Chairs's Welcome To 25/26 Season
- Witney Hockey Club
- Aug 17
- 8 min read
Dear Members,
Welcome back for our previous members and welcome to our new members for the 2025-26 season. As the sun shines it’s time to reflect on last season and look forward to the coming season.
Please see the following sections below depending on what is relevant to you.
2024-25 Round Up
Membership
Club Day
Junior Tournament
Volunteers Needed
Sponsorship & Advertising
2024/ 25 ROUND UPS
SENIORS
Last season was another huge season on and off the pitch for WHC. We had multiple teams from our 9 senior sides vying for promotion right up until the last game of the season (and some beyond!). The final results were that all three of our Men’s 2nd, 3rd and 4th XI’s achieved promotions from their respective leagues.
JUNIORS
We continue to expand and grow our junior section. We entered as many leagues as possible this season and have done so again for 2025/26. We continue to develop our coaches and the provision we offer all of our members but especially our junior section.
SKILLS SCHOOLS
Alongside our standard sessions we also ran our first ever skill school session for juniors. This was a huge success on a sunny Sunday in March. We are already looking at how we can run more of these this season for juniors and will be looking to run some for seniors wanting to develop their individual skills too.
HOLIDAY HOCKEY CAMPS
For the first time ever Witney Hockey Club ran hockey camps. These ran at Easter, May Half Term and Summer Holidays. These are open to all juniors in Yr3-10 whether they are a member of WHC or not. They have been fantastic with some joining us with absolutely no hockey experience and enjoying it so much they are signing up as members this season. These will continue to run into 2025/26.
MASTERS
We also continued to expand what we offer in terms of hockey to be played. Following the success of our Men’s Over 45s (where we include Rich Beer the new CEO of England Hockey and COO of GB Hockey in our squad), we also entered the Over 35s (allowing me as Chair to be a young pup again and make my Masters debut!) and will continue to do so this season, with the hope of adding a Ladies Master side too.
SUMMER LEAGUE
We entered multiple summer leagues at Oxford Hawks and Abingdon again this year, giving players of all abilities the opportunity of more hockey. The big objective of these is giving opportunities to sample adult hockey. The development of some of last season’s “new adults” across the 2024/25 season is testament to this being a great start on the pathway to playing competitive senior hockey.
RAMS LEAGUE
Finally, as I’m sure you’ve seen across our socials and members groups we have the Ram’s League. The idea and administrative burden has been carried out by Jacob Deacon and Harry Swift. After many detailed conversations whilst simultaneously keeping local pubs in business in their planning meetings, which included one exciting evening of the three of us searching for sheep breeds to make team names from, the Rams League took form.
I don’t think I can quite put into words what a success I believe this to have been in its first year. It was completely open to anyone who would be able to play senior hockey in 2025/26 - no matter their experience or ability. To have that range of players on the same teams has been fantastic. It was quite something to have two of our junior girls who are currently in Year 8 leading team talks as on-field captains to teams of senior men and women and other juniors. I am very proud that as a club we are creating opportunities for our members, and juniors in particular, that go well beyond just hockey skills, these are life skills that will stay with them forever.
END OF SEASON DINNER
We hosted a wonderful event at Witney Lakes which was a complete sellout for the first time ever. We are already looking at our 2026 event and looking at the biggest End of Season event the club has ever held.
We also welcomed three hugely experienced members of the Witney HC community into our Honour Vice President roles. We welcomed Tori Larkin, Mike Matthews and Jenny Howard following decades of volunteering at Witney HC in a wide range of committee and playing roles between them.
FACILITIES
Obviously the most exciting development of last season was being able to get onto our brand new Astro. That was the first time the Astro surface had been replaced at Wood Green since it was installed in 2004 and thanks to a huge amount of tireless work from both Liam Frost (my predecessor as WHC Chair) and Adam Bridges (Business Manager at WGS) we got the surface replaced with a brand new surface which is the first of it’s kind in the UK. It is no exaggeration to say that we were in serious danger of needing to move as a club if that resurfacing hadn’t been completed last summer as the funds wouldn’t have been there without huge fundraising efforts.
Alongside that resurfacing we also moved changing rooms and redecorated those in preparation for the new surface being ready. Thank you again to the volunteers who gave up weekends and evenings for a couple of weeks to get those done, they are a big upgrade and spaces we can be very proud of being in ourselves and hosting opposition clubs.
We continue to expand our inventory to be able to provide the best possible provision we can for all of our members. You will have seen the shipping container by the Astro gates that now contains all of our equipment and kit. Now that we have that secure and sizable storage it has enabled us to both make the most of kit/equipment that is donated to us, but also to buy more bespoke pieces of equipment to be used in training and coaching.
If you haven’t been to WGS over the course of the Rams League or already for senior training sessions then you won’t have seen the completely refurbished toilet facilities. This had been a priority of ours for a while in our talks with WGS. Wood Green prioritised these toilets in the beginning phase of their overall refurbishments due to them being used both for students during the week and then for the hockey and other bookings in evenings and weekends. We are very grateful for that planning and implementation and I promise you will be impressed!
WGS also continue to expand the offering on a weekend with the cafe by the restaurant. We are now fully embedded in hosting oppositions for teas on a weekend now at WGS after 2 seasons there. Alongside that the WGS Cafe is now fully up and running every weekend serving food and drink to spectators, players and the community. The space inside will continue to evolve over the coming season so look out for the exciting changes coming.
MEMBERSHIP
As a club we have again not increased our membership fees for the coming season. However, members will notice a slight increase of £10 for juniors and £15 for seniors. This comes directly from changes made at a national level with England Hockey. They have revamped their overall membership structure which followed lots of consultation, forums and discussion (we were lucky enough to have Rich Beer come to one of our Committee Meetings and discuss the proposed changes) over the past 6 months. That was ultimately taken to a vote at the England Hockey AGM and it was passed.
As a club, we voted unanimously in favour of the proposals having considered the benefits it offers both clubs and individuals. There is more detail at the link below for individuals but I have also summarised the key benefits below, which I hope you agree are with the slight increase in memberships fees:
Personal Accident Insurance - this is now included as standard for anyone who is a member of a club (whatever your membership type)
Initial Coaching, Umpire and Safeguarding Courses are now free for all members- we will be prioritising getting as many members as possible onto courses in all of these three areas this season
Free to Air hockey on Channel 4
Increased funding for getting hockey into state schools
Priority access to Hockey events (eg. England, GB fixtures and the EuroHockey Championships 2027)
Discounts available on some hockey kit
It was therefore agreed at the club AGM that membership fees for the 2025-26 season are as below. The cutoff date for the Early Bird fee is 11:59pm on Tuesday September 30th 2025.
We will continue to have all Match Fees at the same level as 2024/25.
Senior Members please complete your membership form here:
Junior Member please complete your membership form here:
The club is always looking for new members in both the Senior and Junior sections no matter ability or experience. Please do invite anyone who would like to take up hockey or is interested in joining the club. Prospective members can get in touch by social media or on the website at https://www.witneyhockeyclub.co.uk/joinus.
CLUB DAY
Sunday 31st August 2025
WHC haven’t run a Club Day for a number of years now but I am very excited to confirm that we will be doing so on Sunday 31st August at Wood Green School. The running order for this is:
9:30am - 10:30am: U8-12 Junior Skill School
10:45am - 12:00pm: U14-16 Tournament
12:30pm - 1:30pm: Rams League Final: Jacobs Jaguars vs. Shetland Swifts
2:00pm - 3:00pm: Senior Skill School
3:00pm - 6:00pm: Social Rounders Tournament (open to all)
We will have a BBQ, drinks, Ice Cream and more available throughout the day and hope you are able to join us.
Keep an eye on socials, Members FB Group, Spond and WhatsApp groups for more info but we hope to see many of you there!
JUNIOR TOURNAMENT
Sunday 5th October 2025
Please do put in your diaries the above date for our annual junior tournament. This is again hosted at Cokethorpe School as we can utilise two pitches simultaneously. As always we require volunteers to help out on that day, so if you can give up even an hour or two it would be greatly appreciated. We will need people to umpire, run WHC teams, sell club kit, help on the food/drink stand, score keep and many more roles. We will send out communication in a few weeks with specific roles and time slots that are needed and greatly appreciate any time you can offer.
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
Our committee continues to grow as our club grows. We are always keen to involve more people across the club in whatever role they have expertise in. Be that coaching, umpiring, team managing or other administrative roles that people don’t think about as often such as finance/accounting, community engagement through sponsorship/coaching/events/facilities or anything else you can offer we are also keen to hear from you. Please contact me directly on chair.witneyhockey@gmail.com .
Thank you to all parents that helped out on Sundays last year. This allows us to enter more teams and give our juniors more games to play. We want to expand our offering further and we’re looking for parents or senior members to take on Junior Team Manager roles. Any parents or existing senior members interested in helping out or looking for more information, please contact Junior Coordinator Lucy Regan at juniors.witneyhockey@gmail.com or speak to her at training.
SPONSORSHIP & ADVERTISING
We continue to look for sponsors for our Men’s and Ladies 1st XI players, individual senior or junior squads or the club in general. We have a vast range of options available including boards at the pitch, social media links and more. If you own a business, have a family member who does, or know someone who may be interested in sponsoring the club, please email Millie Hartwell our Sponsorship Secretary at marketing.witneyhockeyclub@gmail.com
All of our packages are outlined in the sponsorship pack which can be found on our website at https://www.witneyhockeyclub.co.uk/sponsors.
To start the sponsorship process use the following form:
THANK YOU FOR READING
As I am sure you agree through the sheer amount of news that I needed
to share with you about the past season and the season to come, Witney Hockey Club is a club that continues to thrive and flourish. We are always looking at ways we can develop further so do contact us if you have any ideas.
I look forward to seeing you over the 2025/26 season.
Andy Gosnell-Whyman
Witney HC Chairman
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