THAT ONE’S A KEEPER! There have been some amazing saves – and outfits – from the festival’s goalkeepers. ©Al Macphee/MiraclePR
The Easter holiday sun continued to beam down at Clennon Valley and Torquay Girls Grammar School for the second day of the 71st Torbay Easter Hockey Festival.
At Clennon, Oddfellows started as they left off on Friday with a 5-3 win over Bluebottles. Then Buffaloes, having recovered from their narrow loss against Esanders, put five goals past Normans with no reply.
Bluebottles finally had something to cheer about as they won 5-0 against Cleevillians in the first of the afternoon games. Oddfellows lost their 100% record, but remain unbeaten, following a 3-3 draw with Buffaloes. Then it was time for Normans to celebrate their first victory as they defeated Cleevillians 7-1.
At TGGS, Esanders maintained their unbeaten start while ending that of the Torreadors, 8-1 the final score. The Midwives then put themselves in pole position for the Bill Stickells Cup with a resounding 11-2 victory over Stags.
After lunch, Midwives and Torreadors shared 11 goals between them, the Midwives narrowly winning 6-5. Finally, Esanders wrapped up another win as they beat Stags 7-4.
Leading goal scores are now Midwives, on 27 , followed by Esandars, with 23.
TEAM FOCUS: STAGS
Stuart Powell says: We’re West Bromwich Hockey Club, and we formed in 1885, so we’re one of the oldest hockey clubs in the country. We’re more of a social hockey club than a serious hockey club, and we’ve been coming down for around 60 years. We have a stag on the club crest and a stag is also part of the town logo, so that’s why it’s our nickname.
For about 25 years, we’ve done the fancy dress. We have a little pub crawl on Sunday around Brixham in our fancy dress, and we attend the games in a different theme every year. We also have our tour shirts with our nicknames on the back. We’ve got a couple of new guys this year, and hopefully they will come for many more years to come.
There’s a really friendly atmosphere. It can be competitive if you want it to be. But if not, it’s more of a social thing. It’s what you want to get out of it. It’s a really fun festival and that’s why we keep coming back.
TEAM FOCUS: NORMANS
Jeevan Chagger says: We come down from Birmingham. This has been a tradition for well over 40, probably even 50 years. We used to come down as the Geriatrics, once upon a time, and changed our name to Normans because we used to be called Yardley Hockey Club. We Googled famous Yardleys, and the first name that came up was Norman Yardley.
We have a yearly tradition of fancy dress. Over the years we’ve been pirates and Harry Potter characters. We’ve played in onesies. We were grannies last year. It’s just something fun for all ages to get involved in. You can see youngsters in fancy dress. We’ve got some face paint, and it’s just something that gets our weekend going. This year, we’re all in fluorescent outfits because we want to share the festival as much as we can. By dressing up in fancy dress and walking down the street in costumes, it gets people talking. That’s what we want to do.
We’re a family-oriented club, and we’ve got players that don’t play for us anymore who still come down and visit. For us, if we turn out 11, that’s a nice thing. But the main thing is having family time. You’ll see today, we’ve got a party of 40 or 50 with us, bringing families from three or four generations together.
We just love enjoying the weekend. We’ve done years before, where we’ve come down without a team and just enjoyed the weekend on its own. It’s the highlight of our year. The first thing that gets put on the calendar is Torbay: When is it going to be? Where is it gonna be? And are we going to get there?
For new clubs looking for something to do with the family to spend a weekend away, Torbay is the best place to come. You’ve got loads of attractions, nice beaches that are miles long and a nice atmosphere here. We’re all encompassing and all welcoming. We’ve got a game for the youngsters as well, so they can’t feel left out. And if you just want to have a weekend of fun where you can enjoy lovely weather without fail (you can hold me to that as well) it’s a nice, reasonably priced weekend to get away. There’s a good standard of hockey, but we all come here to have fun – nobody comes here to be a world beater.