Dartford Hockey Club

1st Team Report: A 1st team recipe
For this recipe you will need:

• " 12-13 willing ladies, age not important 17-59, if you can find them!
• " 1 hockey ball - dimpled and orange (white can be used)
• " 1 qualified umpire - with own whistle and stopwatch
• " Spices (add to taste) - skill, speed, grit, competitiveness, and youth.

Preparation: First invite your squad to a friendly "season opener" and provide them with a fixture list and the first team rules. This is the easy bit and shouldn't take long as generally the season's menus are prepared beforehand. To one side you must prepare the Umpire. He/she should know where and when needed to keep to time. We add the same umpire to this recipe for success, the ever loyal Sid, but Joan and Alan Pumfrett are quite tasty and effective substitutes. You must then begin to warm up the squad with a few easy games and training sessions. When you are happy with the consistencies of the mix, you are ready to begin. This is where the fun starts…. The GK, our usual first choice essence Gen was made unavailable for much of this year, but thankfully Debs accepted her fate for the rest of the season. Although Debs changed the flavour of the base, what a relief that she was equally amazing otherwise the final result could have ended very differently.