THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!
Right, people! We have been working very hard to get to a state of hockey readiness. We now meet all the EH guidance and Sports Centre requirements (as far as we know!), so now we can play!
Things will be a bit different as there are a number of conditions and behaviours everyone has to follow. This can all be found on the Club’s Covid-19 page. Watch the video and read all the information carefully. It is written for your safety and the safety of others.
Just to make things even more exciting, we have switched our Club Management System from Teamer to Pitchero. This is to make it as easy as possible to comply with England Hockey’s ‘Return to Play’ requirements for Track & Trace.
Below are three steps to getting back to hockey. Please read them carefully. Everyone needs to complete Step 1. If you’ve already done some of these – thank you!
STEP 1 – Registration
If you wish to participate as a player, coach, umpire, team manager or volunteer you will need to:
- Complete the England Hockey Participation Agreement at least 24 hours before the first session you wish to attend. You can’t take part in any Club hockey session if you don’t do this.
- If you were not registered with the Club last season you must complete a membership form and send it to sohcmembership@hotmail.com at least 24 hours before the first session you wish to attend. You will then be invited to join Pitchero.
- If you were a member last season you will shortly be invited to join Pitchero or asked to update your details if you already have a Pitchero account. Always check your junk in case the invite has gone in there. Please:
- register or add SOHC to your account,
- check your details are up to date
- complete all the fields on the membership form.
- If you do not get an invitation it means your details may be out of date/incorrect. You can request to JOIN through https://www.pitchero.com/clubs/sidmouthotteryhc
- You can access Pitchero:
- Internet: https://www.pitchero.com/clubs/sidmouthotteryhc
- App: Pitchero Club.
- Requests for payment will be sent out at the end of September.
STEP 2 – Check the Dates
The start dates for Mens’ and Ladies’ training and Junior Academy are as follows.
Pitchero Tip: All the dates, times and venues for the training to which you have been invited will appear in your schedule on Pitchero Club, so you can always check for yourself. You can also help us out by indicating your availability.
Mens’ Training: starts Tues 8th Sep 2020 onwards, all teams 19:30-21:30, Ottery Leisure Centre
Ladies’ Training: Wed 9th Sep 2020, Ladies’ 3rds & 4ths 18:30 – 19:25; Ladies’ 1sts & 2nds 19:35 – 20:30
NOTE change of time: from Wed 16th Sep 2020, Ladies’ 3rds & 4ths 19.30 – 20:25; Ladies 1sts & 2nds 20:35 – 21.30, Ottery Leisure Centre.
Junior Academy & Rusty Hockey: Sun 20th Sept 2020; Boys & Rusty’s 10:00-10:55 Girls 11:05 – 12:00, Sidmouth Leisure Centre, after a trial session (very limited numbers by invitation) on Sun 13th Sep 2020.
STEP 3 – Club Shirt & Personal Protection Equipment
England Hockey’s guidance is that no shirts/equipment are to be shared due to Covid-19 – with a few specific exceptions. See our Covid-19 info.
Club Shirts For the reasons stated above we have changed our policy on shirt provision for members playing League Hockey. There are 4 options:
1. Buy your own new Club shirt. SilverFX is our supplier. There is an 8-10 week lead-time. Recommended. Please action this today.
2. Buy a Club shirt from the Club’s existing very limited stock of used shirts. A bargain at £5 from your team captain. We only have approx. x25 men’s and x25 ladies’ shirts available for this option. First come, first served.
3. Season loan. The shirts on season loan are also from that limited supply available from your team captain. Return it after the team’s last match. If the shirt is not returned at this time, the Club will invoice the player for the full replacement cost.
4. Occasional Players. Can borrow a shirt on a match-by-match basis. Team captains have a number of shirts for this purpose.
If you still have a Club shirt from last season – please return it to the Club without delay. We cannot afford to lose any shirts! There are at least 25 out there in player-land!
Training Bibs.
All players attending a senior training or Junior Academy session are to bring a light and dark training top. We will not be sharing Club bibs during any training sessions.
Personal Protective Equipment
We will only be providing personal protection equipment for our goalkeepers on loan. This will include cleaning/sanitation guidance.
More information about friendly matches will be available soon, and we are still expecting league matches to start 24th Oct 2020 at the latest, although the most recent England Hockey recommendation for the move to Step 5 of ‘Return to Play’ – Playing League Matches etc. could bring this forward. We will have to wait and see!
If you have any questions, please contact:
Membership queries: sohcmembership@hotmail.com
General queries: sidmouthandotteryhc@live.co.uk
We are all looking forward to getting back to playing hockey again, so hopefully see you all soon (in groups of no more than 30, of course!)
Kind regards
Steve Ellison, Club Chair
Dan Weedon & Katie Dean, Playing Committee Joint-Chairs
Roisin Turley, Junior Committee Chair