyond for us every week 🫶

We would also like to remind everyone that Wapping Hockey Club has a strict no-tolerance policy towards the use or possession of illegal drugs in any club environment, including club socials. Any member found in breach of this policy will face the following consequences:

First-time offender:

  • 3-week ban from all club activities, including training, matches, and coaching.

  • 1-month social ban from club premises and events.

Second-time offender:

  • Remainder of the season ban from all club activities, including training, matches, CAWHL Summer League, coaching, club premises and events.

Third-time offender:

  • Permanent ban from the club.

  • Potential involvement of the police.

Any member found selling drugs to others will be permanently suspended from the club with immediate effect.

This policy applies to all members of the club, regardless of age or position. Possession of illegal substances is a serious issue, and we are committed to providing a safe and healthy environment for all members.

We encourage anyone who has concerns about drug use within the club to reach out to the welfare team (wappinghcwelfare@gmail.com).

Should you wish to remind yourself of Wapping’s Code of Ethics, you can find the document on the members area of the website (pw: whc1989)

City and wharf hockey league 

It was great to hear from a few people after last week’s Back Post who were interested in entering a team for their company. The sign up form will be available after Christmas but we’re still really in need of a few people to help with the logistics, please email cityandwharfhockeyleague@gmail.com if you can help. 

Team of the year 

Next week we publish the TOTY points for the first half of the season - it’s looking close! Remember to not let your good deeds go unnoticed: if you do any Kidds volunteering or umpiring, make sure it’s on the spreadsheet, and if you’ve attended the umpire course or passed the qualification, please let the secretary know on wappingsecretary@gmail.com.

Umpiring: hear from Flo 

With the Christmas break approaching, now is a good time to remind you that we always need more umpires. There are 4 courses before Christmas, please consider taking part. 

Recently Flo, who plays for the Women’s 6s, undertook the umpiring course. She has already umpired for the kidds and signed up for a league game next weekend so we asked her to share her experiences: 

Why did you sign up?

I signed up for umpiring because it’s not only a way to gain a better understanding of the rules of the game, but also to get more involved with the club and as a different way to experience hockey.

What did you have to do before attending the course?

Before the course there was an online test covering the rules and best practice which was useful background and made the course itself a really interesting discussion.

What happened on the course?

The session leaders (experienced umpires themselves) took us through the key topics (Advantage rule, penalty shorts and strokes as well as positioning) in a very interactive way, making the course very valuable!

Overall thoughts and what happens after the course

I expected it to be easy but there’s a lot that goes into high quality umpiring! My first umpiring experience was an U12 tournament which Smithy & Winky helped ease me into - and by the last few games I was feeling confident enough to umpire a game alone! Having the opportunity to umpire the Kidds games has been a great way to learn while building experience and confidence to take into Adult games. 

Why others should sign up

It’s a great skill to develop and chance to get involved! I would highly reccomend the course and the club has been incredibly supportive

Also a reminder that individuals who umpire more than 10 games receive a discounted EOSD ticket! 

This week’s fixtures

Dates for your diary

  • Dec 7th - Christmas Social (and last pre-xmas game providing no rearranged fixtures)

  • Jan 18th - Games restart

Member discounts:

Check out our Members' area (Password: whc1989) which has all of our available offers, including:

  • 5% discount and 5% club kick back at the Moretown Belle

  • 20% off NuSmile dentists

  • A free Psycle session

  • Grubby: 50% off + free delivery on 1st box, plus 30% off for the rest of the month

  • 10% off all beers at Tap East

  • Balling: All members = 15% off, W1 and M1 = 25% off. We also get 25% off OTE sports (sports nutrition bars, etc)

Read More
Wapping Hockey Wapping Hockey

Winter winners

Last week was a superb set of results all around, with all but one men’s side picking up a win. Our U8s, U10s and U12s put in some fab performances on Sunday, the Women’s 5s furthered their lead at the top of their league table, and many other teams are now sitting firmly in the top 3 as we approach the halfway mark of the season. At this point I would like to say a massive thank you to Lizzie, Matt, Jenna, DvS, the club captains, coaches and captains for all their hard work around performance across the club. There’s been a huge amount of effort and the results are testament to everyone’s hard work 🫶

🎄Christmas Social🎄

Our Annual Christmas social is almost upon us! And this time we’re taking over our favourite clubhouse and turning it into a disco so get ready to party and grab your tickets now! 💃🏾🪩🕺🏼

When?: Sat 7 December, 20:00-1:00
Where?: The Moretown Belle 🔔✨
Tickets?: £10 (available from your team social sec) - bites will be provided.
Why?: 🍻🍷🎄☃️
Dress code:
Fancy Dress

Again, there will be prices for the best dressed teams! (judging method TBC 😛)🪩

Fixtures

Our fixtures sec, Eleanor, has done a brilliant job as always and has now inputted the fixtures for the second half of the season - please do update your availability where possible, it really helps with planning. 

City and Wharf Hockey League

Everyone’s favourite summer league will be back next year! For those new to the club, the City and Wharf Hockey League is a summer league run by Wapping from April to August and features corporate teams from all across the City alongside a number of Wapping teams and other social entrants. Not only does it provide a cracking summer of hockey but it also funds the Back to Hockey sessions which contribute to our aims of bringing free hockey to the community.

We appreciate that lots of company social budgets reset at the start of the year, so if you think your company might be interested in entering a team, it’s never too early to ask us for information. We’re also very much in need of a team to cover the logistics again - the more people helping, the less work all around and there are roles of all sizes to accommodate any amount of free time. Please email cityandwharfhockeyleague@gmail.com for any information or to offer to lend a hand. 

Umpire action required

Hi all, a reminder that it is a League Regulation that all umpires for all league games are registered as umpires in GMS - I’ve just been sent a list by England Hockey and a large number of people doing matches are not registered. 

To be clear, this means you need to have the ‘free’ EHO Bronze Membership, nothing higher for insurance purposes.

Why should I care?

  1. Umpires not registered in GMS cannot be added to the match sheets (reg 11.1.4) - which can result in points deductions for the teams involved on a 3rd+ breach (I suspect from the data almost all teams are in this territory of risk already)

  2. ⁠Failure of umpires to be registered as members of EHO can result in fines for the club (reg 11.3)

I’m not sure if I’m registered as an umpire, how do I check?

  1. Login to GMS

  2. Go to My Profile (under your name in top left hand corner)

  3. Click the Loyalties tab

  4. You should see ‘Wapping HC (Umpire)’

  5. ⁠If you don’t you aren’t registered

How do I register as an umpire?

  1. Go to gms.englandhockey.co.uk

  2. Click the “To register for GMS click HERE” link

  3. Select ‘Officiating’ as your role

  4. Enter the same email address as your main (playing) GMS account

  5. Await your verification code

  6. ⁠Complete the form, ensuring you select Wapping HC as your club

  7. This will add the Umpire profile to your account

Newsletter sec

Those of you who are glued to your inbox in anticipation of receiving this newsletter will have been sorely disappointed not to receive one last week. Sorry - we forgot! We would be really grateful still if someone can step in and fill the role to relieve a bit of brain space for the Chair/Secretary who have been cobbling it together each week.

Last week’s results

This week’s fixtures

Dates for your diary

  • Dec 7th - Christmas Social (and last pre-xmas game providing no rearranged fixtures)

  • Jan 18th - Games restart

Member discounts:

Check out our Members' area (Password: whc1989) which has all of our available offers, including:

  • 5% discount and 5% club kick back at the Moretown Belle

  • 20% off NuSmile dentists

  • A free Psycle session

  • Grubby: 50% off + free delivery on 1st box, plus 30% off for the rest of the month

  • 10% off all beers at Tap East

  • Balling: All members = 15% off, W1 and M1 = 25% off. We also get 25% off OTE sports (sports nutrition bars, etc)

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Wapping Hockey Wapping Hockey

Winter is coming and Warren’s here.

Happy Friday all! Last week saw another excellent weekend of hockey as the W1 prevailed in their first ever East London National League derby, and a number of teams were rewarded for a season of solid effort as they climbed towards the top of their respective league tables. A huge shout out to everyone playing and supporting at Lee Valley last Saturday (including all the Royals!), the atmosphere was electric and the hockey incredible. A fantastic result to kick off new W1’s captain, Izzy’s, reign! Well done all.

Christmas social 

The Christmas social is fast approaching on December 7th, while the exact details are to be imminently provided, it’s never too soon to start planning your team’s fancy dress.

Warren D’Souza, VCP 

We are delighted that Warren D’Souza has offered to step in and continue Lizzie and Jenna’s excellent work on the club performance front.

Warren has played in the National League for over twenty seasons, winning four English Premier League titles and a Euro Hockey League bronze medal with former club Reading.  He has also appeared for England at every age group. 

Coaching-wise, Warren has over a decade of experience coaching at various levels, including three teams in the National League. He's very familiar with the development of Wapping over the years having coached M1 over two stints: from 2011-2013 and from 2018-2022. Welcome (back)!

It’s getting chilly 

The astute among you have probably realised that it’s getting chillier. With this comes the possibility of matches being cancelled as pitches are frozen over. Have no doubt that the fixture secs are on it, so please don’t bombard them with messages from midweek asking if your game will be on over the weekend. Fixtures sec will let captains know who will inform teams.

Training:

Final decision will be made 1 hour before training, however if cancelled earlier in the day Eleanor will inform captains as soon as she’s informed. 

Matches:

Home 

  • LV - inspection of the pitches at the following times: 08:30, 11:00, 13:00, 15:00 and if necessary 17:00 once a decision has been made Eleanor will inform captains. 

  • JO  - process to be confirmed with centre but aim to follow same procedures. 

Away

  • As soon as Eleanor or captains know we will inform the teams.

Safety

We’ve sadly seen a few injuries for both our own players and opposition in recent weeks. Please continue to do what you can to stay as safe as possible, including wearing mouthguards and short-corner protection. 

All teams should carry a complete first aid kit (including ice packs) and have trained first aiders who can help should an injury occur. It is the responsibility of teams to issue first aid, not venue staff.

In the event of an incident, please do tell the club - Injury reporting is a requirement of England Hockey, is needed for our own risk management, and because we purchase insurance which can claim for losses or expenses associated with injury. More details can be found here.

If your teams needs any first aid or short corner kit please reach out to Kit Sec, Kat (wappingkit@gmail.com).

If you need any help with this, please contact the Club Secretary, Irini. 

Introducing the Printers

This Sunday our performance mixed team, The Printers, have their first EH tournament game against West Hampstead at Lee Valley (pb @ 11:30).

The Printers team is predominantly aimed at those playing in the first to fourth teams, the group chat can be found in the Wapping community if you’d like to join them.

Free swimming for women and over 55s living in tower hamlets

If all the hockey wasn’t keeping you fit enough, BeWell (who run JO) are now offering free swimming for women and over 55s resident in Tower Hamlets. More info here: https://be-well.org.uk/what-we-offer/swimming/free-swimming/

Upcoming events at The Northcote

Our new hangout, The Northcote, has a great set of events between now and Christmas, ranging from folk to house music - feel free to gather your teams and stick around after teas. 

Last week’s results

This week’s fixtures

Dates for your diary

  • Dec 7th - Christmas Social (and last pre-xmas game providing no rearranged fixtures)

  • Jan 18th - Games restart

Member discounts:

Check out our Members' area (Password: whc1989) which has all of our available offers, including:

  • 5% discount and 5% club kick back at the Moretown Belle

  • 20% off NuSmile dentists

  • A free Psycle session

  • Grubby: 50% off + free delivery on 1st box, plus 30% off for the rest of the month

  • 10% off all beers at Tap East

  • Balling: All members = 15% off, W1 and M1 = 25% off. We also get 25% off OTE sports (sports nutrition bars, etc)

Read More
Wapping Hockey Wapping Hockey

And what a weekend it was…

Hope y’all have managed to make it through the week following Saturday’s spooktacular social. A tidy 9 wins and a draw set the tone for a cracking evening at the Forge which saw a resurgence of the Mens 9s, a pre-election visit from Trump, hundreds of (wo)Men in Black, and plenty of emotions, but those crowned best dressed were me hearties, the W8s (complete with hand crafted boat), and the M2 who were at one with the force having landed a 5-0 win against Wayfarers. Big shout out to Social Secs Hannah and Martijn for another awesome night out.

Get your support on!

Following the departure of much loved VCP and W1 captain, Jenna, we’re thrilled to announce that the fabulous Izzy Montgomery has agreed to take on the role of W1 captain for the remainder of the season. Izzy brings a wealth of playing, umpiring and committee experience so is the perfect candidate to continue the W1 successes and top vibes.

To kick off Izzy’s reign, we have a packed day of fixtures at LV, culminating in a MASSIVE game against East for the W1, so make sure you head on over/hang around post game to get your support on before heading over to The Northcote to celebrate the impending wins.

In Izzy’s words:

“This is a huge game for us, not only because it's a home derby but it's a good chance for us to get another 3 points on the board.

We haven't played East London for a few years now and are excited to play down at Lee Valley with a big crowd behind us.

Although we've been unlucky with results at the start of this season, we've been constantly improving as a team - we are excited to show how far we've come this Saturday!”

Training up Match Officials 

The Women’s 1s are looking for a few club members who would be willing to take on the match official role at their league matches when required.

The W1 need someone to act as match official at home games. This involves things such as keeping track of cards, managing subs and in general helping the match to run smoothly. 

At the moment Iain is currently fulfilling this role but he is keen for a couple of individuals to shadow him so we have knowledge of the role shared around the club. In particular, we are looking for a volunteer to shadow the match official role at the W1s 6pm derby this Saturday against East London.

If you are interested or want to find out more please email wappingladies1@gmail.com or message Izzy M (07456 883646).

Availability

Squads have largely settled across both the men’s and women’s side, though we continue to see excellent availability each week, which means that at times we have had to ask a few players to sit out. The club and team captains are doing a brilliant job at managing it all, but this work is made much harder where people update their availability late, therefore if this hasn’t been updated by Sunday, players won’t be prioritised to play the following weekend.

Umpire Slot Sign-Up Process

As part of our efforts to streamline the process for assigning umpires, we’ve introduced a proactive sign-up system for all teams. Umpires will now be able to sign up for their respective match slots directly on the master spreadsheet.

Each match is assigned to an accountable team who are then responsible for ensuring the umpire slot is filled. To ensure smooth operations, please note the following:

  • Proactive Sign-Up: Umpires can sign up for available slots in advance on the master spreadsheet.

  • Accountable Team: Each match will have an accountable team assigned to oversee umpire allocation.

  • Deadline for Filling Slots: If a slot remains unfilled by the Wednesday of the match week, it will become the responsibility of the assigned team to secure an umpire for the match.

This system aims to reduce last-minute scrambling and ensure all matches have an umpire. We appreciate everyone’s cooperation in adhering to this process.

Up the pirates

The W8s weren’t the only pirates prevailing over the weekend, as our mighty mixed team was also in action. The Pirates is aimed predominantly at players in the lower end of the club (4s-8s), and plays in a league at Kennington Park most Sundays. It’s a really relaxed environment to play with a friendly bunch of people and enjoy some of the finest teas in town at The Beehive. The team also enters tournaments like the Pride Cup and enjoyed a hugely successful tour to Sonning last summer.

The team is captained by Maddie Fletcher and Ollie Kaye, and is always happy to accept new players - the link to join the team chat can be found in the Wapping Community. It’s also open to individuals with a social membership who aren’t able to commit to regular league games. Match fees are usually £8, and the team plays in black.

Our performance mixed team, The Printers, will also be back on the pitch soon - more details of this to come! Again, the team chat can be found in the community for anyone who’d like to be the first to know about the upcoming fixtures.

REMINDER: Socks back in stock

Get your Wapping socks NOW

Also, if you’re after some discounted Wapping stash, the 23/24 clothing is now 50% off at Hawkinsport.

Last week’s Results

This week’s fixtures

Dates for your diary

  • Nov 9th - W1s vs East London derby and social, 6pm @ LV

  • Dec 7th - Christmas Social (and last pre-xmas game providing no rearranged fixtures)

  • Jan 18th - Games restart

Member discounts:

Check out our Members' area (Password: whc1989) which has all of our available offers, including:

  • 5% discount and 5% club kick back at the Moretown Belle

  • 20% off NuSmile dentists

  • A free Psycle session

  • Grubby: 50% off + free delivery on 1st box, plus 30% off for the rest of the month

  • 10% off all beers at Tap East

  • Balling: All members = 15% off, W1 and M1 = 25% off. We also get 25% off OTE sports (sports nutrition bars, etc)

Read More
Wapping Hockey Wapping Hockey

Trick or tequila

Happy Friday! We hope you’re all as excited as we are to get back on the pitch after a restful slip week last week. Not everyone used it as a chance to put their feet up, as the Pirates stormed to victory with a 5-2 win against THD and our Masters teams were hard at work. This weekend also marks one of the most important dates of the Wapping calendar, with the Halloween Social taking place on Saturday night - it’s never too late to come along! 

Socks back in stock

This week has seen a huge delivery of socks to HQ so any pre-orders will be fulfilled shortly and new orders sorted as they come in.

Get your Wapping socks here.

Spooky szn is finally upon us!

The time has come for the infamous Halloween Social. Whether you’re a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader, Brat or anything in between, everyone is invited for what is always a highlight of the social calendar. 

Details: 

  • DATE: Saturday 2nd November

  • ⁠LOCATION: Forge EC3V 3ND (Bank station)

  • TIME: 7:30pm – 3am

  • TICKETS: £6 (please pay your team’s social sec)

  • OUTFIT: Fancy dress

There will be WELCOME DRINKS so make sure you arrive in a timely fashion AND there will be prizes for the best dressed teams, the more creative, the better! Look forward to seeing you all there!

NB. this venue requires a minimum spend so please ensure you only purchase drinks in the section of the bar we’re in (where spend is tracked) else we risk losing our deposit. Thanks all!

Watch your 1s

If one social saturday isn’t enough, then head down to Lee Valley on Saturday November 9th at 6pm for the Women’s 1s derby game against East London. This is the first time that the Women’s 1s face EL in the National League as they continue to rise up the table - it’s bound to be a good one!!

The Masters are in the building

Last weekend saw both Masters’ teams play their first games of the season. The Remains beat East London 2-0 with PoM going to Afia for a fabulous debut and great goal, while DoD was Marieke for a most generous pass into 3 of the East players just in front of the D with 3 minutes to go.

At the same time, the Wæpenmenn had good fun playing their inaugural game which they ‘could have won but didn’t’ ending up 3-2 down. Both teams are open to players who are 35 years old by December 31st 2025, if you’d like to join them for occasional Sunday games, both team chats can be found in the Wapping Whatsapp community.

Vice-Chair Performance

As many of you will know, our VCP powerhouses Jenna and Lizzie are taking a step back from the role as Jenna moves to pastures green in Ireland and Lizzie takes long-term performance planning to the next level in birthing the W1 protege of the 2044/2045 season. We are hugely lucky that Warren D’Souza, who previously player/coached the M1s, is stepping into the role. He brings an absolute wealth of experience and we are so grateful to have him support us in continuing to develop the club.

Raise Her Game

Last Sunday, Kidds’ Head Coach, Sandra Akinbolu, took part in Raise Her Game UK’s first ever hockey camp. Raise Her Game is a charity founded by GB Hockey player Darcy Bourne which aims to improve diversity and representation in women’s sport. The charity offers free sessions in local primary state schools to give girls the opportunity to play sports that might have otherwise been out of reach. Their first camp on Sunday was aimed at girls in years 4 & 5 from Tower Hamlets and Hackney and will no doubt be integral to shaping the experiences of young players and offering role models to those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

An update from the Women’s club captain

Thank you for everyone's patience as we restructured the teams on the women's side. We've completed a huge amount of movement, and I'd like to thank the captains and coaches for all their hard work, and every player for their understanding. 

We're at capacity now so any new joiners on the women’s side will only be able to train and play friendlies until next season/space becomes available. I'll now work with Matt and the VCP to make sure each team has enough players each week, as many players as poss get a game and we win all the games we can! There will be weeks when there's small amounts of movement, and others when there's less. But overall the squads should now be settled.

If you have concerns or problems, you can reach out to me, Issy, at any point at wappinglcc@gmail.com

Meet the coaches: Craig Tuaine

I began my coaching journey in New Zealand, where I discovered a passion for helping players grow by seeing them take on advice and improve their game. 

This year, my main goal is to lead the Wapping Women’s 2s to promotion while ensuring we have a successful, fun season. 

Wapping Hockey Club has been instrumental in my development as a coach, providing invaluable support. 

Matt BB has been especially helpful, offering constructive guidance on team strategies and always ready to answer my questions. 

His mentorship, combined with the club’s welcoming environment, has empowered me to keep progressing as a coach.

Last week’s Results

This week’s fixtures

Dates for your diary

  • Nov 2nd - Halloween Social 

  • Nov 9th - W1s vs East London derby and social, 6pm @ LV

  • Dec 7th - Christmas Social

Member discounts:

Check out our Members' area (Password: whc1989) which has all of our available offers, including:

  • 5% discount and 5% club kick back at the Moretown Belle

  • 20% off NuSmile dentists

  • A free Psycle session

  • Grubby: 50% off + free delivery on 1st box, plus 30% off for the rest of the month

  • 10% off all beers at Tap East

  • Balling: All members = 15% off, W1 and M1 = 25% off. We also get 25% off OTE sports (sports nutrition bars, etc)

Read More
Wapping Hockey Wapping Hockey

Alive and CIC-ing!

Last weekend saw the start of our coach development sessions and the return of Women’s Day, a jam packed day of hockey followed up with a serious serving of fun at the Northcote.

It also saw the W2, W5 and Dockers continue their non-stop winning streak, the W1 get their first National League point, a squeaky point for the M4, the U12 boys smashing it, with the Corsairs winning their tournament, and the U10 girls (with a couple of U8 fill ins) knocking it out the park winning four of their five games!

CIC registration complete! 🎉🎉

We are delighted to announce that Wapping is now a Community Interest Company (CIC)!

Thanks to support from Wapping’s Hon. Life President and Founder, Tim Poeton, the club has now been able to adopt an incorporated structure as a Community Interest Company (CIC). This is a form of social enterprise that provides the club with a number of key advantages: 

  • It limits the liability of the club and its members as the CIC has its own legal personality (the club rather than individual members could be sued)

  • It opens up funding opportunities with grant and statutory funders and some offers limited tax breaks, but it also allows us to enter commercial arrangements

  • It future proofs the organisation and locks in the assets for the sole benefit of Wapping Hockey

  • It provides a simple structure to run the club as a recognised community facility

In due course, we will register Wapping Kidds as a charity to increase our ability to fundraise and support the development and expansion of the youth offering for the public benefit.

To all intents and purposes, everything will look and feel the same as a club member or user but importantly we will have a sound legal structure to future proof all that is great about the club. This is a hugely positive move for the club, the next stage in its 36 year history and one that will see us become stronger and more competitive. 

We would like to extend our sincere thanks to Tim and his wife (and Wapping’s OG Tea lady) Susan, without whom this would not have happened.

🎃👻 Halloween Social 🎃👻

It’s spooky season again, so time to break out all your best costume ideas for the fancy dress event of the year!🍬🧛

DETAILS 

  • ⁠DATE: Saturday 2nd November

  • LOCATION: Forge (EC3V 3ND, Bank station)

  • TIME: 7:30pm – 3am

  • TICKETS: £6 (please pay your team’s social sec)

  • ⁠OUTFIT: Fancy dress

There will be WELCOME DRINKS so make sure you arrive in a timely fashion AND there will be prizes for the best dressed teams, the more creative, the better! Look forward to seeing you all there!

Please note that this venue requires a minimum spend so please ensure you only purchase drinks in the section of the bar we’re in (where spend is tracked) else we risk losing our deposit 😬 Thanks all!

Qualified as an umpire abroad?

Great! Join our umpiring team by completing this form and sharing it with our ULOs (wappingulo@gmail.com) so they can get your non-England Hockey qualification transferred to an EH Level 1.

ECLIPSE at Ugly Duck

Long time club member Dave Charlesworth’s production company KitMapper have recently installed the exhibition ‘ECLIPSE’ by artist duo Nonotak.

‘ECLIPSE’ is an audio-visual experience which explores the power and impact of light on visual perception when combined with space and sound. Light will be sculpted and expressed in various forms through three curated installations, HIGHWAY, DUAL, and HIDDEN SHADOWS.

After viewing ECLIPSE, unwind in the bar area, where expert mixologists craft a diverse selection of artisanal cocktails designed to complement and enhance your ECLIPSE experience. 

Be sure to check it out and use the code WAPPINGHC at checkout for a tidy 20% off the ticket price.

KitMapper provide critically engaged project management, production, design, installation, consultation and technical services for creative projects across the creative and commercial industries.

Northcote update

After a hugely enjoyable set of trial weeks at The Northcote, we plan to move all teas for matches played at Lee Valley there. The landlady, Tuesday, commented on how lovely everyone from the club was and had already begun trying to learn everyone’s names! We really appreciate all the efforts everyone went to, to show them why Wapping is such a special club and we hope that this will be a nice hub for teams to congregate to for the season ahead.

Last week’s Results

This week’s fixtures

Dates for your diary

  • Nov 2nd - Halloween Social 

  • Nov 9th - W1s vs East London derby and social, 6pm @ LV

  • Dec 7th - Christmas Social

Member discounts:

Check out our Members' area (Password: whc1989) which has all of our available offers, including:

  • 5% discount and 5% club kick back at the Moretown Belle

  • 20% off NuSmile dentists

  • A free Psycle session

  • Grubby: 50% off + free delivery on 1st box, plus 30% off for the rest of the month

  • 10% off all beers at Tap East

  • Balling: All members = 15% off, W1 and M1 = 25% off. We also get 25% off OTE sports (sports nutrition bars, etc)

Read More
Wapping Hockey Wapping Hockey

The good times keep coming

Last weekend the ladies side smashed local rivals, East London, with the W5 racking up a cheeky 4-0 win, the W6 with a HUGE 2-1 victory, and the W7 with a WAPPING 18-0 goal fest. Notable mentions also for the M3 and W2 for a couple of tidy wins and the M2 who, having held fast on a draw, remain unbeaten.

This week we see the return of L’Ump Month, ‘Ladies Day’ and the launch of our Coach Development Sessions!

Kidds made county!

We are thrilled to announce that, for the first time in Wapping’s history, we have homegrown juniors selected for county teams - FIVE of them (and with two 11 year olds making the U13 team!)

Huge congratulations to Zed (U14 London North defensive), Annabel (U13 London South goalkeeper), Asa (U13 London North defence), Rayan (U13 London North forward) and Leo (U13 midfield).

These incredible achievements are testament to the outstanding coaching team we have at the club, dedicated volunteers inspiring the next generation of hockey players.

Kidds are always on the lookout for new helpers and coaches for their junior sessions so if you’d like to get involved (no experience necessary), please reach out to our Kidds Head Coach, Sandra, or complete the Coaching Development Pathway form below.

L’Ump Month

L’Ump Month was started in October 2017 by 4 umpires in the M7 (including two of your current UDOs), who decided to umpire in pink and donate their match payment to a Breast Cancer Charity. 

7 years later and with thousands raised across the UK, L’Ump Month is back, and this is how you can get involved:

  • Umpires: if you are umpiring in October, please umpire in a pink shirt (with your colleague) if you can and donate your match fee to the L’Ump Month fundraiser.

  • Wannabe umpires: maybe this is the reminder you need to get signed up on an online umpiring course.

Players/teams: organise playing in pink socks during October if you can and consider adding a team donation to the JustGiving page.

Congrats to two of our best

At Wapping we’re incredibly lucky to have three amazing Umpire Development Officers, and over the last week two of them have stepped it up AGAIN.

  • Dan Carter⁩ for qualifying as an umpire for the Women’s National League following a successful assessment. He goes onto NPUA B Panel to match where he is on the men’s side. 👏👏👏

  • And to Phil O’Hagan⁩⁩ for getting promoted to men’s NPUA B Panel following a drizzly game in Guildford. A testament to the hard work put in behind the scenes, as well as on pitch each week. 💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼

What a team!

Coaching Development is go!

We’re thrilled to announce the launch of one of our biggest performance focuses of the year, our Coach Development Pathway. We have lots of people keen to get into coaching but not sure where to start so Head Coach, Matt, and Coach Development Officer, DvS, have created the program to upskill anyone on their coaching journey. 

The CDP are fortnightly Tuesday sessions, starting 15th October, run by Matt and DvS. It is both for people with no experience keen to start out and people who have already tried their hand developing teams. We will look to help develop this group to get into assistant, match day and lead coaching including EH qualifications and using our VEO camera.

If you are interested in getting involved, please register your interest here.

Girls just Gonna have fun

This weekend is a huge one for the women's side of the club!

5 games, 3 derbies, plus a social. The W2 face W3, W5 play W6, and W7 go head to head with W8. To top off a full day of hockey fun, W4 will look to beat PHC Chiswick.

We'll also be sending love from LV to W1 who take on Old Georgians away!

Get down to Lee Valley to cheer on our Wapping women, support our 6 female umpires facilitating games - and watch Wapping's two female coaches Tara Feeney and Lakin Eddy do battle on the sidelines!

We'll then all be heading for a joint teas and women's social at our new Leyton hang-out The Northcote

Saturday will be a fab day to enjoy hockey and celebrate our amazing women. Don't miss out!

Issy

Women's Club Captain

Last week’s Results

This week’s fixtures

Dates for your diary

  • Oct 12th - Women’s Day, LV all day and social after

  • Nov 2nd - Halloween Social 

  • Nov 9th - W1s vs East London derby and social, 6pm @ LV

  • Dec 7th - Christmas Social

Member discounts:

Check out our Members' area (Password: whc1989) which has all of our available offers, including:

  • 5% discount and 5% club kick back at the Moretown Belle

  • 20% off NuSmile dentists

  • A free Psycle session

  • Grubby: 50% off + free delivery on 1st box, plus 30% off for the rest of the month

  • 10% off all beers at Tap East

  • Balling: All members = 15% off, W1 and M1 = 25% off. We also get 25% off OTE sports (sports nutrition bars, etc)

Read More
Wapping Hockey Wapping Hockey

Points mean prizes

Another week, another 7 MASSIVE wins, making it 2 out of 2 for the M2, W2, W3 and Dockers! It’s league points central. And if that’s not enough points for you, we’ve got Team of the Year points incoming too…

TOTY

Team of the year is back! For those who don’t know, Team of the Year is the formal process by which all the wonderful things teams do to give back to the club are counted to crown a big winner at End of Season Dinner. 

Here is the scoring that will be applied this year:

Please make sure that all your good deeds are tracked in the relevant places so if you’re volunteering with the Kidds, put it on the tracker and when you’re off to a social remember to note down how many came. If you want to directly report any achievements, feel free to ping the Secretary an email.

Tour

After a really successful tour to Sonning last summer (thank you Maddie and Ollie for organising), we are really keen to get the tour and potentially ski vibe going again across the club. For this to happen, we need people both to organise and to attend. If you’d be interested in either, please fill out this short google form.

Current suggestions are Sonning, the Netherlands, Ireland and a Ski trip but we’re open to any other ideas or connections people might have across the globe!

Umpiring

Umpiring is a wonderful way to give back to the club and earns you £15 per game, as well as being a great way to meet people from other teams. We have two incredible Umpiring Development Officers, DC and James Holmes, who are there to provide support for all. You won’t be thrown in the deep-end, there are plenty of opportunities to start with games in the lower leagues (or with the Kidds), and umpire alongside someone very experienced early on. Our Umpire Liaison Officers, Jane and Smithy, have the job of finding umpires each week and it can be really, really tiresome if there isn’t enough of a pool to support this - even umpiring a game here and there makes a huge difference. 

We remind teams that they should all have 2 qualified umpires (W8 and Dockers are exempt), and that there is a team allocated to cover a game before/after theirs in the case of a game going unfilled.

There are weekly online Level 1 courses open to all so get in touch with the team if you’d like to know more (wappingudo@gmail.com)

Photo opt out form

Wapping Hockey Club will use match photography on multiple platforms, for example for promotion on our Website or on our social media platforms.

If you would prefer not to be captured please complete this form

You are always able to withdraw consent at any time. If changes are requested post match we will endeavour to complete these asap, however it may take additional time.

Meet the Coaches

This week’s instalment of ‘Meet the coaches’ appears on our Instagram with Smithy of the M4 talking about his experiences of developing as a goalkeeper coach, his time at Wapping Hockey Club and much more! Check out the video here.

… ANd Meet the kidds!

In case you’re not aware, our Kidds have their very own Instagram account where you can follow all their fun and games. Be sure to give them a follow to show your support.

Teas at the Northcote

As of tomorrow, we will be starting our two week trial of teas at The Northcote in Leyton (15 min walk/next to Leyton Stn) for matches at Lee Valley.

It’s an excellent boozer (with £5 pints), and the owner is incredibly lovely and delighted to be hosting us, so please please ensure you head down and show some love - the price of the teas for the season is dependent on how much we can show them we spend over the next fortnight.

This is a trial for us both so it would be great to hear your thoughts on the venue. All feedback to be emailed to wappingsecretary@gmail.com

Last week’s Results

This week’s fixtures

Dates for your diary

  • Oct 12th - Women’s Day, LV all day and social after

  • Nov 2nd - Halloween Social 

  • Nov 9th - W1s vs East London derby and social, 6pm @ LV

  • Dec 7th - Christmas Social

Member discounts:

Check out our Members' area (Password: whc1989) which has all of our available offers, including:

  • 5% discount and 5% club kick back at the Moretown Belle

  • 20% off NuSmile dentists

  • A free Psycle session

  • Grubby: 50% off + free delivery on 1st box, plus 30% off for the rest of the month

  • 10% off all beers at Tap East

  • Balling: All members = 15% off, W1 and M1 = 25% off. We also get 25% off OTE sports (sports nutrition bars, etc)

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Wapping Hockey Wapping Hockey

Winning looks good on us

Happy Friday, Wappers! Last Saturday saw a triumphant start to the season with many teams picking up some strong wins, this included 
M2 (2-1), M7 (2-1), M6 (5-2), M7 (2-1) W1 (3-0), W3 (3-1), W5 (2-0), W7 (5-0) and Dockers (3-1).The great day of hockey was rounded off with an even better evening at our Clubhouse, the Moretown Belle, where those in attendance collected their Wapping membership cards. Remember to show it when at the bar to get a discount!

Important notices

  1. Pay your membership: after Friday October 4th, those who haven’t paid won’t be able to play - please contact the treasurer if you have any queries or concerns 

  2. SOS: Save our Secretary. We’re still looking for someone to draft the weekly newsletter so that our Secretary can use the Thursday commute to watch reruns of Gilmore Girls

  3. Join the results chat to celebrate results as they come in and be sure to hang around at LV this weekend to catch the much anticipated M3/M4 derby.

Dates for your diary

  • Oct 12th - Women’s Day, LV all day and social after

  • Nov 2nd - Halloween Social 

  • Nov 9th - W1s vs East London derby and social, 6pm @ LV

  • Dec 7th - Christmas Social

Photography 

For photography, we operate an opt out permissions form. This will be shared club wide before next matches are captured. If there is media of you that appears online and you would prefer it removed, it will be taken down on request no questions asked. 

Match galleries will now be posted on the club website. The password is whc1989. These images are for personal use only, such as printing or posting on your own social media. It would be appreciated if you credit the original photographer - each album will have the photographer's information attached.   

Please do not share photography with third parties like opposition or player sponsors. If you have any questions or requests r.e. Photography please email Head of Press - wappinghop@gmail.com

Meet the coaches

Next up we have the lovely Kiran Dhoot (above) who this season is running training for M8-9 and is our Back2Hockey king.

“Having started my coaching journey at 16 at Reading HC, I became keen to get involved with developing talent. Alongside playing competitive hockey throughout my life at various top leagues, I’ve had the chance to play and work alongside some elite players and coaches, each of whom have contributed to developing my coaching style and approach.

This season my aim for the Mens 8s is to develop a formal tactical team structure which will allow players to fit into higher teams as they climb up the hockey ladder. Back2Hockey players can expect a season of skills workshops to help develop player confidence and ability to make the most out of thier game time.

For the Kidds teams, my aim is to lay a solid foundation of basic and advanced skills which will let them compete with their peers across the country, and lay the groundwork for attending regional and national trials.

The coaching community at Wapping has helped me develop as a coach and make sure that I have the tools I need to make sure each session is varied, stimulating and addresses the latest needs of the players.”

Last week’s Results

This week’s fixtures

Member discounts:

Check out our Members' area (Password: whc1989) which has all of our available offers, including:

  • 5% discount and 5% club kick back at the Moretown Belle

  • 20% off NuSmile dentists

  • A free Psycle session

  • Grubby: 50% off + free delivery on 1st box, plus 30% off for the rest of the month

  • 10% off all beers at Tap East

  • Balling: All members = 15% off, W1 and M1 = 25% off. We also get 25% off OTE sports (sports nutrition bars, etc)

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Wapping Hockey Wapping Hockey

Happy start of season eve!

We hope you’re as excited as we are to kick off a new season. Good luck to everyone on their first fixtures, and a big congratulations to the Women 1s who play their first game in the National League. We can’t wait to see everyone at the Moretown Belle in the evening to toast our first wins. As the season begins,we appreciate that there’s still a lot of moving parts, and we’re grateful for your patience, but this edition should help to smooth some of these areas out.

Reminders: 

  1. Make sure you’re registered on GMS

  2. Please pay your membership as soon as possible - soon you won’t be able to play if you’re not a member 

  3. We’re still looking for a Newsletter secretary, please reach out if you can help 

Fixtures

Having only received news from the council last week about our JO pitch slots, there has been a delay in confirming these fixtures. They will all be in the trackers by the end of the week, thank you for your patience.

Dates for your diary

  • Sep 21st - Start of Season Social, MTB @ 6pm

  • Oct 12th - Women’s Day, LV all day and social after

  • Nov 2nd - Halloween Social 

  • Nov 9th - W1s vs East London derby and social, 6pm @ LV

Men’s Squads and selection

With much regret, due to small squad sizes and low availability we have taken the decision to fold the Men’s 9s team for the upcoming season. 

It’s never good to lose a team but trying to sort teams with low availability is difficult for all involved so we’ve taken the executive decision to boost numbers for the other teams rather than scrape a bare eleven each week.

Regretfully we’ve had to make this decision last minute so can I please request that everyone keeps on top of their own club admin going forward. The exec and committee volunteer many hours a week to run the club but without basic updates from members we are managing the operations on guess work. Unknown/low membership numbers significantly impact our financial position and ability to plan for the season ahead so it would be hugely appreciated if everyone can maintain at least 4 weeks of their availability in the spreadsheets and double check it’s correct the Sunday before the following game. A club the size of Wapping has many moving parts and being able to work with correct and complete information makes a huge difference to the team organising and the ability for things to run smoothly.

In order to facilitate this, the Men’s Club Captains and Coaches have worked together to propose new teams based on the players we have confirmed and feedback from captains has been requested. Please bear with us as there is a significant amount of work happening to make these changes but should you have any questions please reach out the Men’s Club Captains, Chris and Craig.

Wapping Kidds 

New junior team members

As you start your pre-season games this week, you may notice a few younger faces joining in.  We have some new junior players graduating from the Kidds' set up into adult hockey, many for the first time.  Do please make them welcome, they have looked up to you all for years and will be excellent additions to your teams and training squads. Please also remember that senior hockey is very new to them so please do encourage and include them on and off pitch. 

Wapping Kidds need you!

Do you think you can coach?  Would you like to learn? Can you bring enthusiasm and your love hockey to the next generation of hockey players?  Wapping Kidds, the junior section of the club, is a volunteer run, fun set up,  dependent on the support of adult members of the club.  Sessions run on a Friday evening, 6-7.30pm, and a Saturday,  9.30-11am at John Orwell Sports Centre in Wapping.

Each age group, from age 5 upwards, is headed by an experienced lead coach who prepares and directs the session.  We need helping hands, assistant coaches, to help deliver those sessions in a fun and friendly way.

If you are keen to give back to the club, and if you think you can give some time, please drop us a line at wappingkidds@gmail.com.  No coaching experience is necessary and we recognise that coaching will occasionally clash with your playing commitments, but the bigger the pool of volunteers we have, the better.

Lee Valley Teas

Following feedback from players, and after reviewing the club’s budget, we have decided to move away from having teas at Lee Valley. They’ll stay as they are this week but next Saturday 5th October we are going to be heading down to The Northcote in Leyton (110 Grove Green Road, E11 4EL) for teas. We are really hoping to find another local that will feel like home and where teams want to stay for the afternoon. We’ll give this a shot for a couple of weeks and then are keen to hear teams’ feedback before we lock anything in.

The Moretown Belle

We are really pleased that the Moretown Belle is returning as our Clubhouse this season. They have provided us an immense amount of support over the last couple of years and are only looking to further support us. We are very lucky as a club based in Central London to have a site that serves as our Clubhouse, and it’s important that we show them the same love they show us. This is both in terms of respect towards the staff and continuing to give us their custom.

For those who don’t know, Wapping members, opposition teams and family and friends are eligible for a 5% discount at all times throughout the week. The club also receives 5% kick back for every purchase made by us so please remember to let the bar staff know you’re with Wapping when purchasing. We’ll be handing out membership cards at the social on Saturday which you can show when buying your drinks.

Meet the coaches

First up is Tara Feeney (above) who this season is running training for W5 and M5-7

"As many American college players do, I started coaching summer camps and coached for the USFHA futures programme. I realised that I really enjoyed helping teams develop and watching hard work in training turn to results in competition.

My aim for this season is to provide consistent and challenging training for both the Men’s and Women’s teams to improve overall team play and to allow players to build confidence in & skills for their individual game with of course some fun mixed in!

As a coach at Wapping, I receive tons of support from our Committee, the development team, the other coaches, captains and players to make sure I have what I need to make the sessions are productive, effective and fun."

Club Day snaps

Club Day photos can be found here in a new password protected area of the website (pw: Wapping1989)  - thanks to James Budgen for taking some cracking shots as always!

This week’s fixtures

Member discounts:

Check out our Members' area (Password: whc1989) which has all of our available offers, including:

  • 20% off NuSmile dentists

  • A free Psycle session

  • Grubby: 50% off + free delivery on 1st box, plus 30% off for the rest of the month

  • 10% off all beers at Tap East

Read More
Wapping Hockey Wapping Hockey

The Time is nigh

Welcome back, Wappers! Apologies for the lack of updates lately. There has been a lot going on but seeing all your beautiful faces enjoying the pre-season fun has made it totally worth it.

SO, with start of season rapidly approaching here’s all the info you need to know, along with the summer news from across the club.

Things you need to do:

  • Register on GMS if you didn’t sign up last year.

  • Go to training. With lots of new people joining, and to ensure you’re playing in the right team, it’s important to make it down to training as much as you can. New training times are below

  • Head down to the Moretown Belle on Saturday (21st @ 6pm) for our Start of Season Social to celebrate our first wins of the season! 🏆

  • Plan how to pay your membership fees (more on this below)

  • Join Wapping on Easyfundraising - this raises vital funds for the club while you shop online

Important updates

Save Our Pitch. Again.

As you may be aware, we have recently faced issues making bookings at the John Orwell centre so I wanted to provide a brief update on the situation and why you haven’t seen any October onwards fixtures scheduled.

In April, Tower Hamlets Council took over operation of all leisure centres in the borough. On the 17th of August we received notification that the Director of Culture would like to have a meeting with all Tower Hamlets based hockey clubs to discuss provision within the borough. At that meeting, at which Wapping, East London, The Royals and Tower Hamlets hockey club were in attendance, all clubs were advised that pitch allocations would be reviewed under the new management, and pitch allocation based on an assessment of the clubs.

From then on a dedicated team have been working day and night to retain access to the pitch we’ve called home for the last 36 years. Late last week we received an update from the council advising we have retained the majority of our Saturday slots at John Orwell, including our Kidds session, so are now in a position to allocate fixtures.

We’ve lost a slot every other week which isn’t ideal but given the discussions that were had, and options proposed, this is by far the best outcome we could have achieved.

I would like to say a massive thanks to Stuart Burnside, Amy Winklegrund, Sandra Akinbolu, Alex Corrie, Eleanor Tennant and Irini Kounoupias for their significant support on the matter, and to everyone who completed the forms and polls or provided any other advice. We started this game on the back foot, but I couldn’t have asked for a better defence.

Committee 

We are still looking for

  • a Newsletter Secretary to send out this nifty newsletter each week.

  • someone with accountancy experience/a numbers brain who’s keen to help us make the most of our finances.

Please let our Club Secretary, Irini, know if you're able to help or would like more information on the above.

Training and coaching

Our Head Coach, Matt Bowen, and VCPs, Lizzie and Jenna, have pulled off mini miracle to come up with a training schedule that works for all our coaches, teams and pitch slots and we're very grateful for their efforts. You should already be well in the swing of it but on the off chance you’ve just returned from summer hols, training times are as follows:

Costs and membership fee

As mentioned last year, and reminded about at AGM, the club is facing significantly increased costs since covid, so we have been unable to freeze membership fees again (as we did two years prior).

For those who are not aware:

  • match fees cover match day costs (pitch costs and teas) and membership covers our training and additional costs. 

  • We have a dedicated sponsorship team who work hard to source additional income. Thanks to sponsors like Simon Wright, the Moretown Belle, Savill’s, grants from Tesco, Sports England and London Hockey and our City and Wharf League we are able to offer free kit shirts and numerous training and outreach initiatives that we wouldn’t have been able offer to otherwise, including Back2 Hockey.

  • We also sell merch and run fundraisers, profits from which are considered when budgeting and calculating membership fees 

Membership fees can be paid via our website here and the deadline for payment is Friday 4th October. We operate a ‘no pay, no play’ policy for anyone who hasn’t paid after this date.

As always, if you are struggling financially or costs will be a barrier to you participating this season, please reach out in confidence to our treasurer. Our policy is to facilitate hockey for all.

A table showing this year’s membership fees is below.

Kit

I would like to add that, despite there being a lot of missing shirts at the end of last season, we have (just) been able to make the shirts we still have work, so the increase in membership has not been affected by that. However, with additional cost pressures this season, we need to be more careful than ever with our kit. We are really proud that we offer shirts to players, helping to keep costs down, but it's imperative that these are looked after, alongside the other items. We have allocated teams a kit bag and will be asking them to replace anything that is lost over the course of the year.

And finally it’s worth adding that if you’re in need of new Wapping socks or discounted shinnies you can buy them from our shop here.

Squads and selection

This season we are entering an eighth women's team into the league, reflecting our club's continued growth. This should ease the problems we faced last year whereby squads were very large and availability each week often exceeded the maximum game-day squad size. With this, there will therefore be a lot of movement at all levels which will predominantly be at the discretion of the coaches, with some input from captains. 

We hope that initial squads on both the Men’s and Women’s sides will be drafted in the coming weeks so that teams can train as they will play however please note that no squad is final at this point. So, if you'd like to be considered for a higher team, train hard and let your club captains know (wappinglcc@gmail.com/ wappingmcc@gmail.com)

Fixtures

We are experiencing a delay in confirming home fixtures due to the above issues with the Council. Our Fixtures Secretaries, Eleanor and Jen, are working really hard and as soon as information is available it will be pulled through to individual team spreadsheets. If you think any info is incorrect, or have any updates, please let them know (wappingfixtures@gmail.com)

Coaching and Umpiring

There are loads of ways to give back to the club, and two of the most important ways are through coaching and umpiring. We have installed a new Coaching Development Officer, the brilliant DvS, who can help anyone who is hoping to get into coaching, and to support the coaches we already have at all levels of the club. If anyone is interested in finding out more, please contact him on wappingcdo@gmail.com - there is no obligation for weekly commitment and there is heaps of support available; we are really excited to continue developing our home-grown talent.

Speaking of coaches, huge congratulations to As, coach of the Men’s 2-4s who has been appointed Head Coach for French Men’s O40s, and will be accompanying the team to the World Cup in Cape Town.

We have also worked hard with our Umpire Development Officers, Dan, Phil and James, who did some fantastic work during CAWHL supporting new umpires. This included them umpiring games alongside newer umpires, and having matches where they remained off-pitch and talked through the decisions as they were made. These guys have loads of experience and umpire at the top levels so we are really lucky that they give us so much time, please do use them. A reminder that there are weekly online Level 1 courses open to all so get in touch with the lads if you’d like to know more (wappingudo@gmail.com).

We’d also like to say a big thanks to last year’s ULO, Jane, who will reprise the role later this year. It's not always an easy job and is made significantly easier with more umpires trained up and more people agreeing to oversee the odd game.

SUMMER NEWS

Back2Hockey

Wapping ran another incredibly successful Back2Hockey programme this summer, which has led to plenty of new faces at training across the club. We will continue to offer free Back2Hockey sessions fortnightly all year round. This is a big step forward for us in relation to goals around inclusion and community so I want to formally thank our Head B2H coach, Kiran, who has been utterly fantastic. If you’d like to get involved helping coach those sessions (Mon 19:30 @ JO) please let DvS know, this is a great place to kick off your coaching career, especially if staying on for training afterwards.

Summer League

CAWHL was as enjoyable as ever this season, with 28 teams participating to eventually crown Goldman Sachs, Accenture and SA Saints champions of the Bowl, Plate and Cup respectively. The league was rounded out in true Wapping style with the six-a-side tournament and End of Season Dinner. Huge thanks to Alex Corrie and the team for delivering such a smashing summer.

In other summer news, congratulations to our Men’s performance squad who won the Elite League at Lee Valley!

Club Day

We kicked off the new season with our annual Club Day on August 31st. This year’s Club Day was bigger than ever with morning yoga, a strength & conditioning challenge by our new partners, Eastside Fitness, and a super social at Hackney Bridge to finish off the night. 

Matt and the 1s delivered a masterclass to our Kidds in the morning which they loved, followed by a mixed tournament and exhibition games from the M1s and L1s. A huge thanks to our sponsor, Savills, for supporting the day. As always, any love you can send our sponsors’ ways makes a big difference to the club.

Thank you

Finally, a massive thank you to everyone who supported the club last season and will continue to support the club going forward. This includes everyone on the Exec, Committee, Coaches, Umpires, Kidds volunteers and those who help out on a more ad hoc basis. You are all superstars and we are so excited for another great season ahead

Member discounts:

Check out our Members' area (Password: whc1989) which has all of our available offers, including:

  • 20% off NuSmile dentists

  • A free Psycle session

  • Grubby: 50% off + free delivery on 1st box, plus 30% off for the rest of the month

  • 10% off all beers at Tap East

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Wapping Hockey Wapping Hockey

Pre-season is Go!

It’s August, it’s sunny, and there’s hockey galore!

This Back Post contains more pre-season info including training slots, trials and games, a new way to contact the exec, and a note on our move from ‘Ladies’ to ‘Women’, but before we get onto that…

Firstly, I just want to say an enormous thanks to the CAWHL committee for an incredible summer of hockey fun. Corrie, Issy, Jules, Budgen, Eleanor and Smithy have put in many, many, many hours organising what turned out to be a very tricky operation, and I’m very much looking forward to wrapping up the summer in style with them at the EOSD next week 🕺💃

And secondly, a big shout out to the men’s performance teams for securing top spot in the LV ‘Elite’ league and being crowned summer league champs! Excellent work lads! 🏆🏆

August training 

Starting next week, we have training for all teams as per the table below. Please note that this schedule only runs until the end of August. An in-season training timetable, starting September 1st, will be shared shortly.

Open trials session

Make sure you’re signed up to Sunday’s open trials session if you played in the 4-9s last season/are new. With a new ladies team this season and significant movement between all teams likely, it’s recommended to attend if you can.

More info on the session can be found in the previous Back Post. Note that there's no overground running from Highbury to West Croydon/Crystal Palace/Clapham on Sunday. There will also be a wander to the pub after for anyone footloose and fancy free, likely to Hackney Bridge in Hackney Wick🍻

If you can’t attend but would like to be considered for a different team please reach out to your club captains wappingmcc@gmail.com / wappinglcc@gmail.com

Pre-season games

The exec have been busy arranging pre-season friendlies so teams have at least one in the diary but the more games your team has prior to season starting the better position you’ll be in come the 21st. 

This document has been created to track the pre-season games scheduled. If you’ve arranged games that aren’t on here, please let the Fixtures Secretaries, Eleanor and Jen, know.

If you know other teams/clubs that you can reach out to to arrange friendlies for your team, please do so CCing the Fixtures Secs, who can liaise with you re pitch arrangements.

something you’d like to Chat to the Exec about?

Run by volunteers, Wapping Hockey Club are continuously looking to build and improve to ensure a sustainable, scalable future as a key hockey destination in East London.

As those who attended AGM will know, there’s been a massive amount of work put into performance improvements for the 24/25 season which was only possible due to the wealth of feedback we received from members across the club.

The Exec are currently working flat out to plan and organise for the coming season and we want to be able to focus our efforts and manage our mental load so where anything is not urgent we now request that you submit any questions/queries via this short ‘Questions for the exec form’ so we can collate, discuss and respond to in an efficient, effective manner.

Please can we request that you try to avoid sending WhatsApp messages wherever possible.

Ladies > Women

Following a brief discussion with our Welfare and Exec teams, we have decided to follow England Hockey’s lead and will be publicly renaming our ladies’ teams 'women's teams’ so that it reflects how we are represented by the leagues and follows best practice around the use of language in sport.

A couple of links on the topic should you be interested to read more:

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And a big thanks to JMAN for supporting our 6-a-side tournament!

🗓️ Dates for your diary 🗓️

  • 11th Aug - Trials/Open session (Info below)

  • 15th Aug - CAWHL End of Season Dinner - Buy your ticket here (deadline 31st July)

  • 17th Aug - Back 2 Hockey tournament @ Lee Valley

  • 31st Aug - Club Day (Info below)

  • 7th/14th Sept - Pre-season games

  • 21st Sept - First League games

Member discounts:

Check out our Members' area (Password: whc1989) which has all of our available offers, including:

  • 20% off NuSmile dentists

  • A free Psycle session

  • Grubby: 50% off + free delivery on 1st box, plus 30% off for the rest of the month

  • 2 weeks free trial of El Tab app giving members 4 free drinks in London nightly

  • 10% off all beers at Tap East

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